Embedded implicatures observed: a comment on Geurts and Pouscoulous (2009)
Conventionalist theories of scalar implicature differ from other accounts in that they predict strengthening of embedded scalar terms. Geurts and Pouscoulous (2009) argue that experimental support for this prediction is largely based on sentence comprehension tasks that inflate the frequency with wh...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Linguistic Society of America
2010-07-01
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| Series: | Semantics and Pragmatics |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://semprag.org/article/view/751 |
| _version_ | 1828793734967328768 |
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| author | Charles Clifton Chad Dube |
| author_facet | Charles Clifton Chad Dube |
| author_sort | Charles Clifton |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Conventionalist theories of scalar implicature differ from other accounts in that they predict strengthening of embedded scalar terms. Geurts and Pouscoulous (2009) argue that experimental support for this prediction is largely based on sentence comprehension tasks that inflate the frequency with which terms like 'some' are strengthened. Using a picture verification task, they observed no strengthening of embedded scalars. We present data from a multiple-choice picture verification task that is more sensitive to interpretation preferences, and find that readers do show a preference for strengthened interpretations even in embedded phrases. These data cast doubt on Geurts and Pouscoulous's empirical arguments against the existence of embedded implicatures.
doi:10.3765/sp.3.7
<a href="http://semantics-online.org/sp-bib/clifton-dube-2010.bib">BibTeX info</a> |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-12T03:32:32Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-cc69f2df015d42da8008986534c8e691 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1937-8912 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-12T03:32:32Z |
| publishDate | 2010-07-01 |
| publisher | Linguistic Society of America |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Semantics and Pragmatics |
| spelling | doaj.art-cc69f2df015d42da8008986534c8e6912022-12-22T00:39:53ZengLinguistic Society of AmericaSemantics and Pragmatics1937-89122010-07-013011310.3765/sp.3.7931Embedded implicatures observed: a comment on Geurts and Pouscoulous (2009)Charles Clifton0Chad Dube1University of Massachusetts AmherstUniversity of Massachusetts AmherstConventionalist theories of scalar implicature differ from other accounts in that they predict strengthening of embedded scalar terms. Geurts and Pouscoulous (2009) argue that experimental support for this prediction is largely based on sentence comprehension tasks that inflate the frequency with which terms like 'some' are strengthened. Using a picture verification task, they observed no strengthening of embedded scalars. We present data from a multiple-choice picture verification task that is more sensitive to interpretation preferences, and find that readers do show a preference for strengthened interpretations even in embedded phrases. These data cast doubt on Geurts and Pouscoulous's empirical arguments against the existence of embedded implicatures. doi:10.3765/sp.3.7 <a href="http://semantics-online.org/sp-bib/clifton-dube-2010.bib">BibTeX info</a>http://semprag.org/article/view/751implicaturescalar termsexperimental evidence |
| spellingShingle | Charles Clifton Chad Dube Embedded implicatures observed: a comment on Geurts and Pouscoulous (2009) Semantics and Pragmatics implicature scalar terms experimental evidence |
| title | Embedded implicatures observed: a comment on Geurts and Pouscoulous (2009) |
| title_full | Embedded implicatures observed: a comment on Geurts and Pouscoulous (2009) |
| title_fullStr | Embedded implicatures observed: a comment on Geurts and Pouscoulous (2009) |
| title_full_unstemmed | Embedded implicatures observed: a comment on Geurts and Pouscoulous (2009) |
| title_short | Embedded implicatures observed: a comment on Geurts and Pouscoulous (2009) |
| title_sort | embedded implicatures observed a comment on geurts and pouscoulous 2009 |
| topic | implicature scalar terms experimental evidence |
| url | http://semprag.org/article/view/751 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT charlesclifton embeddedimplicaturesobservedacommentongeurtsandpouscoulous2009 AT chaddube embeddedimplicaturesobservedacommentongeurtsandpouscoulous2009 |