Congratulations to Ahmed H. Alhuwayshil, doctoral researcher in Linguistics and English Language in the School of Philosophy, Psychology & Language Sciences at the University of Edinburgh, who has been awarded a place in a highly competitive cohort as one of the innovative researchers showcased in the Scottish Graduate School for Arts & Humanities (SGSAH) Showcase 2025. This recognition highlights the originality and scholarly contribution of his doctoral research on Scalar Implicatures and Thought and the formal semantics–pragmatics interface. I greatly value this recognition from SGSAH and AHRC. I appreciate the support it represents, and I aim to further strengthen and advance the contributions this research provides to the theoretical foundations of language, thought, and reasoning within logic, formal semantics and cognitive science. Ahmed H. Alhuwayshil Ahmed’s project investigates whether scalar implicatures arise even in contexts where the strengthened meaning is already part of the common ground. By integrating formal semantic theory with experimental methods such as mouse-tracking, the research provides new empirical evidence bearing on the status of exhaustivity in natural language interpretation. The findings challenge the held assumption that implicature derivation is driven solely by considerations of communicative relevance and instead offer support for both accounts that posit a grammatically mandated exhaustivity operator (Exh) at the logical level and intention-based accounts. More broadly, the project contributes to understanding the role of language in communication and thought.The project engages with major theoretical frameworks in semantics and pragmatics, including grammatical exhaustification, Rational Speech Act (RSA) modelling, and Relevance Theory, and contributes to ongoing debates about the logical architecture of pragmatic enrichment, the formal mechanisms governing exhaustivity and inference, and the division of labour between grammar and pragmatic reasoning.If you would like to read more, the SGSAH announcement featuring Ahmed can be found here: https://sgsahresearch.com/portfolio/ahmed-h-alhuwayshil/ Publication date 24 Nov, 2025
