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Chapter 3 introduces the logic of conventional implicatures (CIs), which provide a starting point for analyzing the meanings of CI scalar modifiers and considering the relation between at-issue scalar meanings and CI scalar meanings in a more theoretical way. The logic of Cis introduced in this chapter is multidimensional. That is, in addition to a regular semantic type and compositional rules, it introduces the type systems of conventional implicature and various interpretive rules based on the systems, including CI application (Potts 2005), shunting application (McCready 2010), mixed application (McCready 2010; Gutzmann 2011), and expressive application (Gutzmann 2011; McCready 2010; Sawada 2013). These rules will be explained based on various examples such as epithets, honorifics, supplements, and diminutives.

Chapter 2 provides the landscape of scalar meanings and highlights the target phenomenon of this book—the phenomenon of the dual use of scalar modifiers. More specifically, four kinds of scalar meanings are introduced: at-issue scalar meaning, conversational scalar meaning, presuppositional scalar meaning, and conventional implicature (CI) scalar meaning. There follows an informal examination of the dual-use phenomenon of scalar modifiers where a scalar modifier can express an at-issue scalar meaning and a CI scalar meaning. The similarities and differences between a CI and a presupposition are also considered. It is claimed that a CI and a presupposition belong to a different class of meaning and should theoretically be treated differently.

Chapter 10 summarizes the book’s analyses and proposal regarding (i) similarities and differences between semantic scalar modifiers and pragmatic scalar modifiers, (ii) variations in pragmatic scalar modifiers, (iii) interpretations of embedded pragmatic scalar modifiers, and (iv) the historical development of pragmatic scalar modifiers, and considers theoretical implications. The dual-use phenomenon of scalar modifiers and the interpretations of pragmatic scalar modifiers suggest that although there is a difference between at-issue and not-at-issue meanings, they have a flexible relationship. The chapter argues that both types of meanings must be captured in a unified or flexible fashion. This multidimensional approach is compared to other alternative approaches: the relevance-theoretic approach and Bach’s approach, which does not assume the notion of a CI. Finally, possible future directions for studies of pragmatic scalar modifiers and not-at-issue content are briefly considered.

Chapter 8 investigates the interpretation of embedded pragmatic scalar modifiers and considers the semantic mechanism behind subject- and speaker-oriented interpretations of embedded pragmatic scalar modifiers and CIs. For a subject-oriented reading, it is argued that there is a shift from a CI to a secondary at-issue entailment at the clausal level when the embedded clause combines with an attitude predicate and has a subject-oriented reading. For a speaker-oriented reading of embedded pragmatic scalar modifiers, it is claimed that the lower-level pragmatic scalar modifiers have the distinctive property of projection: unlike higher-level pragmatic scalar modifiers/typical CIs, lower-level pragmatic scalar modifiers can project out of the complement of a belief predicate only if there is a speaker-oriented modal in the main clause. This chapter shows that the interpretation of embedded pragmatic scalar modifiers is not only a matter of context and involves semantic and pragmatic mechanisms.