This tests whether an implication of saying something is deniable or an undeniable implication. Deniable implications are called conversational implicatures. Undeniable implications we term entailments.
When someone says ÒSÓ and it seems to imply that p, you can test whether p is deniable by imagining your reaction if the speaker had said ÒSÓ and then immediately denied p.
If it sounds like the speaker is contradicting herself, then p is an undeniable implication (an entailment) of (saying) ÒSÓ.
If it doesnÕt sound like a direct contradiction, but rather that the speaker is clarifying or avoiding a misunderstanding, then p is a deniable implication (conversational implicatures) of saying ÒSÓ.
This test is applied only to undeniable implications (entailments). So we never consider these questions until we have demonstrated that an implication is an entailment.
This test shows whether an entailment is presumed or at issue. Presumed entailments are implications that remain constant as we consider a sentence, its negation (opposite), or the yes/no question version of it.
When you have established that p is an undeniable implication of (saying) ÒSÓ, you can test whether it is presumed or at issue in (saying) ÒSÓ by examining the implications of the negation or opposite of ÒSÓ (notated by ÒÂSÓ) and the implications of asking the yes/no question version of ÒSÓ (notated by ÒS?Ó).
If p is also an undeniable implication of ÒÂSÓ and ÒS?Ó, then p is a presumption, a presumed implication (of all three sentences),.
If p is not an implication of ÒÂSÓ and ÒS?Ó, then it is an entailment which is at issue in ÒSÓ.
NB: The description of the test above begins with an apparently affirmative sentence and then examines the negation and question forms. However we can also test for presumptions associated with negative sentences by looking to see whether the implication is associated as an entailment with the affirmative version of the sentence and the question formed from the affirmative version.