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Meaning and context in children’s understanding of gradable adjectives
- Journal of Semantics
, 2010
"... This paper explores what children and adults know about three specific ways that meaning and context interact: the interpretation of expressions whose extensions vary in different contexts (semantic context dependence); conditions on the felicitous use of expressions in a discourse context (presuppo ..."
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This paper explores what children and adults know about three specific ways that meaning and context interact: the interpretation of expressions whose extensions vary in different contexts (semantic context dependence); conditions on the felicitous use of expressions in a discourse context (presupposition accommodation) and informative uses of expressions in contexts in which they strictly speaking do not apply (imprecision). The empirical focus is the use of unmodified (positive form) gradable adjectives (GAs) in definite descriptions to distinguish between two objects that differ in the degree to which they possess the property named by the adjective. We show that by 3 years of age, children are sensitive to all three varieties of context– meaning interaction and that their knowledge of this relation with the definite description is appropriately guided by the semantic representations of the GA appearing in it. These findings suggest that children’s semantic representations of the GAs we investigated and the definite determiner the are adult-like and that they are aware of the consequences of these representations when relating meaning and context. Bolstered by adult participant responses, this work provides important experimental support for theoretical claims regarding the semantics of gradable predicates and the nature of different types of ‘interpretive variability’, specifically semantic context dependence v. pragmatic tolerance of imprecision. 1
A typology of multidimensional adjectives
- Journal of Semantics
, 2013
"... This article presents corpus-based evidence for a typology of multidimensional adjec-tives, such as healthy and sick. The interpretation of these adjectives is sensitive to multiple dimensions, such as blood pressure, cholesterol and blood-sugar level. The study investigated the frequency of excepti ..."
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This article presents corpus-based evidence for a typology of multidimensional adjec-tives, such as healthy and sick. The interpretation of these adjectives is sensitive to multiple dimensions, such as blood pressure, cholesterol and blood-sugar level. The study investigated the frequency of exception phrases that appear to operate on an implicit universal quantifier over adjectival dimensions, as in healthy, except for a slight cold, and not sick, except for high cholesterol. On the emerging typology, adjectives classify by the way their dimensions are glued together to create a single, uniform interpret-ation. As a default, the dimensions of adjectives such as healthy are bound through implicit universal quantification, while those of adjectives such as sick are bound through existential quantification. In adjectives like intelligent the force of quantification over dimensions is context relative. Moreover, the article presents support for the hypotheses that antonym polarity and modifier distribution guide our choice of quan-tifiers over dimensions in different adjectives. Thus, this research sheds new light on the nature of negative antonymy in multidimensional adjectives, and the distribution of degree modifiers amongst them. Finally, it raises new questions about multidimen-sional comparisons, and about the adjective–noun distinction. 1
How can syntax support number word acquisition?
- Language Learning and Development,
, 2012
"... We expand upon a previous proposal by ..."
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Language learning and language universals.
- Biolinguistics
, 2010
"... This paper explores the role of learning in generative grammar, highlighting interactions between distributional patterns in the environment and the innate structure of the language faculty. Reviewing three case studies, it is shown how learners use their language faculties to leverage the environm ..."
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This paper explores the role of learning in generative grammar, highlighting interactions between distributional patterns in the environment and the innate structure of the language faculty. Reviewing three case studies, it is shown how learners use their language faculties to leverage the environment, making inferences from distributions to grammars that would not be licensed in the absence of a richly structured hypothesis space.
A typology of multidimensional predicates
"... Adjectives often associate with multiple dimensions (for example, healthy and sick may be ordered by blood pressure, pulse, sugar, cancer, etc.) So are nouns (for example, birds are characterized as small, feathered, flying, etc.) This paper presents empirical support to a typology of multidimension ..."
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Adjectives often associate with multiple dimensions (for example, healthy and sick may be ordered by blood pressure, pulse, sugar, cancer, etc.) So are nouns (for example, birds are characterized as small, feathered, flying, etc.) This paper presents empirical support to a typology of multidimensional predicates based on differences in the role of the dimensions in determining entities ‟ status in the predicates (Sassoon 2007, Chap. 7). Extensively supported cognitive concept-theories (for a review see Murphy 2002) analyze nouns as mean-based (an entity is classified under them iff, roughly, its mean degree in the dimensions reaches a standard.) While this analysis has already been applied to the semantics of predicates in general (Lakoff 1987), this paper provides corpus-based evidence to the effect that in adjectives, unlike nouns, the dimensions are not typically combined via averaging (mean operations). Rather, they combine through Boolean operations. The default interpretation of conjunctive adjectives like healthy involves implicit universal quantification over dimensions (dimension conjunction), while that of disjunctive adjectives like sick involves existential quantification (dimension disjunction). In mixed adjectives like intelligent, the force of quantification over dimensions is context relative (it is not determined semantically). Last but not least, the paper presents preliminary support to the hypotheses that antonym polarity and standard type guide our choice of quantifiers over dimensions in different adjectives. Thus, this research sheds new light on the nature of negative antonymy in multidimensional adjectives, as well as on the distribution of degree modifiers and exception phrases among multidimensional antonyms. 1.
doi:10.1093/jos/ffs012 A Typology of Multidimensional Adjectives
"... This article presents corpus-based evidence for a typology of multidimensional adjec-tives, such as healthy and sick. The interpretation of these adjectives is sensitive to multiple dimensions, such as blood pressure, cholesterol and blood-sugar level. The study investigated the frequency of excepti ..."
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This article presents corpus-based evidence for a typology of multidimensional adjec-tives, such as healthy and sick. The interpretation of these adjectives is sensitive to multiple dimensions, such as blood pressure, cholesterol and blood-sugar level. The study investigated the frequency of exception phrases that appear to operate on an implicit universal quantifier over adjectival dimensions, as in healthy, except for a slight cold, and not sick, except for high cholesterol. On the emerging typology, adjectives classify by the way their dimensions are glued together to create a single, uniform interpret-ation. As a default, the dimensions of adjectives such as healthy are bound through implicit universal quantification, while those of adjectives such as sick are bound through existential quantification. In adjectives like intelligent the force of quantification over dimensions is context relative. Moreover, the article presents support for the hypotheses that antonym polarity and modifier distribution guide our choice of quan-tifiers over dimensions in different adjectives. Thus, this research sheds new light on the nature of negative antonymy in multidimensional adjectives, and the distribution of degree modifiers amongst them. Finally, it raises new questions about multidimen-sional comparisons, and about the adjective–noun distinction. 1
1 A Typology of Multidimensional Adjectives
"... This paper presents corpus-based evidence for a typology of multidimensional adjectives, like for example, healthy and sick. The interpretation of the latter is sensitive to multiple dimensions, such as blood pressure, pulse, sugar, cancer, etc. The study investigated the frequency of exception phra ..."
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This paper presents corpus-based evidence for a typology of multidimensional adjectives, like for example, healthy and sick. The interpretation of the latter is sensitive to multiple dimensions, such as blood pressure, pulse, sugar, cancer, etc. The study investigated the frequency of exception phrases, which operate on an implicit universal quantifier over adjectival dimensions, as in healthy, except for a slight cold, and not sick, except for high cholesterol. On the emerging typology, adjectives classify by the way their dimensions are glued together to create a single, uniform interpretation. The default interpretation of adjectives such as healthy involves implicit universal quantification over dimensions (dimension conjunction), while that of adjectives such as sick involves existential quantification (dimension disjunction). In adjectives like intelligent, the force of quantification over dimensions is context relative. Moreover, the paper presents support to the hypotheses that antonym polarity and modifier distribution guide our choice of quantifiers over dimensions in different adjectives. Thus, this research sheds new light on the nature of negative antonymy in multidimensional adjectives, and on the distribution of degree modifiers and exception phrases among multidimensional antonyms. Finally, it raises new questions pertaining to multidimensional comparisons.
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"... How children use the input to acquire the Spanish copulas Ser and Estar with adjectives * El uso del input en la adquisición de las cópulas Ser y Estar con adjetivos en el español infantil ..."
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How children use the input to acquire the Spanish copulas Ser and Estar with adjectives * El uso del input en la adquisición de las cópulas Ser y Estar con adjetivos en el español infantil
Explanation and Partiality in Semantic Theory ∗
"... In this paper, I shall argue for a form of partiality in semantics. In particular, I shall argue that semantics, narrowly construed as part of our linguistic competence, is only a partial determinant of content. Likewise, semantic theories in linguistics function as partial theories of content. I sh ..."
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In this paper, I shall argue for a form of partiality in semantics. In particular, I shall argue that semantics, narrowly construed as part of our linguistic competence, is only a partial determinant of content. Likewise, semantic theories in linguistics function as partial theories of content. I shall go on to offer an account of where and how this partiality arises, which focuses on how lexical meaning combines elements of distinctively linguistic competence with elements from our broader cognitive resources. This account shows how we can accommodate some partiality in semantic theories without falling into skepticism about semantics or its place in linguistic theory. In recent years, there have been a number of challenges to semantics. For instance, Chomsky (e.g. Chomsky, 2000) has in effect argued that semantics is not an aspect of linguistic competence, and so, is not on par with syntax or phonology (cf. Pietroski, 2005b). Also, a number of views sometimes grouped together as ‘radical contextualism ’ have sought to shift much of the burden of explaining the contents of utterances from semantics onto pragmatics (e.g.
Meaning and Context in Gradable Adjectives i Meaning and Context in Children’s Understanding of Gradable Adjectives
"... This work provides the first experimental evidence that adults and children as young as three years of age distinguish between three types of Gradable Adjective (GA) meanings (relative, absolute maximum standard, and absolute minimum standard) based on the role of the context in setting the standard ..."
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This work provides the first experimental evidence that adults and children as young as three years of age distinguish between three types of Gradable Adjective (GA) meanings (relative, absolute maximum standard, and absolute minimum standard) based on the role of the context in setting the standard of comparison. While relative GAs such as big depend on the context for the standard of comparison, absolute GAs (e.g., full, straight; spotted, bumpy) do not. Evidence comes from a pragmatically-oriented task in which we exploit participants’ awareness of the existence and uniqueness presuppositions associated with singular definite descriptions and measure their willingness to accommodate when these presuppositions are violated. An analysis of children’s reaction times when they eventually accept a puppet’s infelicitous request involving a maximal standard GA (full, straight) suggests a distinction between a pragmatic principle of imprecision and a semantic conception of vagueness. Meaning and Context in Gradable Adjectives 3 Meaning and Context in Children’s Understanding of Gradable Adjectives 1.
