Perceptual, Semantic, and Pragmatic Factors Affect the Derivation of Contrastive Inferences
Ronderos, Camilo R LU
; Aparicio, Helena
; Long, Madeleine
; Shukla, Vishakha
; Jara-Ettinger, Julian
and Rubio-Fernandez, Paula
(2024)
In Open mind : discoveries in cognitive science
8.
p.1213-1227
- Abstract
People derive contrastive inferences when interpreting adjectives (e.g., inferring that 'the short pencil' is being contrasted with a longer one). However, classic eye-tracking studies revealed contrastive inferences with scalar and material adjectives, but not with color adjectives. This was explained as a difference in listeners' informativity expectations, since color adjectives are often used descriptively (hence not warranting a contrastive interpretation). Here we hypothesized that, beyond these pragmatic factors, perceptual factors (i.e., the relative perceptibility of color, material and scalar contrast) and semantic factors (i.e., the difference between gradable and non-gradable properties) also affect the real-time derivation... (More)
People derive contrastive inferences when interpreting adjectives (e.g., inferring that 'the short pencil' is being contrasted with a longer one). However, classic eye-tracking studies revealed contrastive inferences with scalar and material adjectives, but not with color adjectives. This was explained as a difference in listeners' informativity expectations, since color adjectives are often used descriptively (hence not warranting a contrastive interpretation). Here we hypothesized that, beyond these pragmatic factors, perceptual factors (i.e., the relative perceptibility of color, material and scalar contrast) and semantic factors (i.e., the difference between gradable and non-gradable properties) also affect the real-time derivation of contrastive inferences. We tested these predictions in three languages with prenominal modification (English, Hindi, and Hungarian) and found that people derive contrastive inferences for color and scalar adjectives, but not for material adjectives. In addition, the processing of scalar adjectives was more context dependent than that of color and material adjectives, confirming that pragmatic, perceptual and semantic factors affect the derivation of contrastive inferences.
(Less)
- author
- Ronderos, Camilo R
LU
; Aparicio, Helena
; Long, Madeleine
; Shukla, Vishakha
; Jara-Ettinger, Julian
and Rubio-Fernandez, Paula
- publishing date
- 2024
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- color adjectives, material adjectives, scalar adjectives, contrastive inference, pragmatics, visual salience
- in
- Open mind : discoveries in cognitive science
- volume
- 8
- pages
- 15 pages
- publisher
- MIT Press
- external identifiers
-
- pmid:39474158
- scopus:85208171025
- ISSN
- 2470-2986
- DOI
- 10.1162/opmi_a_00165
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- no
- additional info
- © 2024 Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
- id
- dc968d70-6ff6-4b6a-8186-b537f0ea6df2
- date added to LUP
- 2025-07-02 14:52:10
- date last changed
- 2025-07-17 04:51:04
@article{dc968d70-6ff6-4b6a-8186-b537f0ea6df2,
abstract = {{<p>People derive contrastive inferences when interpreting adjectives (e.g., inferring that 'the short pencil' is being contrasted with a longer one). However, classic eye-tracking studies revealed contrastive inferences with scalar and material adjectives, but not with color adjectives. This was explained as a difference in listeners' informativity expectations, since color adjectives are often used descriptively (hence not warranting a contrastive interpretation). Here we hypothesized that, beyond these pragmatic factors, perceptual factors (i.e., the relative perceptibility of color, material and scalar contrast) and semantic factors (i.e., the difference between gradable and non-gradable properties) also affect the real-time derivation of contrastive inferences. We tested these predictions in three languages with prenominal modification (English, Hindi, and Hungarian) and found that people derive contrastive inferences for color and scalar adjectives, but not for material adjectives. In addition, the processing of scalar adjectives was more context dependent than that of color and material adjectives, confirming that pragmatic, perceptual and semantic factors affect the derivation of contrastive inferences.</p>}},
author = {{Ronderos, Camilo R and Aparicio, Helena and Long, Madeleine and Shukla, Vishakha and Jara-Ettinger, Julian and Rubio-Fernandez, Paula}},
issn = {{2470-2986}},
keywords = {{color adjectives; material adjectives; scalar adjectives; contrastive inference; pragmatics; visual salience}},
language = {{eng}},
pages = {{1213--1227}},
publisher = {{MIT Press}},
series = {{Open mind : discoveries in cognitive science}},
title = {{Perceptual, Semantic, and Pragmatic Factors Affect the Derivation of Contrastive Inferences}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/opmi_a_00165}},
doi = {{10.1162/opmi_a_00165}},
volume = {{8}},
year = {{2024}},
}