Presuppositions and Scalar Implicatures in Acquisition (original) (raw)
Related papers
Presuppositions vs. Scalar Implicatures in Acquisition
Proceedings of PLC38
This paper reports on an experimental investigation of presuppositions and im- plicatures in language acquisition. The comparison bears on an important the- oretical issue, as recent theoretical proposals (Chemla 2009, Romoli 2012, 2014 among others) posit the same mechanisms for both types of inferences, in con- trast with the traditional view. We used a modified ‘Covered Box’ task (Huang, Spelke and Snedeker 2013) to compare direct scalar implicatures (some infers not all) and indirect scalar implicatures (not all infers some) to presuppositions (didn’t win infers participated), in two groups of children (4–5 year olds & 7 year olds) and one group of adults. The main finding is that children’s and adults’ behavior differs across inference types. This result challenges the recent uniform accounts but is in line with the traditional distinction between these inferences. Finally, we also found an unexpected distinction between the two types of scalar implicatures, which is not predicted by any theory we are aware of. We discuss the results as they relate to recent sentence processing results, as well as to the ongoing theoretical discussion around the nature of these inferences, and how they are generated.
Scalar implicatures vs. Presuppositions: the view from Acquisition
This paper reports an experimental investigation of presuppositions and scalar implicatures in language acquisition. Recent proposals (Chemla 2009; Romoli 2012, 2014) posit the same mechanisms for generating both types of inferences, in contrast to the traditional view. We used a Covered Box picture selection task to compare the interpretations assigned by two groups of children (4/5 and 7 year olds) and by adults, in response to sentences with presuppositions and ones with either ‘direct’ or ‘indirect’ scalar implicatures. The main finding was that the behavior of children and adults differed across inference types. This asymmetry is consistent with the traditional perspective, but poses a challenge for the more recent uniform accounts. We discuss how the latter could be amended to account for these findings, and also relate the findings to previous results on presupposition processing. Finally, we discuss an unexpected difference found between direct and indirect scalar implicatures.
This paper reports an experimental investigation of presuppositions and scalar implicatures in language acquisition. Recent proposals (Chemla 2009; Romoli 2012, 2014) posit the same mechanisms for generating both types of inferences, in contrast to the traditional view. We used a Covered Box picture selection task to compare the interpretations assigned by two groups of children (4/5 and 7 year olds) and by adults, in response to sentences with presuppositions and ones with either ‘direct’ or ‘indirect’ scalar implicatures. The main finding was that the behavior of children and adults differed across inference types. This asymmetry is consistent with the traditional perspective, but poses a challenge for the more recent uniform accounts. We discuss how the latter could be amended to account for these findings, and also relate the findings to previous results on presupposition processing. Finally, we discuss an unexpected difference found between direct and indirect scalar implicatures.
Frontiers in Psychology, 2021
Upon hearing “Some of Michelangelo’s sculptures are in Rome,” adults can easily generate a scalar implicature and infer that the intended meaning of the utterance corresponds to “Some but not all Michelangelo’s sculptures are in Rome.” Comprehension experiments show that preschoolers struggle with this kind of inference until at least 5 years of age. Surprisingly, the few studies having investigated children’s production of scalar expressions like some and all suggest that production is adult-like already in their third year of life. Thus, children’s production of implicatures seems to develop at least 2 years before their comprehension of implicatures. In this paper, we present a novel account of scalar implicature generation in the framework of Bidirectional Optimality Theory: the Asymmetry Account. We show that the production–comprehension asymmetry is predicted to emerge because the comprehension of some requires the hearer to consider the speaker’s perspective, but the producti...
Plurality inferences are scalar implicatures: Evidence from acquisition
in proceedings of SALT 24
This paper provides novel experimental evidence for a scalar implicature approach to the plurality inferences that are associated with English plural morphol- ogy (Emily fed giraffes Emily fed more than one giraffe). Using a Truth Value Judgment Task, we show that both adults and 4–5-year-old children compute more plurality inferences in upward-entailing than downward-entailing environments, but children compute fewer plurality inferences overall than adults do. These findings are consistent with previous research demonstrating children’s relative insensitivity to scalar implicatures. We discuss the implications of these findings for theories of plurality inferences, and for the acquisition of scalar inferences more generally.
Processing presuppositions and implicatures: Similarities and differences
2 3 Presuppositions (Ps) and Scalar implicatures (SIs) are traditionally considered to be distinct 4 phenomena. But recently, various authors have argued that (at least certain) Ps should be 5 analyzed as SIs to capture differences between presupposition triggers. This scalar implicature 6 approach to presuppositions predicts that, all else being equal, the two types of inferences 7 will display uniform behavior. Some initial processing studies tested this prediction, but yielded 8 conflicting results. While some found no delay in Reaction Times (RTs) associated with Ps 9 under negation, which is in contrast with previous findings for SIs and thus challenges the SI 10 approach to Ps, others compared SIs and Ps under negation directly and found uniform RT 11 patterns for them. We review the conflicting results and argue that the difference in outcomes 12 is attributable to a difference in the type of response being measured: the RTs associated with 13 acceptance and rejection judgments seem to pattern in exactly opposite ways. Next, we report 14 on two experiments that systematically look at both acceptance and rejection responses for 15 SIs and Ps respectively. The results suggest that, once the acceptance vs. rejection variable 16 is factored in, RT patterns for Ps and SIs are indeed uniform, and only involve delays for the 17 respective inferences when looking at rejection judgments. However, a contrast between Ps and 18 SIs re-emerges in the results of the third experiment, in which auditory stimuli are used to assess 19 the impact of prosody on deriving the respective inferences. This poses a first challenge to the 20 scalar implicature approach to presuppositions. A third set of experiments investigates a further 21 prediction by this approach by looking at a relevant presupposition trigger in affirmative contexts. 22 According to the SI approach to Ps, the presuppositional inference is introduced as a simple 23 entailment in affirmative contexts. This predicts that language users' behaviour towards other 24 entailments and these presuppositional inferences will be uniform. We compare rejections of 25 affirmative sentences based on either their presuppositional inference or their entailed content, 26 and found longer RTs for the former case. A final variation investigated whether there might 27 be a parallel difference in the RTs of two entailments associated with always, and found no 28 such difference. The results produced by the second two sets of experiments pose a substantial 29 challenge to approaches assimilating Ps and SIs, while being entirely in line with the traditional 30 perspective of seeing the two phenomena as distinct in nature. 31
Processing Presuppositions. Are Implicative Verbs Soft Triggers?
Research in Language, 2021
This paper investigates the question whether implicative verbs should be considered as soft presupposition triggers, i.e., as triggers activating optional context repairs. I present the results of an experiment in which test subjects were asked to read short dialogues containing either presupposition triggers or conversational implicatures and, next, answer the questions regarding the information communicated on the level of presupposition or implicatures, respectively. The results of within-subject ANOVA show that presuppositions activated by the use of implicative verbs are significantly less accessible and illicit significantly longer response times than presuppositions activated by the use of hard triggers, suggesting that they can be classified as soft presupposition triggers. The obtained results also show that presuppositions activated by the use of different triggers are heterogenous in regards to the accessibility of information.
When children are more logical than adults: Experimental investigations of scalar implicature
Cognition, 2001
A conversational implicature is an inference that consists in attributing to a speaker an implicit meaning that goes beyond the explicit linguistic meaning of an utterance. This paper experimentally investigates scalar implicature, a paradigmatic case of implicature in which a speaker's use of a term like Some indicates that the speaker had reasons not to use a more informative one from the same scale, e.g. All; thus, Some implicates Not all. Pragmatic theorists like Grice would predict that a pragmatic interpretation is determined only after its explicit, logical meaning is incorporated (e.g. where Some means at least one).