EXPRESS: Processing symbolic magnitude information conveyed by number words and by scalar adjectives

Humans not only process and compare magnitude information such as size, duration, and number perceptually, but they also communicate about these properties using language. In this respect, a relevant class of lexical items are so-called scalar adjectives like ‘big’, ‘long’, ‘loud’, etc. which refer to magnitude information. It has been proposed that humans use an amodal and abstract representation format shared by different dimensions, called the generalized magnitude system (GMS). In this paper, we test the hypothesis that scalar adjectives are symbolic references to GMS representations, and, therefore, GMS gets involved in processing their meaning. Previously, a parallel hypothesis on the relation between number symbols and GMS representations has been tested with the size congruity paradigm. The results of these experiments showed interference between the processing of number symbols and the processing of physical (font-) size. In the first three experiments of the present study (total N=150), we used the size congruity paradigm and the same/different task to look at the potential interaction between physical size magnitude and numerical magnitude expressed by number words. In the subsequent three experiments (total N=149), we looked at a parallel potential interaction between physical size magnitude and scalar adjective meaning.

Online pragmatic interpretations of scalar adjectives are affected by perceived speaker reliability

Linguistic communication requires understanding of words in relation to their context. Among various aspects of context, one that has received relatively little attention until recently is the speakers themselves. We asked whether comprehenders’ online language comprehension is affected by the perceived reliability with which a speaker formulates pragmatically well-formed utterances. In two eye-tracking experiments, we conceptually replicated and extended a seminal work by Grodner and Sedivy (2011). A between-participant manipulation was used to control reliability with which a speaker follows implicit pragmatic conventions (e.g., using a scalar adjective in accordance with contextual contrast). Experiment 1 replicated Grodner and Sedivy’s finding that contrastive inference in response to scalar adjectives was suspended when both the spoken input and the instructions provided evidence of the speaker’s (un)reliability: For speech from the reliable speaker, comprehenders exhibited the early fixations attributable to a contextually-situated, contrastive interpretation of a scalar adjective. In contrast, for speech from the unreliable speaker, comprehenders did not exhibit such early fixations. Experiment 2 provided novel evidence of the reliability effect in the absence of explicit instructions. In both experiments, the effects emerged in the earliest expected time window given the stimuli sentence structure. The results suggest that real-time interpretations of spoken language are optimized in the context of a speaker identity, characteristics of which are extrapolated across utterances.

Processing symbolic magnitude information conveyed by number words and by scalar adjectives

Humans not only process and compare magnitude information such as size, duration, and number perceptually, but they also communicate about these properties using language. In this respect, a relevant class of lexical items are so-called scalar adjectives like ‘big’, ‘long’, ‘loud’, etc. which refer to magnitude information. It has been proposed that humans use an amodal and abstract representation format shared by different dimensions, called the generalized magnitude system (GMS). In this paper, we test the hypothesis that scalar adjectives are symbolic references to GMS representations, and, therefore, GMS gets involved in processing their meaning. Previously, a parallel hypothesis on the relation between number symbols and GMS representations has been tested with the size congruity paradigm. The results of these experiments showed interference between the processing of number symbols and the processing of physical (font-) size. In the first three experiments of the present study (total N=150), we used the size congruity paradigm and the same/different task to look at the potential interaction between physical size magnitude and numerical magnitude expressed by number words. In the subsequent three experiments (total N=149), we looked at a parallel potential interaction between physical size magnitude and scalar adjective meaning. In the size congruity paradigm we observed interference between the processing of the numerical value of number words and the meaning of scalar adjectives, on the one hand, and physical (font-) size, on the other had, when participants had to judge the number words or the adjectives (while ignoring physical size). No interference was obtained for the reverse situation, i.e. when participants judged the physical font size (while ignoring numerical value or meaning). The results of the same/different task for both number words and scalar adjectives strongly suggested that the interference that was observed in the size congruity paradigm was likely due to a response conflict at the decision stage of processing rather than due to the recruitment of GMS representations. Taken together, it can be concluded that the size congruity paradigm does not provide evidence in support the hypothesis that GMS representations are used in the processing of number words or scalar adjectives. Nonetheless, the hypothesis we put forward about scalar adjectives is still is a promising potential line of research. We make a number of suggestions for how this hypothesis can be explored in future studies.

Testing contrastive inferences from suprasegmental features using offline measures

Speakers add modifiers to the extent that they are informative (Grice 1975); studies using the visual world eye-tracking paradigm find that the use of pre-nominal modifiers (short, big) leads listeners to infer the existence of similar objects differing along that same scale (Grodner & Sedivy 2011; Sedivy et al. 1999). In this study, we probe these contrastive inferences using an offline questionnaire, paired with audio/video stimuli to ask whether similar inferences extend to two types of suprasegmental features: prosodic focus and depictive co-speech gestures. Our results suggest that the presence of a scalar adjective robustly leads to contrastive inferences in this offline forced choice paradigm, and that the robustness of the lexical pattern persists even when prosodic focus would indicate otherwise. Prosodic focus does, however, appear to modulate the contrastive effect of a given pre-nominal modifier. We find that the same pragmatic process fails to extend to depictive co-speech gestures, supporting a semantic analysis of these gestures as generally not-at-issue contributions.

Predicative definite NPIs in Norwegian

In Norwegian, a weak quantifier or a scalar adjective with a positive value may combine with a definite noun and thereby form an attenuating NPI. These phrases, which I call predicative definite NPIs, are exceptional as nominal phrases, since they do not accept a prenominal definiteness marker despite their overall definiteness, and they are exceptional as attenuating NPIs, since they are templatic instead of being lexically defined.<br />The reason why predicative definite NPIs do not accept prenominal definiteness markers is arguably that there is no D head. The absence of a D head makes the phrases defective in their ability to refer. Hence, they are semantically predicative, and in the terms of Giannakidou (1998) they are referentially dependent, which is a property that characterises many NPIs in general. Hence, the lack of a D head causes the phrases to be NPIs, despite their definiteness.<br />Concerning their licensing properties, when three influential theories of NPIlicensing&mdash;Progovac (1994), van der Wouden (1997) and Giannakidou (1998)&mdash; are confronted with the NPIs discussed here, it appears that Giannakidou&rsquo;s model more successfully than the others can capture the licensing of predicative definite NPIs, although some refinement is required even here.