Implications of æmma ( but') in Persian

This study investigated the implicature stemming from æmma (‘but’). To this end, two experiments were conducted. In the first experiment, participants were presented with 24 short stories including “p æmma q” constructions. The p and q arguments were either sensible or absurd. The participants were asked to indicate the appropriate conclusion introduced by by pæs (‘so’/’then’) and ba-in-hal (‘nevertheless’). In the second experiment, the same 24 stories were used as in the first experiment, however after each construction, participants did not have to give the appropriate ‘pæs’ or ‘ba-in-ha’l conclusion but simply had to tick yes or no and justify their answer. The results of the first experiment, showed that in general, the inference of the participants were mainly based on the existence of ‘æmma’ however the content of p and q arguments played an important role. In the second experiment, the justifications provided by the participants showed that whenever the p-argument was not pertinent and an inference based on ‘æmma’ would result in an absurd conclusion, they referred to the content of the arguments and selected the implication from the p-argument.