From scalar semantics to implicature: children's interpretation of aspectuals

From scalar semantics to implicature: children's interpretation of aspectuals.

One of the tasks of language learning is the discovery of the intricate division of labour between the lexical-semantic content of an expression and the pragmatic inferences the expression can be used to convey. Here we investigate experimentally the development of the semantics-pragmatics interface, focusing on Greek-speaking five-year-olds' interpretation of aspectual expressions such as arxi...

Scalar Implicature

Informativeness, Relevance and Scalar Implicature

1. Introduction The main topic of this paper is the phenomenon of scalar implicature. Typical examples are given in (1)-(4): (1) a. Bill has got some of Chomsky's papers. b. The speaker believes that Bill hasn't got all of Chomsky's papers. (2) a. There will be five of us for dinner tonight. b. There won't be more than five of us for dinner tonight. (3) a. X: I like Mary. She's intelligent and ...

Scalar Implicature and Local Pragmatics

The Gricean theory of conversational implicature has always been plagued by data suggesting that what would seem to be conversational inferences may occur within the scope of operators like believe, for example; which for bona fide implicatures should be an impossibility. Concentrating my attention on scalar implicatures, I argue that, for the most part, such observations can be accounted for w...

From Meaning to Inference: Evidence for the distinction between lexical semantics and scalar implicature in online processing and development

Acknowledgments – This work benefited from conversations with members of the Cambridge Conference on Experimental Pragmatics, Lab for Developmental Studies, and the MIT-Harvard number reading group. We are grateful to Ayo Adigun and Hila Katz for their assistance in testing and data coding.