How many people think that the following two sentences have different implicatures with respect to Jacks beer drinking?
(1) Jack drank the whiskey or some of the beers
(2) Jack drank the whiskey or all of the beers
Now there is one difference between them in terms of implicature. (1) implicates Jack did not drink both beer and whiskey, while (2) does not. It merely implicates that he did not drink the whiskey and of the beer. But is there a difference thats solely about beer, and in particular about whether Jack drank all of it? If you do think there’s a difference, try saying exactly what it is. And then try deriving it from anything like a plausible theory of implicature generation. And then, if you’re anything like me, you’ll probably need a drink.
Seriously, I would like feedback about whether (1) and (2) produce different implicatures. Unfortunately, last I checked Haloscan was down (again) so unless things improve the feedback will have to be through some of the comments.
For some more detailed thoughts than mine on the puzzle, try this paper by Uli Sauerland.
UPDATE: Its common ground that (3) implicates that Jack did not have both whiskey and gin. What, precisely, does (4) implicate? That he did not have more than one of the drinks? That he had all three?
(3) Jack drank whiskey or gin
(4) Jack drank whiskey, gin or vodka
This may be relevant to Sauerlands proposal for solving the original pizzle, if I understand that solution correctly.
FURTHER UPDATE: I messed up the original description of the case, and Ive now tinkered with it a bit. Thats been happening a lot today.