How Should We Formulate Quantity?

Abstract

Neo-Gricean accounts of how exhaustivity is derived typically rely on 3 maxims: Quality and Relevance, which form the “base conditions” and set the standards for what can be said, and Quantity, which uses similar conditions to those found in the first two maxims to determine what should be said. Typical formulations of Quantity make direct reference to the base conditions, allowing alterations to either Quality or Relevance to be reflected in Quantity, as well. However, some formulations forgo this reference in favor of restating the base conditions directly in Quantity. We examine a novel scenario that alters the conditions of Quality alone, and, by looking at the exhaustivity inferences generated in this scenario, find that Quantity does indeed reference, and not restate, the base conditions. In order to determine the impact of this finding, we examine the case of Westera’s (2022) Attentional Pragmatics, which uses a non-referential, “independent” Quantity. Ultimately, we find that if one assumes a referential, “dependent” Quantity, as would be suggested by our findings, the proposal is unable to generate the predictions necessary for one of its main conclusions.