Given the clarification in this subthread, let me now go ahead and respond to this bit:
You would not expect people saying “fine” if they were not fine from a model like the ones on this page [i.e., an implicature / Gricean-maxim model. —SA] where agents are trying to inform each other while taking into account the inferences others make
Indeed, you certainly would not; the problem, however, lies in the assumption that someone responding “Fine” to “How are you?” is trying to inform the asker, or that the asker expects to be informed when asking that question.
In any case, this is a point we’ve covered elsethread.
Given the clarification in this subthread, let me now go ahead and respond to this bit:
Indeed, you certainly would not; the problem, however, lies in the assumption that someone responding “Fine” to “How are you?” is trying to inform the asker, or that the asker expects to be informed when asking that question.
In any case, this is a point we’ve covered elsethread.