Relevance of Polarity for the Online Interpretation of Scalar Terms

Panizza, Daniele; Huang, Yi Ting; Chierchia, Gennaro; Snedeker, Jesse

doi:10.3765/salt.v19i0.2530

Cited by 11 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…If the ongoing pragmatic revision process after encountering an infelicitous quantifier affects lexico-semantic processing, either by limiting the extent to which the parser commits to predictions about upcoming material or by using the same processing resources that would otherwise be used for lexico-semantic prediction and integration, then the N400 effect for lexico-semantic violations at the object position should be modulated. For instance, Panizza and colleagues (2011) found that participants in a visual world eye-tracking experiment were slower to look to an unambiguous target (e.g., slower to look to socks after socks had already been heard) when the target word was in a scalar implicature-supporting context than when it was not, suggesting that generating a scalar implicature may have interfered with their ability to use disambiguating phonological information for lexico-semantic integration. In a similar vein, our Experiment 2 tests whether revising an underinformative scalar inference interferes with lexico-semantic integration between the picture and the sentential object.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Distinct neural correlates for pragmatic and semantic meaning processing: An event-related potential investigation of scalar implicature processing using picture-sentence verification

et al. 2013

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The present study examines the brain-level representation and composition of meaning in scalar quantifiers (e.g., some), which have both a semantic meaning (at least one) and a pragmatic meaning (not all). We adopted a picture-sentence verification design to examine event-related potential (ERP) effects of reading infelicitous quantifiers for which the semantic meaning was correct with respect to the context but the pragmatic meaning was not, compared to quantifiers for which the semantic meaning was inconsistent with the context and no additional pragmatic meaning is available. In the first experiment, only pragmatically inconsistent quantifiers, not semantically inconsistent quantifiers, elicited a sustained posterior negative component. This late negativity contrasts with the N400 effect typically elicited by nouns that are incongruent with their context, suggesting that the recognition of scalar implicature errors elicits a qualitatively different ERP signature than the recognition of lexico-semantic errors. We hypothesize that the sustained negativity reflects cancellation of the pragmatic inference and retrieval of the semantic meaning. In our second experiment, we found that the process of re-interpreting the quantifier was independent from lexico-semantic processing: the N400 elicited by lexico-semantic violations was not modulated by the presence of a pragmatic inconsistency. These findings suggest that inferential pragmatic aspects of meaning are processed using different mechanisms than lexical or combinatorial semantic aspects of meaning, that inferential pragmatic meaning can be realized rapidly, and that the computation of meaning involves continuous negotiation between different aspects of meaning.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Distinct neural correlates for pragmatic and semantic meaning processing: An event-related potential investigation of scalar implicature processing using picture-sentence verification

et al. 2013

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“…2016), the interpretation of pronouns, demonstratives, and reflexives (e.g., Arnold, 2001;Arnold et al, 2000;Kaiser et al, 2009;Kaiser and Trueswell, 2008), and children's interpretations of referential expressions in adult input (Arunachalam, 2016). Eye tracking has also been informative for studying the interpretation of prosody (e.g., Kurumada et al, 2014;Dahan et al, 2002;Weber et al, 2006;Watson et al, 2008;Ito and Speer, 2008), the time-course of pragmatic inferences (Breheny et al, 2013;Englehardt et al, 2006;Sedivy et al, 1999;Grodner and Sedivy, 2011;Huang and Snedeker, 2009a, b;Panizza et al, 2009;Grodner et al, 2010;Heller et al, 2008;Wolter et al, 2011;Schwarz, 2014), and the processing of disfluencies in the speech stream (Arnold et al, 2003(Arnold et al, , 2004(Arnold et al, , 2007Bailey and Ferreira, 2007). Since the goal of this paper is to review research on speech recognition in challenging conditions, this section will focus on eye tracking studies of word and sentence recognition.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Eyes and ears: Using eye tracking and pupillometry to understand challenges to speech recognition

Engen

McLaughlin

2018

Hearing Research

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Although human speech recognition is often experienced as relatively effortless, a number of common challenges can render the task more difficult. Such challenges may originate in talkers (e.g., unfamiliar accents, varying speech styles), the environment (e.g. noise), or in listeners themselves (e.g., hearing loss, aging, different native language backgrounds). Each of these challenges can reduce the intelligibility of spoken language, but even when intelligibility remains high, they can place greater processing demands on listeners. Noisy conditions, for example, can lead to poorer recall for speech, even when it has been correctly understood. Speech intelligibility measures, memory tasks, and subjective reports of listener difficulty all provide critical information about the effects of such challenges on speech recognition. Eye tracking and pupillometry complement these methods by providing objective physiological measures of online cognitive processing during listening. Eye tracking records the moment-to-moment direction of listeners' visual attention, which is closely time-locked to unfolding speech signals, and pupillometry measures the moment-to-moment size of listeners' pupils, which dilate in response to increased cognitive load. In this paper, we review the uses of these two methods for studying challenges to speech recognition.

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“…For example, because the Gricean approach is committed to these predictions, it can explain the disappearance of scalar implicatures in (7‐a), but it is faced with the challenge of making sense of the contrast between (8) and (9) and of the possibility of the scalar implicature in (10‐c). On the other hand, while the grammatical theory can appeal to embedded implicatures to account for the felicity of (9), and it exploits the possibility of negating non‐weaker alternatives to account for the scalar implicature in (10‐c), it is faced with the challenge of explaining why an embedded implicature in (7‐a) seems to be dispreferred (e.g., Chierchia et al ; Geurts and Pouscoulous ; Panizza et al ), and of explaining new puzzles that arise when the negation of non‐weaker alternatives becomes possible…”

Section: Background On Scalar Implicaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Remarks on the Experimental Turn in the Study of Scalar Implicature, Part I

Chemla¹,

Singh

2014

Language and Linguist. Compass

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(for Part I and Part II)There has been a recent 'experimental turn' in the study of scalar implicature, yielding important results concerning online processing and acquisition. This paper highlights some of these results and places them in the current theoretical context. We argue that there is sometimes a mismatch between theoretical and experimental studies, and we point out how some of these mismatches can be resolved. We furthermore highlight ways in which the current theoretical and experimental landscape is richer than is often assumed, and in light of this discussion, we offer some suggestions for what seem to us promising directions for the experimental turn to explore.The article is divided in two parts. Part I first presents the two dominant families of accounts of scalar implicature, the domain-general Gricean account and the domain-specific grammatical account. We try to separate the various components of these theories and connect them to relevant psycholinguistic predictions. Part II examines and reinterprets several prominent experimental results in light of the theoretical presentation proposed in the first part.

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Relevance of Polarity for the Online Interpretation of Scalar Terms

Abstract: No abstract.

Cited by 11 publications

References 12 publications

Distinct neural correlates for pragmatic and semantic meaning processing: An event-related potential investigation of scalar implicature processing using picture-sentence verification

Distinct neural correlates for pragmatic and semantic meaning processing: An event-related potential investigation of scalar implicature processing using picture-sentence verification

Eyes and ears: Using eye tracking and pupillometry to understand challenges to speech recognition

Remarks on the Experimental Turn in the Study of Scalar Implicature, Part I

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