PS. I mentioned that 'yet' and 'still' look like 'truth-conditionally
vacuous' when in initial monadic positioning ("yet, p."; "still, p."). Of course, qua
full connectives, the picture is somewhat different, and the items seem to
get represented in logical form by the plain truth-functional '&'. To use
Grice's famous example (opening line from the Great-War song), the four utterances
mean truth-conditionally the same.
(1) She was poor but she was honest.
("She was poor but honest")
(2) She was poor, and she was honest.
("She was poor and honest")
(3) She was poor; yet, she was honest.
("She was poor yet honest")
(4) She was poor; still, she was honest.
Whatever their contrast, it must be a matter of 'colouring', as Stephen Neale
has categorised the good ole conventional implicature. (Ref.: S. Neale,
'Implicature and Colouring', in Giovanna Cosenza, Paul Grice's Heritage, Brepols
Turnhout, 2001, pp. 139-184).
Cheers,
JL Speranza
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