Interpreting numerals and scalar items under memory load

Marty, Paul; Chemla, Emmanuel; Spector, Benjamin

doi:10.1016/j.lingua.2013.03.006

Cited by 97 publications

(61 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…One way of reconciling our results with previous studies is to argue that observed differences between numbers and other types of EVAs (e.g., Guasti et al, 2005;Huang et al, 2013;Marty, Chemla, & Spector, 2013;Musolino, 2004;Papafragou & Musolino, 2003) arise for peripheral reasons. For instance, it could be that number enrichment is an easier task than some enrichment for independent reasons (just like apparently irrelevant factors can affect the difficulty of some reasoning tasks e.g., Johnson-Laird & Bara, 1984;Newstead, Pollard, & Allen, 1992).…”

Section: Eva Vs Exact Accounts Of Numberssupporting

confidence: 83%

Shared and distinct mechanisms in deriving linguistic enrichment

Bott

Chemla

2016

Journal of Memory and Language

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a b s t r a c tMeanings of basic expressions can be enriched by considering what the speaker could have said, but chose not to, that is, the alternatives. We report three priming experiments that test whether there are shared enrichment mechanisms across a diverse range of linguistic categories. We find that quantifier, number, and ad hoc enrichments exhibit robust priming within their categories and between each other. Plural enrichments, in contrast, demonstrate within-category priming but no between-category priming. Our results demonstrate that (1) enrichment typically thought of as pragmatic or semantic can be primed in the same way as syntactic structures and (2) there are mechanisms that are shared across different enrichment categories, and that some phenomena (e.g., plurals) are excluded from this class. We discuss the implications of our findings for psychological models of enrichment, theories of individual categories of enrichment, and structural priming.

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Section: Eva Vs Exact Accounts Of Numberssupporting

confidence: 83%

Shared and distinct mechanisms in deriving linguistic enrichment

Bott

Chemla

2016

Journal of Memory and Language

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“…Considerable evidence has accumulated indicating that interpreting a scalar term pragmatically (e.g., some-but-not-all ) takes longer and requires more cognitive resources than interpreting it semantically (e.g., at least some ), which many researchers have argued is the opposite of what one would expect if implicatures are always calculated lexically and then cancelled as needed (Bott, Bailey, & Grodner, 2012; Bott & Noveck, 2004; De Neys & Schaeken, 2007; Dieussaert, Verkerk, Gillard & Schaeken, 2011; Feeney et al, 2004; Huang & Snedeker, 2009a, 2011; Marty, Chemla, & Spector, 2013; Noveck & Posada, 2003; but see Grodner et al, 2010). Whether this is a fatal argument depends on exactly what the underlying processing model looks like, and how the underlying processing gets transformed into the manifestations that we can measure (e.g., reaction time).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Second, despite an explosion of behavioral experiments on scalar implicature (Barner, Brooks, & Bale, 2010; Bonnefon et al, 2009; Bott & Noveck, 2004; Breheny, Ferguson, & Katsos, 2012; Chemla & Spector, 2011; Chevallier et al, 2008; Chevallier, Wilson, Happé, & Noveck, 2010; De Neys & Schaeken, 2007; Feeney, Scrafton, Duckworth, & Handley, 2004; Goodman & Stuhlmuller, 2013; Foppolo, Guasti, & Chierchia, 2012; Grodner et al, 2010; Huang & Snedeker, 2009a, 2009b, 2011; Marty, Chemla & Spector, 2013; Noveck, 2001; Papafragou & Musolino, 2003; Papafragou & Tantalou, 2004; Papafragou, 2006; Pouscoulous, Noveck, Politzer, & Bastide, 2007) relatively little is known about the neural computation of scalar implicature. Two studies have investigated the brain response produced when a scalar implicature conflicts with world knowledge.…”

Section: Overview Of the Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The neural computation of scalar implicature

Hartshorne

Snedeker

Azar

et al. 2014

Language, Cognition and Neuroscience

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Language comprehension involves not only constructing the literal meaning of a sentence but also going beyond the literal meaning to infer what was meant but not said. One widely-studied test case is scalar implicature: The inference that, e.g., Sally ate some of the cookies implies she did not eat all of them. Research is mixed on whether this is due to a rote, grammaticalized procedure or instead a complex, contextualized inference. We find that in sentences like If Sally ate some of the cookies, then the rest are on the counter, that the rest triggers a late, sustained positivity relative to Sally ate some of the cookies, and the rest are on the counter. This is consistent with behavioral results and linguistic theory suggesting that the former sentence does not trigger a scalar implicature. This motivates a view on which scalar implicature is contextualized but dependent on grammatical structure.

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“…In fact, numerals systematically differ from other scalar terms in retaining two-sided ("exhaustified") meanings in contexts that tend to suppress scalar implicatures, such as the downward-entailing environment in (36) (see e.g. Koenig 1991, Horn 1992, Marty, Chemla & Spector 2013, Kennedy 2013.…”

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confidence: 99%

A "de-Fregean" semantics (and neo-Gricean pragmatics) for modified and unmodified numerals

Kennedy

2015

S&P

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A challenge for the semantic and pragmatic analysis of modified numerals is how to account for ignorance implications about exact quantity. Superlative-modified numerals (at least/most six) systematically give rise to such implications while their comparative-modified counterparts (more/fewer than six) do not, but the distribution of ignorance implications with superlative modifiers is sensitive to how the numeral interacts with modals and other operators. In this paper, I demonstrate that a "de-Fregean" semantic analysis of modified and unmodified numerals as second-order properties of degrees that differ only in the kind of ordering relation they introduce supports a neo-Gricean pragmatic account of ignorance implications as Quantity implicatures, and derives the pattern of interaction with modals as a scopal phenomenon.

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Interpreting numerals and scalar items under memory load

Cited by 97 publications

References 32 publications

Shared and distinct mechanisms in deriving linguistic enrichment

Shared and distinct mechanisms in deriving linguistic enrichment

The neural computation of scalar implicature

A "de-Fregean" semantics (and neo-Gricean pragmatics) for modified and unmodified numerals

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