Asst. Lecturer Atheer Kareem Al-Hasnawi, Faculty Member, Department of Qur’anic Sciences and Islamic Education, College of Education, Al-Mustaqbal University – 12/8/2025
Presupposition, Conversational Implicature, Pragmatics, Modern Linguistics, the Implicit, the Constant.
The terms presupposition and conversational implicature belong to modern linguistics, especially pragmatics, and appeared in the studies of Austin, Searle, and Paul Grice within Speech Act Theory and conversational implicature. The credit for discovering these two terms goes to Paul Grice (1). Distinguishing between presupposition and conversational implicature is not merely a theoretical debate but a crucial tool for understanding texts and discourse, as it determines what language implicitly entails and what the communicative contexts suggest (2).
First: What is presupposition?
Presupposition is an implicit and constant meaning imposed by the linguistic structure of the sentence, even if it is not explicitly stated. What is remarkable is that it remains valid whether the sentence is affirmative, negative, or interrogative.
Example: "He regrets leaving the prayer." This sentence implicitly carries the fact that he left the prayer in the past. This meaning remains even if we say: "He does not regret leaving the prayer." "Does he regret leaving the prayer?"
Another example, in the sentence: "Zaid quit smoking," this presupposes that he used to smoke, and the meaning does not differ if the style changes, for example: "Did Zaid quit smoking?" or "Zaid did not quit smoking."
Similarly, in the sentence: "Mohammed divorced his wife," this presupposes that Mohammed was married, and the meaning does not change if we say: "Did Mohammed divorce his wife?" or "Mohammed did not divorce his wife."
In all cases, "leaving the prayer," "quitting smoking," and "Mohammed’s divorce" are not matters of dispute but are part of the conceptual structure of the sentence and cannot be denied except by rejecting the sentence altogether.
In summary, presupposition is a constant linguistic feature that does not collapse by changing the sentence form.
Second: What is conversational implicature?
Conversational implicature is an additional meaning that arises from context and communicative situation, not from the sentence itself (3). It is a hint or implication inferred by the listener from the circumstances, not from the direct linguistic meaning.
Dialogical example: Ali: "Will you go to the funeral tonight?" Bakr: "The weather is very cold." Bakr did not explicitly say he would not go, but from the context, as Ali understood, it implies an excuse for not attending due to the cold. If Ali said: "So you are not going," Bakr might reply: "I did not say that."
Similarly, if you say to your friend: "Shall we go watch the football game?" he replies: "I have homework." The speaker did not explicitly refuse to go watch the game because of homework, but this is understood from the context. If his friend said: "You do not want to go," he might reply: "I did not say that."
In summary, conversational implicature is deniable, depends on understanding the situation and the speaker’s intentions, and is not inferred from the sentence alone.
The difference briefly:
The source of meaning in presupposition is the linguistic structure of the sentence, while the source of meaning in conversational implicature is context and communicative situation.
Presupposition is constant even with negation or questioning, whereas conversational implicature changes or disappears with changes in context or negation.
Presupposition cannot be denied except by refuting the sentence entirely, whereas conversational implicature can be denied or evaded.
Analytical Qur’anic example:
His saying, the Almighty:
﴿قَالَ رَبِّ ارْجِعُونِ * لَعَلِّي أَعْمَلُ صَالِحًا فِيمَا تَرَكْتُ﴾ (Al-Mu’minun: 100)
Presupposition: That the speaker was not righteous in the past, which is implicit in the phrase "so that I may do good."
Conversational implicature: From the eschatological context, one infers feelings of regret, lost opportunity for reform, and an implicit message to the reader: the time was available but was wasted.
Many scholars, especially in reading religious or literary texts, confuse these two concepts:
They may call a contextual meaning a “presupposition,” which is actually a conversational implicature that changes with the situation.
Or they treat presupposition as an opinion or interpretation, while it is part of the linguistic meaning itself.
The golden rule:
What is imposed by the sentence structure is a presupposition.
What is inferred from the situation is a conversational implicature.
Sources and References:
1. The Holy Qur’an.
2. The Pragmatic Approach, François Arminco: 100
3. Pragmatics Today, Blanche: 45
4. Speech Act Theory, Hashim Abdullah Al-Khalifa: 56
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