Investigation of Scalar Implicatures of Binus University Students

Abstract

Scalar implicatures are based on a range of quantifiers ordered in terms of informational strength, for example in quantity: some, most, all; in frequency: sometimes, often, and always. This study measures the scalar implicatures among university students who learn English as a foreign language. The participants for this study are fourth semester English Department students at Binus University. Using the same instruments as in Slabakova (2009) and Noveck’s study (2001) the present study aims to find out the general ability of the university students of computing scalar implicatures and to discover the level of pragmatic/logical competence of the university students with regards to their gender and grade point average. The results show that the students with GPA lower than three are more logical than those with GPA higher than three; while female students are more pragmatic than male students.