Quantifiers and pragmatic enrichment

invited lecture at workshop "Logical Words", University of Geneva, 17. Jan. 2019

Abstract

One of the most studied scales in the literature on scalar implicatures is the quantifier scale. While the truth of 'some' is entailed by the truth of 'all', 'some' is felicitous only when 'all' is false. This opens the possibility that 'some' would be felicitous if, e.g., almost all of the objects in the restriction of the quantifier have the property ascribed by the nuclear scope. This prediction from the standard theory of quantifier interpretation clashes with native speakers’ intuitions. In Experiment 1 we report a questionnaire study on the perception of quantifier meanings in English, French, Slovenian and German which points to a cross-linguistic variation with respect to the perception of numerical bounds of the existential quantifier. In Experiment 2, using a picture choice task, we further examine whether the numerical bound differences correlate with differences in pragmatic interpretations of the quantifier 'some' in English and 'quelques' in French and interpret the results as supporting our hypothesis that 'some' and its cross-linguistic counterparts are subjected to different processes of pragmatic enrichment.

Keywords

quantifier;cross-linguistic variation;experimental pragmatics;picture choice task;

Data

Language:	English
Year of publishing:	2019
Typology:	3.16 - Unpublished Invited Conference Lecture
Organization:	UNG - University of Nova Gorica
UDC:	81
COBISS:	5384955
Views:	2572
Downloads:	0
Average score:	0 (0 votes)
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