Scalar implicatures in children: alternatives and relevance

Utterances like "Megan ate some of the cupcakes" are typically interpreted as "Megan ate some but not all of the cupcakes". Such an interpretation is thought to arise from a pragmatic inference called Scalar Implicature (SI). Preschoolers typically fail to spontaneously generate SIs without the assistance of training or context that makes the stronger alternative salient. However, the exact role of alternatives in generating SIs remains contested. Furthermore, it is not clear whether children take into account the goal of the conversation in considering scalar alternatives and generating SIs. We present three studies with English-speaking preschoolers and adults designed to address these questions. We show that the presence of stronger alternative is important for SI generation (Experiment 1), that the stronger alternative leads to SI generation only when it is relevant to the goal of conversation (Experiment 2) and that relevance does not simply mediate, but in fact drives accessibility of the alternatives (Experiment 3). We discuss the implications of these findings for pragmatic inference and the study of pragmatic development in general.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Delaware

Year dc:date.issued

2014

Author dc:creator

• Skordos, Dimitrios

DOI

https://doi.org/10.58088/85gk-tw15

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:udspace.udel.edu:19716/13423