30.234, Books: On the pragmatics of numeral modifiers: Alexandropoulou

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LINGUIST List: Vol-30-234. Tue Jan 15 2019. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 30.234, Books: On the pragmatics of numeral modifiers: Alexandropoulou

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Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2019 22:26:46
From: Karijn Hootsen [lot-fgw at uva.nl]
Subject: On the pragmatics of numeral modifiers: Alexandropoulou

 


Title: On the pragmatics of numeral modifiers 
Subtitle: The availability and time-course of variation, ignorance and indifference
inferences 
Series Title: LOT Dissertation Series  

Publication Year: 2018 
Publisher: Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics / Landelijke (LOT)
	   http://www.lotpublications.nl/
	

Book URL: https://www.lotpublications.nl/on-the-pragmatics-of-numeral-modifiers-the-availability-and-time-course-of-variation-ignorance-and-indifference-inferences 


Author: Stavroula Alexandropoulou

Hardback: ISBN:  9789460932939 Pages: 297 Price: Europe EURO 35.00


Abstract:

Languages have a quite large inventory of expressions to refer to an imprecise
quantity such as n ≥ 4. In English, for instance, this quantity can be
described by the expressions 4 or more, at least 4, more than 3, minimally 4,
over 3, etc. Do these expressions actually convey the exact same meaning? No.
Some of them, i.e., at least 4, 4 or more, minimally 4 (vs. more than 3, over
3), have been found to additionally convey speaker ignorance effects and these
effects are pragmatic in nature. This dissertation probes experimentally
speaker ignorance effects as well as two other types of meaning, i.e.,
variation effects and speaker indifference effects, by looking at the off-line
and the real-time comprehension of utterances with two distinct kinds of
numeral modifiers, represented by at least and more than. The aim is to find
out where one should draw the dividing line between the core meaning and the
pragmatic meaning of each kind of modifiers, and how different these two are,
with a main focus on their pragmatics. Experimental data reveal that all three
types of inference are available with both at least and more than, and are
non-obligatory, contextdependent pragmatic inferences. It is further shown
that more than triggers variation and speaker ignorance inferences to a
smaller extent compared to at least. These findings point to an account where
the inferences of at least and more than come about through different routes.
Those associated with more than are based on standard Quantity reasoning. The
same holds partly for at least, but in addition superlative modifiers trigger
a Manner implicature based on a conventional signal of anti-specificity. As to
speaker indifference inferences, the opposite pattern seems to arise between
the two numeral modifiers. This could still be accommodated by the
aforementioned account as long as we take conventionalization processes into
consideration.
 



Linguistic Field(s): Pragmatics

Subject Language(s): English (eng)


Written In: English  (eng)

See this book announcement on our website: 
http://linguistlist.org/pubs/books/get-book.cfm?BookID=132893




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