Accommodating Presuppositions Is Inappropriate in Implausible Contexts
According to one view of linguistic information (Karttunen, 1974; Stalnaker, 1974), a speaker can convey contextually new information in one of two ways: (a) by asserting the content as new information; or (b) by presupposing the content as given information which would then have to be accommodated....
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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John Wiley & Sons
2016
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/102974 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3823-514X https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5912-883X https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9786-8716 |
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| author | Singh, Raj Fedorenko, Evelina G. Mahowald, Kyle Adam Gibson, Edward A. |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Singh, Raj Fedorenko, Evelina G. Mahowald, Kyle Adam Gibson, Edward A. |
| author_sort | Singh, Raj |
| collection | MIT |
| description | According to one view of linguistic information (Karttunen, 1974; Stalnaker, 1974), a speaker can convey contextually new information in one of two ways: (a) by asserting the content as new information; or (b) by presupposing the content as given information which would then have to be accommodated. This distinction predicts that it is conversationally more appropriate to assert implausible information rather than presuppose it (e.g., von Fintel, 2008; Heim, 1992; Stalnaker, 2002). A second view rejects the assumption that presuppositions are accommodated; instead, presuppositions are assimilated into asserted content and both are correspondingly open to challenge (e.g., Gazdar, 1979; van der Sandt, 1992). Under this view, we should not expect to find a difference in conversational appropriateness between asserting implausible information and presupposing it. To distinguish between these two views of linguistic information, we performed two self-paced reading experiments with an on-line stops-making-sense judgment. The results of the two experiments—using the presupposition triggers the and too—show that accommodation is inappropriate (makes less sense) relative to non-presuppositional controls when the presupposed information is implausible but not when it is plausible. These results provide support for the first view of linguistic information: the contrast in implausible contexts can only be explained if there is a presupposition-assertion distinction and accommodation is a mechanism dedicated to reasoning about presuppositions. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T15:57:33Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/102974 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T15:57:33Z |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| publisher | John Wiley & Sons |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1029742022-09-29T17:20:38Z Accommodating Presuppositions Is Inappropriate in Implausible Contexts Singh, Raj Fedorenko, Evelina G. Mahowald, Kyle Adam Gibson, Edward A. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT Gibson, Edward A. Fedorenko, Evelina G. Mahowald, Kyle Adam Gibson, Edward A. According to one view of linguistic information (Karttunen, 1974; Stalnaker, 1974), a speaker can convey contextually new information in one of two ways: (a) by asserting the content as new information; or (b) by presupposing the content as given information which would then have to be accommodated. This distinction predicts that it is conversationally more appropriate to assert implausible information rather than presuppose it (e.g., von Fintel, 2008; Heim, 1992; Stalnaker, 2002). A second view rejects the assumption that presuppositions are accommodated; instead, presuppositions are assimilated into asserted content and both are correspondingly open to challenge (e.g., Gazdar, 1979; van der Sandt, 1992). Under this view, we should not expect to find a difference in conversational appropriateness between asserting implausible information and presupposing it. To distinguish between these two views of linguistic information, we performed two self-paced reading experiments with an on-line stops-making-sense judgment. The results of the two experiments—using the presupposition triggers the and too—show that accommodation is inappropriate (makes less sense) relative to non-presuppositional controls when the presupposed information is implausible but not when it is plausible. These results provide support for the first view of linguistic information: the contrast in implausible contexts can only be explained if there is a presupposition-assertion distinction and accommodation is a mechanism dedicated to reasoning about presuppositions. 2016-06-06T15:11:10Z 2016-06-06T15:11:10Z 2015-02 2014-12 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 03640213 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/102974 Singh, Raj, Evelina Fedorenko, Kyle Mahowald, and Edward Gibson. “Accommodating Presuppositions Is Inappropriate in Implausible Contexts.” Cogn Sci 40, no. 3 (July 8, 2015): 607–634. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3823-514X https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5912-883X https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9786-8716 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/cogs.12260 Cognitive Science Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ application/pdf John Wiley & Sons Prof. Gibson via Courtney Crummett |
| spellingShingle | Singh, Raj Fedorenko, Evelina G. Mahowald, Kyle Adam Gibson, Edward A. Accommodating Presuppositions Is Inappropriate in Implausible Contexts |
| title | Accommodating Presuppositions Is Inappropriate in Implausible Contexts |
| title_full | Accommodating Presuppositions Is Inappropriate in Implausible Contexts |
| title_fullStr | Accommodating Presuppositions Is Inappropriate in Implausible Contexts |
| title_full_unstemmed | Accommodating Presuppositions Is Inappropriate in Implausible Contexts |
| title_short | Accommodating Presuppositions Is Inappropriate in Implausible Contexts |
| title_sort | accommodating presuppositions is inappropriate in implausible contexts |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/102974 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3823-514X https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5912-883X https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9786-8716 |
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