During a tense negotiation, one negotiator says, 'It's getting late,' which leads the other negotiator to offer to adjourn. Which mechanism best explains this outcome?

💡 Explanation

Pragmatic inference explains the outcome because the statement is not literally about time but a suggestion. The listener infers the speaker's intention (to stop), using Gricean implicature. Therefore, the listener adjourns, rather than ignores, the subtle hint, or focusing on surface meaning.

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