Implicatures in the Tweets of Climate Change Skeptics

Abstract

The article attempts to provide a speech act analysis of tweets which are posted by climate change skeptics. It argues that their deliberate flouting and violation of Grice’s Cooperative Principle show that substitute overt denial by conversational implicatures which show skepticism. Based on data from 420 tweets which are responses to climate change discussion, the paper demonstrates that tweeters respond with different deceptive tactics by using conversational implicatures. The article attempts to provide a pragmatic analysis of tweets which are posted by climate change opponents. It argues that their deliberate violation of the CP shows that their attitude shifted from overt denial to skepticism.

Keywords

• Grice maxims
• denial
• presupposition
• conversational implicature
• humor