Scalar implicatures: working memory and a comparison with only
Name
Marty-2013-Scalar implicatures_.pdf
Size
1.57 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
46adbad51ec2b80330aec54c6ab759c5
Author(s)
Chemla, Emmanuel
Marty, Paul Pierre
Date Issued
July 2013
Journal
Frontiers in Psychology
Publisher
Frontiers Research Foundation
Citation
Marty, Paul P., and Emmanuel Chemla. “Scalar implicatures: working memory and a comparison with only.” Frontiers in Psychology 4 (2013).
Version
Final published version
Abstract
A Scalar Implicature (SI) arises when the use of a relatively weak sentence (e.g., some politicians are corrupt) implies the denial of an alternative, stronger sentence (e.g., not all politicians are corrupt). The cognitive effort associated with the processing of SIs involves central memory resources (De Neys and Schaeken, 2007; Dieussaert et al., 2011; Marty et al., 2013). The goal of this study is to locate this previous result within the current psycholinguistic debate, and to understand at which level of SI processing these resources are specifically involved. Using a dual-task approach, we show that (1) tapping participant's memory resources interferes with the derivation of SIs, whereas (2) it does not affect the interpretation of sentences involving similar competition mechanisms between a sentence and potential alternatives through the use of only (e.g., only some politicians are corrupt). We explain how these findings suggest that the central memory resources are not involved in the core process at the source of SIs, and discuss how this difference between SIs and only bears on recent linguistic debates on the division of labor between grammar and pragmatics.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Linguistics and Philosophy
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00403
