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Informationally redundant utterances elicit pragmatic inferences.

Ekaterina Kravtchenko1, Vera Demberg1

  • 1Saarland University, Campus C7.2, Saarland Informatics Campus, 66123 Saarbrücken, Germany.

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Speakers sometimes say redundant things, but listeners can infer new meaning from this. This study shows how overinformative language, like describing habitual events as new, triggers atypicality inferences, adjusting conversational expectations.

Keywords:
AccommodationContext-dependent implicaturesExperimental pragmaticsPsycholinguisticsRedundancy

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Area of Science:

  • Psycholinguistics
  • Pragmatics
  • Cognitive Science

Background:

  • Theories of language processing predict avoidance of informational redundancy.
  • Redundant utterances are common in natural dialogue, posing a challenge for comprehension.
  • Comprehenders' strategies for interpreting such utterances remain unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate how comprehenders interpret informationally redundant (overinformative) utterances.
  • To determine if redundant utterances can trigger pragmatic inferences that enhance their utility.
  • To explore the role of context and utterance framing in these inferences.

Main Methods:

  • Three studies examining utterances about stereotyped event sequences (scripts).
  • Analysis of how comprehenders interpret redundant descriptions of common activities.
  • Investigation of how utterance framing (e.g., punctuation, discourse markers) affects inference generation.

Main Results:

  • Overinformative utterances trigger pragmatic inferences, termed 'atypicality inferences'.
  • Comprehenders reinterpret easily inferable events as conveying new, non-habitual information.
  • Inference likelihood depends on utterance framing; exclamations or specific markers increase it.

Conclusions:

  • Excessive conceptual redundancy can lead comprehenders to revise the conversational common ground.
  • Comprehenders actively adjust interpretations to accommodate unexpected dips in informational utility.
  • Atypicality inferences help reconcile redundant language with expectations of speaker informativity.