scholarly journals Presupposed free choice and the theory of scalar implicatures

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Marty ◽  
Jacopo Romoli
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Free Choice ◽  
Common Knowledge ◽  
Scalar Implicatures ◽  
Compositional Semantics ◽  
Pragmatic Approach ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Pragmatic Principle ◽  
Hybrid Account

AbstractA disjunctive sentence like Olivia took Logic or Algebra conveys that Olivia didn’t take both classes (exclusivity) and that the speaker doesn’t know which of the two classes she took (ignorance). The corresponding sentence with a possibility modal, Olivia can take Logic or Algebra, conveys instead that she can take Logic and that she can take Algebra (free choice). These exclusivity, ignorance and free choice inferences are argued by many to be scalar implicatures. Recent work has looked at cases in which exclusivity and ignorance appear to be computed instead at the presupposition level, independently from the assertion. On the basis of those data, Spector and Sudo (Linguist Philos 40(5):473–517, 2017) have argued for a hybrid account relying on a pragmatic principle for deriving implicatures in the presupposition. In this paper, we observe that a sentence like Noah is unaware that Olivia can take Logic or Algebra has a reading on which free choice appears in the presupposition, but not in the assertion, and we show that deriving this reading is challenging on Spector and Sudo’s (2017) hybrid account. Following the dialectic in Fox (Presupposition and implicature in compositional semantics, Palgrave, London, pp 71–120, 2007), we argue against a pragmatic approach to presupposition-based implicatures on the ground that it is not able to account for presupposed free choice. In addition, we raise a novel challenge for Spector and Sudo’s (2017) account coming from the conflicting presupposed ignorance triggered by sentences like #Noah is unaware that I have a son or a daughter, which is infelicitous even if it’s not common knowledge whether the speaker has a son or a daughter. More generally, our data reveals a systematic parallelism between the assertion and presupposition levels in terms of exclusivity, ignorance, and free choice. We argue that such parallels call for a unified analysis and we sketch how a grammatical theory of implicatures where meaning strengthening operates in a similar way at both levels (Gajewski and Sharvit in Nat Lang Semant 20(1):31–57, 2012; Magri in A theory of individual-level predicates based on blind mandatory scalar implicatures, MIT dissertation, 2009; Marty in Implicatures in the DP domain, MIT dissertation, 2017) can account for such parallels.

Free Choice under Ellipsis

2017 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luka Crnič
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Free Choice ◽  
Negative Polarity ◽  
Natural Language Semantics ◽  
Scalar Implicatures ◽  
Compositional Semantics ◽  
Oxford University ◽  
Dependency Relation ◽  
Language Semantics ◽  
The Common

AbstractThe ellipsis of a VP whose antecedent contains an occurrence of so-called free choiceanyis highly constrained: it is acceptable only if the elided VP is appropriately embedded. We show that while this is unexpected on the common approaches to free choice and ellipsis, it is predicted on a theory ofanythat takes its domain to stand in a dependency relation with a c-commanding alternative-sensitive operator (cf. Lahiri 1998, Focus and negative polarity in Hindi.Natural Language Semantics6(1). 57–123) and that takes free choice inferences to be generated by covert exhaustification in grammar (e.g., Fox 2007, Free choice and the theory of scalar implicatures. In Uli Sauerland & Penka Stateva (eds.),Presupposition and implicature in compositional semantics, 71–120. Palgrave Macmillan; Chierchia 2013,Logic in grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press).

scholarly journals Equivalence of LD-Score Regression and Individual-Level-Data Methods

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald de Vlaming ◽  
Magnus Johannesson ◽  
Patrik K.E. Magnusson ◽  
M. Arfan Ikram ◽  
Peter M. Visscher
Keyword(s):  
Maximum Likelihood ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
Principal Components ◽  
Population Stratification ◽  
Summary Statistics ◽  
Test Statistics ◽  
Ceteris Paribus ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Genomic Relatedness

AbstractLD-score (LDSC) regression disentangles the contribution of polygenic signal, in terms of SNP-based heritability, and population stratification, in terms of a so-called intercept, to GWAS test statistics. Whereas LDSC regression uses summary statistics, methods like Haseman-Elston (HE) regression and genomic-relatedness-matrix (GRM) restricted maximum likelihood infer parameters such as SNP-based heritability from individual-level data directly. Therefore, these two types of methods are typically considered to be profoundly different. Nevertheless, recent work has revealed that LDSC and HE regression yield near-identical SNP-based heritability estimates when confounding stratification is absent. We now extend the equivalence; under the stratification assumed by LDSC regression, we show that the intercept can be estimated from individual-level data by transforming the coefficients of a regression of the phenotype on the leading principal components from the GRM. Using simulations, considering various degrees and forms of population stratification, we find that intercept estimates obtained from individual-level data are nearly equivalent to estimates from LDSC regression (R2> 99%). An empirical application corroborates these findings. Hence, LDSC regression is not profoundly different from methods using individual-level data; parameters that are identified by LDSC regression are also identified by methods using individual-level data. In addition, our results indicate that, under strong stratification, there is misattribution of stratification to the slope of LDSC regression, inflating estimates of SNP-based heritability from LDSC regression ceteris paribus. Hence, the intercept is not a panacea for population stratification. Consequently, LDSC-regression estimates should be interpreted with caution, especially when the intercept estimate is significantly greater than one.

Trust, Ethnicity and Integrity in East Africa: Experimental Evidence from Kenya and Tanzania

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominic Burbidge ◽  
Nic Cheeseman
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Diversity ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Common Knowledge ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Trust Games ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Experimental Games ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact ◽  
First Time

AbstractPolitical economy comparisons of Kenya and Tanzania have often found the political salience of ethnicity to be far higher in the former than the latter, with a negative impact on intercommunal trust. This difference has tended to be explained on the basis of the different kinds of leadership that the two countries experienced after independence. However, these findings have typically been demonstrated using aggregate or survey data. This paper assesses the salience of ethnicity at the individual level for the first time, deploying monetized two-round trust games in urban Kenya and Tanzania. The experimental games isolate the comparative impact of common knowledge of ethnicity and integrity among a quasi-random selection of 486 citizens. Verifying previous findings, we observe higher levels of trust and trustworthiness in Tanzania as compared with Kenya. Further, in comparison with Kenya, any shared knowledge of ethnic identities in Tanzania leads players to transfer fewer resources, while common knowledge that both players are “honest” led to higher transfers there than in Kenya. These results provide robust evidence of higher levels of trust in Tanzania, and of the negative effect in that country of common knowledge of ethnicity on levels of cooperation. The findings demonstrate the way in which political context can shape the impact of ethnic diversity, and encourage further experimental research that looks at the intersubjective dynamics of social cooperation.

scholarly journals A new case of pragmatically deviant embedded disjunctions

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 454
Author(s):  
Milica Denić
Keyword(s):  
Common Knowledge ◽  
Scalar Implicatures ◽  
The Right ◽  
Do So

In this paper, we discuss a novel observation that sentences such as ‘#Each of these three girls is Mary, Susan, or Jane’ are deviant. Its deviance is surprising: the sentence should convey that one of the three girls is Mary, another one of them is Susan, and yet another one is Jane; however, it cannot be naturally used to do so. We will propose that the deviance is caused by ignorance inferences which contradict common knowledge. If the proposal is on the right track, ignorance inferences need to be derived blindly to common knowledge, similarly to what has been proposed for scalar implicatures by Magri (2009). 

scholarly journals A clausal analysis of free choice demo in Japanese

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1024
Author(s):  
Kimiko Nakanishi
Keyword(s):  
Free Choice ◽  
Compositional Semantics ◽  
English I

It is commonly assumed that in Japanese, an indeterminate pronoun followed by demo (indet-demo) corresponds to free choice any in English (FC any). Based on a number of semantic differences between the two, I argue that indet-demo is not a nominal free choice item, but a concealed unconditional adjunct, corroborating the claim made by Nakanishi and Hiraiwa (2019) and Hiraiwa and Nakanishi (2020, to appear). Based on Rawlins’s (2008, 2013) Hamblin analysis of unconditionals in English, I propose a compositional semantics of indet-demo that captures its semantics properties.

scholarly journals Another argument for embedded scalar implicatures based on oddness in downward entailing contexts

2015 ◽  
pp. 564
Author(s):  
Giorgio Magri
Keyword(s):  
Common Knowledge ◽  
Scalar Implicature ◽  
Scalar Implicatures ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
Downward Entailing ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Right

In Magri (2009), I argue that a sentence such as 'Some Italians come from a warm country' sounds odd because it triggers the scalar implicature that not all Italians come from a warm country, which mismatches with the common knowledge that all Italians come from the same country. If this proposal is on the right track, then oddness can be used as a diagnostic for scalar implicatures. In this paper, I use this diagnostic to provide one more argument that scalar implicatures are computed not only at the matrix level but also in embedded position. The argument is based on a puzzling pattern of oddness in downward entailing contexts.

scholarly journals Learners sacrifice robust communication as a result of a social bias

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masha Fedzechkina ◽  
Gareth Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Community Level ◽  
Social Bias ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Language Structure ◽  
Informative Case ◽  
Efficient Communication ◽  
Constituent Order ◽  
Social Biases

Languages are subject to many competing pressures, which originate in individual-level learning and communication biases and in social biases reflecting community-level dynamics. Recent work has shown that certain aspects of language structure, such as the cross-linguistic trade-off between case and constituent-order flexibility, originate in learners' biases for efficient communication: Learners drop redundant case but retain informative case in production. Social biases can lead to retention of redundant case, resulting in systems that require more effort to produce. It is not clear, however, whether social biases can influence the use of informative cues. We tested this by exposing participants to a language with uninformative constituent order and two dialects, only one of which employed case. We manipulated the presence of social biases for and against the case dialect. Learners biased towards the no-case dialect dropped informative case without compensating for the resulting message uncertainty. Case was retained in all other conditions.

scholarly journals Drawing as a method of researching social representations

2022 ◽  
pp. 146879412110651
Author(s):  
Jari Martikainen ◽  
Eemeli Hakoköngäs
Keyword(s):  
Social Representations ◽  
Common Knowledge ◽  
Levels Of Analysis ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Visual Research ◽  
Simultaneous Existence ◽  
Societal Level ◽  
Cognitive Polyphasia ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
Drawing Method

This paper explores the possibilities of drawing as a method of researching social representations. The theory of social representations focuses on studying the forms, contents, and functions of socially shared common knowledge. In this paper, we (1) present the central premises of social representations theory, (2) elaborate drawing as a visual research method, and (3) synthesize how the drawing method may promote and diversify our understanding of social representations. We suggest that the drawing method is especially fruitful in the analysis of objectification process (how something abstract is made tangible); cognitive polyphasia (the idea of the simultaneous existence of diverse and contradicting social representations); and the different levels of analysis in which social representations become observable: ontogenesis (individual level), microgenesis (social interaction level), and sociogenesis (societal level). Through these insights, this paper advances the current understanding of the drawing method in qualitative social representations research.

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