Lexical Inference vs Scalar Implicature

词汇推理与标量含义

• 批准号: 254945437
• 负责人: Professor Dr. Uli Sauerland
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Leibniz-Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft (ZAS)
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Priority Programmes
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2013-12-31 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/254945437?language=en
• 关键词: Lexical; Inference; vs; Scalar; Implicature

Grice's notion of implicature presupposes a distinction between pragmatically derived and lexically defined content. This distinction is central to all accounts of implicature, but the precise delineation remains difficult and often controversial. A case at hand are analyses of scalar implicature via silent exhaustification operators in the syntactic structure. Under such an analysis, lexical content and implicature both contribute to truth-conditional meaning, and fewer differences between the two meaning components are expected to be observed, for example in their processing, cancelability, and embeddability. At the same time, the greater power of an exhaustification analysis amplifies the need to better understand the distinction of lexical and derived content and the restrictions on the exhaustification mechanism to avoid over-generation. This project targets a broad array of cases central to this distinction between lexical content and implicature. We consider four typologically diverse languages using both theoretical and experimental diagnostics. In addition we compare the set of alternatives required for quantity- vs. manner-related effects. The empirical findings will put us in a strong position to formulate a novel account of scalar alternative sets and exhaustification. Our working hypothesis is that the make-up of the alternative set involved in deriving a given meaning component correlates with a distinct psycholinguistic profile identifiable in the interpretation and derivation of the relevant meaning component.Specifically, the working hypothesis postulates three categories of meaning components: A) lexical content, which is independent of the alternative set, B) strong implicatures derived from only subconstituent and numeral alternatives, and C) weak implicatures based on lexical scales such as the 'some'-'all'-scale. This main hypothesis will be tested by addressing eight open empirical questions: 1) Can all cases of Free Choice disjunction receive a pragmatic explanation?, 2) Can Free Choice inferences be primed by other kinds of implicatures and if so, which ones? 3) Do variable force connectives in Warlpiri and Japanese on the one hand, and 4) variable force modals in St'at'imcets on the other hand, exhibit the psycholinguistic profile of other implicatures? 5) When are free choice effects with indefinites and 6) variable force of connectives acquired by children? 7) Which phenomena can exhibit non-local implicatures and implicature cancellation when embedded under non-monotone logical operators? 8) Do manner effects and scalar implicatures which involve the same alternatives exhibit the same processsing profile? In pursuing these eight empirical goals, we will establish important new evidence in the controversy about lexical vs. implicature-based meaning, enabling us to revise our working hypothesis on the basis of diverse and broad observations.

格赖斯的含义概念的前提是区分语用推导和词汇定义的内容。这种区分是所有关于含义的解释的核心，但精确的划分仍然很困难，而且经常有争议。本文以句法结构中的无声穷尽算子为例分析了等级含义。在这样的分析下，词汇内容和含义都有助于真值条件意义，并且两个意义成分之间的差异预计将被观察到，例如在它们的加工，可取消性和嵌入性。与此同时，更强大的穷举分析放大了需要更好地理解词汇和派生内容的区别以及对穷举机制的限制，以避免过度生成。这个项目的目标是广泛的情况下，这种区分词汇内容和含义的核心。我们认为四个类型不同的语言使用理论和实验诊断。此外，我们比较了数量与方式相关的影响所需的替代方案。实证研究结果将使我们处于一个强有力的地位，制定一个新的帐户标量替代集和穷举。我们的工作假设是，在推导一个给定的意义成分时所涉及的替代集的构成与一个在解释和推导相关意义成分时可识别的独特的心理语言学轮廓相关。具体地说，工作假设假定了三种类型的意义成分：B）仅由子成分和数词替代项导出的强含义，（3）基于“一些”-“全部"等词汇量的弱含义。这一主要假设将通过解决八个开放的实证问题来检验：1）所有的自由选择析取案例都能得到语用解释吗？2)自由选择推理是否可以被其他类型的含义启动？如果可以，是哪些含义？3)瓦尔皮里语和日语中的可变力连接词和St'at'imcets中的可变力情态动词是否表现出其他含义的心理语言学特征？5)儿童在什么时候获得了连接词的不定式和可变力的自由选择效应？7)当嵌入非单调逻辑算子时，哪些现象可以表现出非局部含义和含义抵消？8)方式效应和数量含义涉及相同的选择是否表现出相同的加工轮廓？在追求这八个实证目标的过程中，我们将在关于词汇意义与基于含义的意义的争论中建立重要的新证据，使我们能够在多样化和广泛的观察的基础上修改我们的工作假设。