Bayesian Natural Language Semantics and Pragmatics

Zeevat, Henk; Schmitz, Hans-Christian

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-17064-0

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 76 publications

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“…Most RSA reference models, unlike the one reported in this article, have focused on comprehension (Degen et al, 2013; M. C. Frank & Goodman, 2012; Franke & Degen, 2016; Qing & Franke, 2015). The formula that characterizes pragmatic listeners’ referent choices is: …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

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When redundancy is useful: A Bayesian approach to “overinformative” referring expressions.

Degen¹,

Hawkins²,

Graf³

et al. 2020

Psychological Review

131

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Referring is one of the most basic and prevalent uses of language. How do speakers choose from the wealth of referring expressions at their disposal? Rational theories of language use have come under attack for decades for not being able to account for the seemingly irrational overinformativeness ubiquitous in referring expressions. Here we present a novel production model of referring expressions within the Rational Speech Act framework that treats speakers as agents that rationally trade off cost and informativeness of utterances. Crucially, we relax the assumption that informativeness is computed with respect to a deterministic Boolean semantics, in favor of a nondeterministic continuous semantics. This innovation allows us to capture a large number of seemingly disparate phenomena within one unified framework: the basic asymmetry in speakers’ propensity to overmodify with color rather than size; the increase in overmodification in complex scenes; the increase in overmodification with atypical features; and the increase in specificity in nominal reference as a function of typicality. These findings cast a new light on the production of referring expressions: rather than being wastefully overinformative, reference is usefully redundant.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Most RSA reference models, unlike the one reported in this paper, have focused on comprehension (M. C. Frank & Goodman, 2012;Degen et al, 2013;Qing & Franke, 2015;Franke & Degen, 2016).…”

Section: Choice Of Referentmentioning

confidence: 96%

When redundancy is useful: A Bayesian approach to “overinformative” referring expressions.

Degen¹,

Hawkins²,

Graf³

et al. 2020

Psychological Review

131

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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Argumentation et probabilités, ou pourquoi l’argumentation rationnelle n’est pas (toujours) un raisonnement

Jayez

2024

SHS Web of Conf.

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Cet article explore les connexions possibles entre l’approche de l’argumentation « dans la langue » (Anscombre et Ducrot) et l’approche Bayésienne de la confirmation. Je montre qu’il est possible de rendre compte des relations argumentatives en termes probabilistes, mais que, à la différence des approches Bayésiennes habituelles, il n’y a pas d’intégration des dépendances qui peuvent affecter une proposition, ce qui permet de calibrer plus précisément la différence souvent invoquée entre argumentation dans la langue et raisonnement probant.

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Sociolinguistic interaction and identity construction: The view from game‐theoretic pragmatics

Burnett

2017

Journal of Sociolinguistics

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Understanding the dynamics that characterize interaction between conversational participants is a fundamental goal of most theories of socially conditioned language use and identity construction through language. In this paper, I outline a class of formal tools that, I suggest, can be helpful in making progress towards this goal. More precisely, this paper explores how Bayesian signalling game models can be used to formalize key aspects of current sociolinguistic theories, and, in doing so, contribute to our knowledge of how speakers use their linguistic resources to communicate information and carve out their place in the social world. The Bayesian framework has become increasingly popular for the analysis of pragmatic phenomena of many different types, and, more generally, these models have become a dominant paradigm for the explanation of non‐linguistic cognitive processes. As such, I argue that this approach has the potential to yield a formalized theory of personal and social identity construction and to situate the study of sociolinguistic interaction within a broader theory of rationalistic cognition.

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Bayesian Natural Language Semantics and Pragmatics

Cited by 4 publications

References 76 publications

When redundancy is useful: A Bayesian approach to “overinformative” referring expressions.

When redundancy is useful: A Bayesian approach to “overinformative” referring expressions.

Argumentation et probabilités, ou pourquoi l’argumentation rationnelle n’est pas (toujours) un raisonnement

Sociolinguistic interaction and identity construction: The view from game‐theoretic pragmatics

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