Saying More by Saying Less: Conversational Implicature in the Davos 2026 Welcoming Address: A pragmatic study

Abstract

This study tackled a qualitative pragmatic analysis of the welcoming speech in the Swiss Confederation at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) by the president of the meeting, Davos, in 2026. This study followed Grice's (1975) theory of conversational implicature-encompassing the Cooperative Principle (CP) and its maxims in addition to subsequent refinements by Levinson (1983, 2000) and Sperber and Wilson's (1986) Relevance Theory. This research paper investigated the implied meaning encoded in the speech beyond the literal propositional content. The paper investigated how the speaker exploits, flouts, and observes Gricean maxims to convey political intentions, diplomatic signals, and ideological values that are not explicitly stated. It is revealed through the analysis that three main implicature functions in the speech: solidarity-building and national identity projection, implicit critique of global political trends (protectionism, AI governance deficits, geopolitical instability), and the strategic self-positioning of Switzerland as a responsible, neutral, and forward-thinking international actor.