The Best Response Paradigm: A New Approach to Test Implicatures of Complex Sentences
There is a controversial debate about which implicatures are triggered by logically complex sentences. This article introduces a novel experimental paradigm based on a game-theoretic design to test these implicatures. In particular, we investigated two cases adjudicating between different accounts o...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2018-01-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Communication |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fcomm.2017.00021/full |
| _version_ | 1819092439584997376 |
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| author | Nicole Gotzner Anton Benz |
| author_facet | Nicole Gotzner Anton Benz |
| author_sort | Nicole Gotzner |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | There is a controversial debate about which implicatures are triggered by logically complex sentences. This article introduces a novel experimental paradigm based on a game-theoretic design to test these implicatures. In particular, we investigated two cases adjudicating between different accounts of implicature (“Each girl found some of her marbles” and “Some of the girls found some of their marbles”). The advantage of our paradigm is that we can provide an explicit game-theoretical model of the experimental situation so that participants’ interpretation of test sentences can be read off from their choices between various actions (rather than requiring metalinguistic judgments). The study shows that, in our scenario, strong (embedded) implicatures are drawn reliably. We evaluate the predictions of several structural and game-theoretic accounts for the data and discuss the broader relevance of the findings for theories of implicature and the framework they belong to. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-21T22:55:38Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-4cc5dcb24a644d78b3c87c0836822875 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2297-900X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-21T22:55:38Z |
| publishDate | 2018-01-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Communication |
| spelling | doaj.art-4cc5dcb24a644d78b3c87c08368228752022-12-21T18:47:26ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Communication2297-900X2018-01-01210.3389/fcomm.2017.00021270135The Best Response Paradigm: A New Approach to Test Implicatures of Complex SentencesNicole Gotzner0Anton Benz1Leibniz Centre General Linguistics, Berlin, GermanyLeibniz Centre General Linguistics, Berlin, GermanyThere is a controversial debate about which implicatures are triggered by logically complex sentences. This article introduces a novel experimental paradigm based on a game-theoretic design to test these implicatures. In particular, we investigated two cases adjudicating between different accounts of implicature (“Each girl found some of her marbles” and “Some of the girls found some of their marbles”). The advantage of our paradigm is that we can provide an explicit game-theoretical model of the experimental situation so that participants’ interpretation of test sentences can be read off from their choices between various actions (rather than requiring metalinguistic judgments). The study shows that, in our scenario, strong (embedded) implicatures are drawn reliably. We evaluate the predictions of several structural and game-theoretic accounts for the data and discuss the broader relevance of the findings for theories of implicature and the framework they belong to.http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fcomm.2017.00021/fullembedded implicaturesexperimental pragmaticsgame-theoretic pragmaticslocalismglobalism |
| spellingShingle | Nicole Gotzner Anton Benz The Best Response Paradigm: A New Approach to Test Implicatures of Complex Sentences Frontiers in Communication embedded implicatures experimental pragmatics game-theoretic pragmatics localism globalism |
| title | The Best Response Paradigm: A New Approach to Test Implicatures of Complex Sentences |
| title_full | The Best Response Paradigm: A New Approach to Test Implicatures of Complex Sentences |
| title_fullStr | The Best Response Paradigm: A New Approach to Test Implicatures of Complex Sentences |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Best Response Paradigm: A New Approach to Test Implicatures of Complex Sentences |
| title_short | The Best Response Paradigm: A New Approach to Test Implicatures of Complex Sentences |
| title_sort | best response paradigm a new approach to test implicatures of complex sentences |
| topic | embedded implicatures experimental pragmatics game-theoretic pragmatics localism globalism |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fcomm.2017.00021/full |
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