Not Just About Faces in Context: Face–Context Relation Moderates the Impact of Contextual Threat on Facial Trustworthiness

Recent work showed that the attribution of facial trustworthiness can be influenced by the surrounding context in which a face is embedded: contexts that convey threat make faces less trustworthy. In four studies ( N = 388, three preregistered) we tested whether face–context integration is influenced by how faces and contexts are encoded relationally. In Experiments 1a to 1c, face–context integration was stronger when threatening stimuli were attributable to the human action. Faces were judged less trustworthy when shown in threatening contexts that were ascribable (vs. non-ascribable) to the human action. In Experiment 2, we manipulated face–context relations using instructions. When instructions presented facial stimuli as belonging to the “perpetrators” of the threatening contexts, no difference with the control (no-instructions) condition was found in face–context integration. Instead, the effect was reduced when faces were presented as “victims.” We discussed the importance of considering relational reasoning when studying face–context integration.

Restriction without Quantification: Embedding and Probability for Indicative Conditionals

Many modern theories of indicative conditionals treat them as restricted epistemic necessity modals. This view, however, faces two problems. First, indicative conditionals do not behave like necessity modals in embedded contexts, e.g., under ‘might’ and ‘probably’: in these contexts, conditionals do not contribute a universal quantification over epistemic possibilities. Second, when we assess the probability of a conditional, we do not assess how likely it is that the consequent is epistemically necessary given the antecedent. I propose a semantics which solves both problems, while still accounting for the data that motivated the necessity modal view. The account is based on the idea that the semantics of conditionals involves only a restriction of the relevant epistemic state, and no quantification over epistemic possibilities. The relevant quantification is contributed by an attitude parameter in the semantics, which is shifted by epistemic modals. If the conditional is asserted, the designated attitude is acceptance, which contributes a universal quantification, producing the effect of a restricted necessity modal.

The interaction of question particles and negation in embedded contexts: the case of alles

The German question particle alles (Reis 1992; Zimmermann 2007) is characterised in the semantic literature as imposing plurality and exhaustivity requirements on the answer space. We report on novel experimental probing the interaction of alles and negation in embedded questions. We investigated alles with three embedding predicates: vergessen 'forget', wissen 'know', and überraschen 'surprise'. The data show that alles may be focussed and contributes to at-issue propositional content, on the basis of its interaction with negation.

Prosodic Entanglement and the Anti-contiguity of Wh- and C

This chapter focuses on the syntax and prosody of wh- in-situ in Krachi. In Krachi, wh- in-situ is available in both root and embedded contexts. Prosodically, embedded complement clauses in the language are parsed as independent Intonational Phrases. The distribution of wh- in-situ in the language is considered against the backdrop of Richards’s (2010, 2016) Contiguity Theory. Given the prosodic facts previously mentioned, Contiguity Theory is shown to be incapable of accounting for long-distance wh- in-situ in the language, motivating an “anti-contiguity” theory of the prosody of wh- and C at the syntax-phonology interface.

The Meaning of Modal Discourse

The goal of this chapter is to make it clear how the modal normativist account can avoid the notorious “Frege-Geach” or “embedding” problem that has long threatened non-descriptive views of all kinds. While Chapter 2 identifies an alternative function for modal discourse, we cannot take this to be a matter of identifying the meaning of modal terms. For modal claims may be embedded in conditionals, negations, etc., in which case they are not serving their characteristic function, and yet must be thought to have the same meaning. To meet this problem, this chapter gives the meaning of modal terms in terms of their inferential role—which is constant even in embedded contexts—and shows how this meaning is related to the function of modal terms. The chapter also aims to show how the modal normativist account can avoid the classic objections to modal conventionalism.

Variation in the Gallo-Romance left periphery

Exploiting parallels between nominal and clausal structures, it is argued that the strong / weak D dimension of parametric variation for nominals can be extended to clauses, such that V2 syntax can be reinterpreted as the reflex of a strong C setting. On this view, we observe in the history of most Gallo-Romance varieties a parametric shift from strong to weak C manifested in the loss of generalized V-to-C movement and the concomitant reassignment of the EPP edge-feature from CP to TP, as witnessed in the emergence of a dedicated preverbal subject position and reversal in the null-subject parameter. Within this scenario, it is shown that Gascon represents a major exception having uniquely retained its medieval V2 syntax and, indeed, further extended it to embedded contexts. In particular, in the passage from medieval to modern Gascon, the grammar has witnessed a radical change in the formal realization of the strong C head requirement (while the accompanying EPP edge-feature remains unchanged) such that strong C is no longer satisfied through the Move option raising the finite verb to the C position, but through the Merge option directly lexicalizing the latter position with a so-called ‘enunciative’ particle. This development is the result of intensive contact with Basque, a language independently known to present similar preverbal particles, highlighting how the medieval Gallo-Romance V2 constraint was exceptionally reinforced in this area, but at the same time aligned with a Basque model triggering a shift from the Move to the Merge options in satisfaction of strong C and the emergence of an elaborate system of C-particles.

The distribution of embedded Verb Second and Verb Third in modern Icelandic

The aim of this chapter is to give a comprehensive and current overview of the key empirical facts regarding embedded V2 and V3 in Icelandic and to compare this to what has been shown for other Scandinavian varieties. It is shown that Icelandic is a robust symmetric V2-language, meaning that it exhibits V2 as the default word order in both matrix and subordinate clauses. In general, preposing is easier in matrix clauses than in subordinate clauses, with the exception of Stylistic Fronting (SF), which is more easily applicable in embedded contexts. It turns out that Icelandic is not as different from the other Scandinavian languages as is sometimes assumed in the literature, and also that there is considerable age-related variation with respect to embedded V2/V3 and related constructions within Icelandic. The fact that younger speakers of Icelandic do not accept embedded topicalization and SF as much as older speakers could be interpreted as an ongoing change in Icelandic. However, it must be taken into account that these constructions are more common in the written language and in a formal style of speech. If the results regarding V3 in Icelandic are taken to indicate an ongoing change, then there are two changes that must be recognized: in relative clauses the conditions for V3 are reminiscent of the conditions for Topicalization and SF (less accepted by younger people), while in complement-clauses V3 is more accepted by younger people than older (innovation).

A cartographic approach to embedded word order in Jordanian Arabic

This paper investigates marked and unmarked word order patterns in embedded clauses in Jordanian Arabic (JA), motivating a mono-clausal analysis of them. It shows that ‘topic’ in this Arabic dialect is not a unique category, nor susceptible to a single analysis, hence providing support for proposals that argue for topics typology. For instance, topics that express information that is newly introduced, newly changed or newly returned to, i.e. Aboutness Topic, are shown not to be licensed in JA embedded clauses. On the other hand, the study argues that topics that convey familiar information, i.e. Familiar Topic, are more constrained in embedded contexts than previously believed; they are not recursive. Such a state of affairs implies that there are no elements being assigned the same informational/communicative value in the left periphery of JA embedded clauses.