Over-Specification of Small Cardinalities in Referential Communication

The paper presents experimental evidence for the over-specification of small cardinalities in referential communication. The first experiment shows that when presented with a small set (2, 3, or 4) of unique objects, the speaker includes a numeral denoting a small cardinality into the description of given objects, although it is over-informative for the hearer (e.g., “three stars”). On the contrary, when presented with a large set of unique objects, the speaker does not include a numeral denoting a large cardinality into their description, so she produces a bare plural (e.g., “stars”). The effect of small cardinalities resembles the effect of over-specifying color in referential communication, which has been extensively studied in recent years (cf. Tarenskeen et al., 2015; Rubio-Fernández, 2016, among many others). This suggests that, like color, small cardinalities are absolute and salient. The second experiment demonstrates that when presented with an identical small set of monochrome objects, the speaker over-specifies a small cardinality to a much greater extent than a color. This suggests that small cardinalities are even more salient than color. The third experiment reveals that when slides are flashed on the screen one by one, highlighted objects of small cardinalities are still over-specified. We argue that a plausible explanation for the salience of small cardinalities is a subitizing effect, which is the human capacity to instantaneously grasp small cardinalities.

Overspecification of small cardinalities in reference production

This paper presents experimental evidence for overspecification of small cardinalities in refer-ence production. The idea is that when presented with a small set of unique objects (2, 3 or 4), the speaker includes a small cardinality while describing given objects, although it is overin-formative for the hearer (e.g., 'three stars'). On the contrary, when presented with a large set of unique objects, the speaker does not include cardinality in their description – so she produces a bare plural (e.g. 'stars'). The effect of overspecifying small cardinalities resembles the effect of overspecifying color in reference production which has been extensively studied in recent years (cf. Rubio-Fernandez 2016, Tarenskeen et al. 2015). When slides are flashed on the screen one by one, highlighted objects are still overspecified. We argue that one of the main reasons lies in subitizing effect, which is a human capacity to instantaneously grasp small cardinalities.

Japanese EFL Learners’ Interpretation оf Plural Morphology

This article examines Japanese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners’ acquisition of meaning of the English plural marker -s. The main goal of the article is to experimentally investigate whether EFL learners are able to assign a plural-only reading to plural -s. The author conducted a Truth Value Judgement experiment with Japanese intermediate learners and found that they understood bare plurals in a different way than native speakers do. In singular scenarios, Japanese EFL learners failed to reject bare plural statements (e.g. Black Bear has cars) while they successfully rejected numeral statements (e.g. Black Bear has four cars). The results suggest that Japanese EFL learners had difficulties giving a ‘more than one’ reading to bare plurals and appeared to understand -s to mean ‘at least one’.

Generic bare plurals in Russian and beyond

This paper focuses on indirect reference to kinds achieved by means of bare plural nominal expressions in Russian, which is a language without articles. These NPs refer to sums of individuals, whose denotation is built on Number. Their default interpretation is indefinite, while generic and definite readings are a result of a pragmatic strengthening, i.e. these readings appear only in certain environments (argument position of k-level predicates, subject position of characterising statements) and depend on the world knowledge of interlocutors. Generically and definitely interpreted expressions are similar to each other, being characterised by maximality, identifiability and presupposition of existence. However, the former ones cannot be spatiotemporally localised or anaphorically anchored. Going beyond Russian, it is suggested that in some languages genericity (along with definiteness) may be encoded semantically by means of a definite article, while in others it is pragmatically inferred on bare NPs; this difference can account for the inter- and intra- linguistic variation in the expression of genericity.

Classroom input to accelerate feature reassembly of English generics

This is an experimental study on the effect of explicit and implicit classroom input on the acquisition of English generics by L1-Najdi Arabic speakers. Following a feature-based contrastive analysis, acquisition difficulties are predicted with indefinite singular and bare plural contexts. The experiment included fifty-four students divided into two experimental groups and one uninstructed control group. One experimental group received implicit input by using genre analysis of texts reinforced with generic noun phrases (NPs), and the other group received explicit grammatical ‘focus on form’ on generics. Two instruments were used: a forced choice task and a sentence repetition task conducted as pre-tests, post-tests and delayed post-tests. The results showed a significant increase in the total scores of both experimental groups, but a long-term effect was only found with the explicit group. The forced choice task showed significant improvement in the explicit group’s accuracy on generic indefinite singular and bare plural contexts and long-term improvement on the bare plural. The explicit group’s results on the repetition task show temporary improvement in the generic indefinite singular post-test. In general, the results suggest that explicit input is more effective than implicit input. Implications on acquisition difficulties and instruction are discussed.

Classroom input to accelerate feature reassembly of English generics

This is an experimental study on the effect of explicit and implicit classroom input on the acquisition of English generics by L1-Najdi Arabic speakers. Following a feature-based contrastive analysis, acquisition difficulties are predicted with indefinite singular and bare plural contexts. The experiment included fifty-four students divided into two experimental groups and one uninstructed control group. One experimental group received implicit input by using genre analysis of texts reinforced with generic noun phrases (NPs), and the other group received explicit grammatical ‘focus on form’ on generics. Two instruments were used: a forced choice task and a sentence repetition task conducted as pre-tests, post-tests and delayed post-tests. The results showed a significant increase in the total scores of both experimental groups, but a long-term effect was only found with the explicit group. The forced choice task showed significant improvement in the explicit group’s accuracy on generic indefinite singular and bare plural contexts and long-term improvement on the bare plural. The explicit group’s results on the repetition task show temporary improvement in the generic indefinite singular post-test. In general, the results suggest that explicit input is more effective than implicit input. Implications on acquisition difficulties and instruction are discussed.

Two Types of Quantificational Modalized Genericity, and the Interpretation of Bare Plural and Indefinite Singular NPs

No abstract.

Weak Generic Sentences: Partitioning and Comparison

<p>This paper addresses the question of what is the exact interpretation of weak generic sentences that take a bare plural subject and that are of the form <em>As are P</em>.</p>