Literally that's a question about your ability, but everyone hears a request. Semantics is the literal meaning of words; pragmatics is what we actually mean by them in a real situation — the gap that makes language human.
What is said vs. what is meant
Semantics studies the literal, context-independent meaning of words and sentences. Pragmatics studies how context lets speakers mean more than they literally say. The gap between the two is central: the same sentence can convey very different messages depending on situation, intonation, and shared knowledge.
Coined by H. P. Grice, an implicature is meaning suggested rather than stated. 'It's cold in here' can implicate 'please close the window' — nothing in the semantics says so; the pragmatics does.
Asked 'Did you like the essay?', answering 'It was… neatly typed' implicates that you did not, via what is conspicuously left unsaid.
- A friend asks if you want dessert and you say 'I'm on a diet.'
- Note that you did not literally say yes or no.
- State what your reply implicates and which field explains it.
What you should see: It implicates 'no' — pragmatics, not semantics, derives that from context and the cooperative principle, since the literal sentence never says 'no'.