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Intonation and Pragmatic Enrichment: How Intonation Constrains Ad Hoc Scalar Inferences
John M Tomlinson, Nicole Gotzner1, Lewis Bott2
1Leibniz Zentrum für Allegmeine Sprachwissenschaft, (ZAS), Berlin, Germany.
Intonation, specifically pitch accents, influences how listeners understand implied meanings (pragmatic inferences). L+H* pitch accents speed up the processing of scalar implicatures compared to H* accents.
Area of Science:
- Psycholinguistics
- Cognitive Science
- Linguistics
Background:
- Pragmatic inferences rely on considering alternative meanings.
- Intonation's role in processing these alternatives is not fully understood.
- Scalar implicatures are a key area of pragmatic inference.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how pitch accents affect the processing of ad hoc scalar implicatures.
- To determine the cognitive mechanisms behind intonation's influence on pragmatic inference.
Main Methods:
- Two mouse tracking experiments were conducted.
- Participants processed English sentences with varying pitch accents.
- Behavioral data (mouse movements) were analyzed to infer processing times and strategies.
Main Results:
- L+H* pitch accents facilitated the derivation of scalar implicatures compared to H* accents.
- This facilitation was linked to earlier processing of the implicature in the L+H* condition.
- Findings suggest a cognitive link between L+H* accents and pragmatic factors like alternative saliency.
Conclusions:
- Intonation, specifically pitch accents, plays a crucial role in cognitive pragmatic inference.
- L+H* accents enhance the processing of scalar implicatures by making alternatives more salient or linking to speaker knowledge.
- This research clarifies the interaction between prosody and pragmatic meaning construction.
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