LS - 09/17

Core idea: informative conversations and what counts as relevant

• Conversations are expected to be informative, highlighting the most important things.

• Example context: “If you’re calling another employer, that’s not a self-looking issue.” The exact meaning is a bit garbled, but it serves to illustrate how context changes what counts as relevant.

Sympathy, truth, and conversational moves

• A possible case: saying, “I’m sorry that I didn’t grade your quizzes. My sister is very ill.”

  • This line is explicitly acknowledged as possibly not true in the moment (“That’s not true, but if I said that.”).

  • The point is that such a claim can function as a conversational move to gain sympathy or slack, regardless of its truth value.

• The act remains conversational: the goal is to elicit a response (sympathy, leniency) within the dialogue.

• The statement about a personal issue (sister ill) is used as a vehicle to affect the listener’s perception or response, not just as a mere factual report.

• The claim is said to be true in the sense of using an indicative mood to convey relevance: “My sister is ill” makes the prior claim feel more credible or warranted.

• Rationale for telling personal info: we disclose family status because it is presumed relevant to the current situation (e.g., requesting sympathy or slack).

• The speaker notes a contrast: we are not close friends, relatives, or close confidants, yet personal information is offered to signal relevance in the conversation.

• Assertion of convention: we generally speak the truth to each other; we would have no reason to lie about obvious, everyday facts (e.g., the weather).

• The weather example is used to illustrate the expectation of truthfulness as a baseline: lying about the weather would be conspicuously implausible, reinforcing the norm of truth-telling in ordinary discourse.

• Conclusion: a follow-up about a personal event (sister ill) is treated as a flag indicating we’ve moved toward something idiomatic or non-literal.

Truth, relevance, and idiomatic flags in conversation

• The speaker describes a “flag” that signals a shift to idiomatic meaning or non-literal language.

• The key question: what does it mean for something to be relevant to what was just said, and how does that construct truthfulness in context?

• There is a distinction between literal truth and inferential relevance within conversational moves.

Qualifiers, metaphor, and non-literal use

• The core idea: qualifiers can be literal or non-literal; when they apply in non-literal ways, they often indicate metaphor.

• A qualifier that assigns a quality to a subject where that quality could not truly apply signals metaphor.

  • Example: If I say a test is “solid” or “fragile,” these are not appropriate properties for a test in the physical sense, so the literal category of quality is misapplied.

  • Therefore, using such a qualifier indicates a metaphorical use rather than a literal description.

• A qualifier could apply, but not in the quantity specified.

  • This points to a different kind of non-literal use where the quantity or degree is incongruent with the subject.

• Metaphor vs qualifier distinction:

  • Metaphor occurs when the primary category (quality) is applied in a non-literal way to create meaning.

  • Irony can function as a kind of qualifier, but its appropriateness depends on the amount or strength of irony; irony can be the right kind but used in the wrong amount.

• The general pattern: qualifiers can be ordinary (literal) or figurative (metaphorical). When the qualifier is deployed in a non-literal way, it signals metaphorical meaning.

Concrete metaphor examples discussed

• “The aspirants are up, the batter is boxed, he swings.”

  • This is presented as a metaphorical use of a qualifier in a sports/competition frame.

• “Irony is the right kind of qualifier, but the wrong amount.”

  • Irony is identified as a potential qualifier, but its intensity or degree may be inappropriate for the intended meaning.

• “Metaphor and similarly, it’s a qualifier, just the wrong kind of qualifier for that.”

  • Emphasizes that metaphor behaves like a qualifier but is used in a way that may not match the intended literal sense.

Homework prompt and interpretation

• The closing line points to a homework focus: determine which ones are the sleep-machine-related items and which qualifiers/metaphors apply.

• “The homework is gonna be about the sleep machine be saying which ones.”

  • Indicates an assignment to identify, among items or statements (possibly about a sleep machine), which are metaphorical qualifiers or non-literal uses.

  • The exact phrasing is garbled, but the task is to classify statements as literal vs metaphorical qualifiers.

• Overall task for students:

  • Identify instances of truthfulness vs non-truthfulness in conversational moves.

  • Determine how relevance is established in a given statement.

  • Distinguish between literal descriptions and metaphorical qualifiers.

  • Recognize when irony or other figurative language functions as a qualifier.

  • Apply these ideas to an assignment involving the “sleep machine” example and specify which items are metaphorical qualifiers.

Connections to broader principles

• Links to conversational implicature: what is implied beyond what is stated, and how context shapes interpretation.

• Relationship to truth norms in everyday discourse: the expectation to tell the truth, and how deviations can still play a meaningful communicative role (e.g., sympathy-seeking statements).

• Relevance and topic maintenance: how additional personal information can be used to shift the topic or create a specific response from the listener.

• Non-literal language as a tool for nuance: metaphors, qualifiers, and irony expand communicative possibilities beyond literal description.

Summary takeaways

• Conversations aim to highlight important information; context determines what counts as relevant.

• Personal disclosures can function as sympathy cues, even when the truth of the disclosure is debatable, because they serve a conversational purpose.

• We tend to assume honesty in ordinary discourse (e.g., statements about the weather) as a baseline.

• Qualifiers may signal metaphor when their descriptive category cannot apply literally, or when quantity/degree mismatches.

• Irony and metaphor can act as qualifiers, but their effectiveness depends on the degree and context.

• The homework prompt centers on identifying which statements (likely within a sleep-machine example) are metaphorical qualifiers and which ones are literal.