32.1342, Confs: Cog Sci, Philos of Lang, Pragmatics, Psycholing/Online

Thu Apr 15 23:31:33 UTC 2021

LINGUIST List: Vol-32-1342. Thu Apr 15 2021. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 32.1342, Confs: Cog Sci, Philos of Lang, Pragmatics, Psycholing/Online

Moderator: Malgorzata E. Cavar (linguist at linguistlist.org)
Student Moderator: Jeremy Coburn, Lauren Perkins
Managing Editor: Becca Morris
Team: Helen Aristar-Dry, Everett Green, Sarah Robinson, Nils Hjortnaes, Joshua Sims, Billy Dickson
Jobs: jobs at linguistlist.org | Conferences: callconf at linguistlist.org | Pubs: pubs at linguistlist.org

Homepage: http://linguistlist.org

Please support the LL editors and operation with a donation at:
           https://funddrive.linguistlist.org/donate/

Editor for this issue: Lauren Perkins <lauren at linguistlist.org>
================================================================

Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2021 19:30:30
From: Nicole Gotzner [nicole.gotzner at googlemail.com]
Subject: XPRAG Wine Gatherings

XPRAG Wine Gatherings 
Short Title: XPRAG-Wine 

Date: 15-Apr-2021 - 15-Apr-2021 
Location: Potsdam (Zoom), Germany 
Contact: Nicole Gotzner 
Contact Email: nicole.gotzner at googlemail.com 
Meeting URL: https://sites.google.com/view/xprag-wine/home 

Linguistic Field(s): Cognitive Science; Philosophy of Language; Pragmatics; Psycholinguistics 

Meeting Description: 

The XPRAG Wine Gatherings is travelling far north to visit Paula
Rubio-Fernandez (University of Oslo). Learn about one of the oldest debates in
ancient philosophy! The title of Paula' s talk is 'Similes and metaphors as
scalar expressions of similarity: Bringing together two different literatures
in experimental pragmatics' (abstract attached). 

Date: 15 April, 8.15 p.m. (CET)

Speaker: Paula Rubio-Fernandez (University of Oslo)

Talk: Similes and metaphors as scalar expressions of similarity: Bringing
together two different literatures in experimental pragmatics research

Hosts: Nicole Gotzner (University of Potsdam) and Ira Noveck (Université de
Paris, CNRS)

Drink menu: Norwegian wine or Glögg 

Zoom link:
https://u-paris.zoom.us/j/87650602862?pwd=MUFvWG1iTVFCNHJZei84cHBITDdndz09
Meeting ID: 876 5060 2862
Passcode: 202020

Mailing list: https://groups.google.com/g/xpragwine

YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/channel/UCRufcORQIM1yz4clsk6afLw

Program Information: 

Abstract: Similes and metaphors as scalar expressions of similarity: Bringing
together two different literatures in experimental pragmatics research

One of the oldest debates in pragmatics (dating back to Aristotle!) discusses
the relation between similes and metaphors (e.g., Wilma is like a princess vs
Wilma is a princess). Going beyond figurative language, we have proposed that
comparison and categorization statements are scalar expressions of similarity,
with the stronger term conveying class inclusion (Rubio-Fernandez et al.,
2017). Thus, ‘Betty is like a nurse’ would normally imply that Betty is not an
actual nurse; otherwise the speaker should have uttered the corresponding
categorization statement ‘Betty is a nurse’.

In this talk, I will present the results of two recent experimental studies
looking at the derivation of scalar implicatures when interpreting
categorization and comparison statements. The first study investigated
preschoolers’ pragmatic abilities in three experiments using similes and
metaphors (Long et al., 2021). The results of this study revealed a
developmental trend in the derivation of scalar implicatures, starting as
early as 3 years in some conditions. We argue that young children might derive
higher rates of scalar implicatures with similes than with other scalar
expressions because categorization and comparison statements (e.g., ‘A whale
is a mammal’ or ‘A clementine is like an orange’) are probably highly frequent
in child-directed speech. Our results therefore support the view that
children’s difficulties with scalar implicatures need not stem from their
limited pragmatic abilities, but from the protracted acquisition of
alternative expressions and their scalarity (Papafragou & Skordos, 2016).
The second study follows up on recent work on enrichment priming with adults
(Rees et al., 2018, 2019). The results of three experiments confirm that
including canonical ‘some’ and ‘all’ statements (e.g., ‘Some elephants have
trunks’ vs ‘All elephants have trunks’) in sentence verification and sentence
evaluation tasks increases the number of pragmatic responses to
underinformative comparisons to a superordinate (e.g., ‘A banana is like a
fruit’; Shukla et al., under review). We interpret these results as evidence
that ‘some’ and ‘all’ sentences introduce an informativity bias in sentence
verification and sentence evaluation tasks, affecting the degree to which
these experimental tasks elicit pragmatic reasoning.

References: 
Long, M., Shukla, V., & Rubio-Fernandez, P. (2021). The development of simile
comprehension: From comparison to scalar implicature. Child Development.
https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13507
Papafragou, A., & Skordos, D. (2016). Scalar implicature. The Oxford Handbook
of Developmental Linguistics (pp. 611-632). Oxford: Oxford University Press
Rees, A., & Bott, L. (2018). The role of alternative salience in the
derivation of scalar implicatures. Cognition, 176, 1-14.
Rees, A., Bott, L., & Schumacher, P. B. (2019). Event-related potentials in
pragmatic priming. Neuroscience Letters, 712, 134435.
Rubio-Fernandez, P., Geurts, B., & Cummins, C. (2017). Is an apple like a
fruit? A study on comparison and categorisation Statements. Review of
Philosophy and Psychology, 8(2), 367-390.
Shukla, V., Long, M., Bhatia, V., & Rubio-Fernandez (under review). Some
sentences prime pragmatic reasoning in the verification and evaluation of
comparisons.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

***************************    LINGUIST List Support    ***************************
 The 2020 Fund Drive is under way! Please visit https://funddrive.linguistlist.org
  to find out how to donate and check how your university, country or discipline
     ranks in the fund drive challenges. Or go directly to the donation site:
                   https://crowdfunding.iu.edu/the-linguist-list

                        Let's make this a short fund drive!
                Please feel free to share the link to our campaign:
                    https://funddrive.linguistlist.org/donate/

----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-32-1342	
----------------------------------------------------------