Numerical Discrepancies between 'Some' and 'A Few' A basis for Dutch scalar implicature research
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چکیده
Horn scales are a popular vehicle in the investigation of implicatures. Yet even this most user-friendly of implicature research categories is plagued by methodological and extrapolating difficulties. One of these difficulties is the possible existence of pungent semantic discrepancies that get lost in translation. To form a basis for past and future Dutch scalar implicature research, we investigated the popular quantifier ‘some’. In an experiment we registered different elements that make up its numerical description (i.e. minimal, most likely and maximal value) and compared them to those of other quantifiers from its Horn scale. The experiment showed that the parameter values for some are overall higher than those for a few. A scaling effect on some, however, appears to blur some’s discrepancies with a few for lower population sizes.
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تاریخ انتشار 2015