Coherence Establishment as a Source of Explanation in Linguistic Theory

The primary goal of coherence theory is to provide an explanation for the coherence properties of discourse: what properties distinguish a discourse from a mere collection of utterances, and what drives comprehenders to draw inferences in service of establishing coherence. However, the importance of coherence theory goes well beyond that; it also plays a crucial role in theories of a variety of discourse-dependent linguistic phenomena. This article surveys some ways in which coherence theory has been leveraged in this way, appealing to both Relational analyses and Question-Under-Discussion models. Theories of coherence establishment should therefore have a place in the linguist's toolbox as a source of explanation in linguistic theory.

Quantifier spreading and the question under discussion

Children often display non-adult-like behaviors when reasoning with quantifiers and logical connectives in natural language. A classic example of this is the symmetrical interpretation of universally quantified statements like “Every girl is riding an elephant”, which children often reject as false when they are used to describe a scene with, e.g., three girls each riding an elephant and a fourth elephant without a rider. We present evidence that children’s understanding of these sentences is not attributable to syntactic, semantic, or general processing limitations. Instead, in two experiments, we argue that children’s behavior stems primarily from difficulty in correctly identifying the speaker’s intended “question under discussion”, and that when this question is made contextually unambiguous, children’s judgments are almost completely adultlike.

Language Use during Romanian Classes in Bilingual Settings. A Qualitative Approach

Education is one of the defining areas of language policy, as on this level we can track the features of the practical implementation of language ideologies. In my study, I deal with the question of teaching the official language, i.e. Romanian, in schools where the working language is Hungarian. I outline a summing-up situation based on the macro indicators (following demographic, environmental aspects), then focus on the micro level related to the question under discussion, namely to what is happening in the classroom, paying special attention to the organization of the linguistic resources in classroom interaction. In order to have a deeper understanding of the phenomenon, I analyse 25 structured reflective diaries and try to identify what kind of local interpretations are there for code-switching in the classroom and what individual solutions are used by different teachers for organizing the learning process.

Mobility of vehicles for transportation of heavy indivisible load in the Far North and methods of mobility estimation

The article presents a hierarchy of performance properties of vehicles for the transportation of heavy indivisible goods. Different methods can be used to determine the performance properties measures. The article presents the measurers of performance properties, the numerical values of which are obtained by using the method of mathematical modelling and simulation, the method of natural mathematical modelling and experimental methods of evaluation. The article identifies the problem of logistics in the Far North and in regions with no road infrastructure. The question under discussion is a burning question. The solutions to the problem have been discussed. One of the solutions to the problem is the development of new vehicles for the transportation of heavy indivisible loads in the Far North. For each vehicle it is necessary to take into account its functional purpose. Only a certain set of the most important perfomance properties should be taken into account. The most significant properties characterizing the mobility property are determined.

Two categorial issues of degree constructions in Mandarin

This squib argues against Yiwen Zhang’s (J East Asian Linguist 29:393–434, 2020) adjective analysis of the Mandarin word you ‘have’ to the left of a gradable noun, as in you yongqi ‘have courage’, showing that it is a verbal element. It also shows that for a gradable predicate of any category, if the question under discussion is about a comparison of individuals with respect to a gradable property, the degree word hen ‘very’ is banned; if the question under discussion is about the content of a gradable property of an individual, hen must occur; and finally, if the question under discussion is not about either of the two above, hen is optional.

Ignorance implicatures of modified numerals

Modified numerals, such as at least three and more than five, are known to sometimes give rise to ignorance inferences. However, there is disagreement in the literature regarding the nature of these inferences, their context dependence, and differences between at least and more than. We present a series of experiments which sheds new light on these issues. Our results show that (a) the ignorance inferences of at least are more robust than those of more than, (b) the presence and strength of the ignorance inferences triggered by both at least and more than depends on the question under discussion (QUD), and (c) whether ignorance inferences are detected in a given experimental setting depends partly on the task that participants are asked to perform (e.g., an acceptability task versus an inference task). We offer an Optimality Theoretic account of these findings. In particular, the task effect is captured by assuming that in performing an acceptability task, participants take the speaker’s perspective in order to determine whether an expression is optimal given a certain epistemic state, while in performing an inference task they take the addressee’s perspective in order to determine what the most likely epistemic state of the speaker is given a certain expression. To execute the latter task in a fully rational manner, participants have to perform higher-order reasoning about alternative expressions the speaker could have used. Under the assumption that participants do not always perform such higher-order reasoning but also often resort to so-called unidirectional optimization, the task effect finds a natural explanation. This also allows us to relate our finding to asymmetries between comprehension and production that have been found in language acquisition.

The “All Lives Matter” response: QUD-shifting as epistemic injustice

Drawing on recent work in formal pragmatic theory, this paper shows that the manipulation of discourse structure—in particular, by way of shifting the Question Under Discussion mid-discourse—can constitute an act of epistemic injustice. I argue that the “All Lives Matter” response to the “Black Lives Matter” slogan is one such case; this response shifts the Question Under Discussion governing the overarching discourse from Do Black lives matter? to Which lives matter? This manipulation of the discourse structure systematically obscures the intended meaning of “Black lives matter” and disincentivizes future utterances of it.

Two Types of Constructionalization Processes in Spanish and Portuguese Clefted wh-interrogatives

The present paper analyzes and compares the use of clefted wh-interrogatives in spoken Madrid Spanish, Puerto Rican Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese. In a first step, a typology of the discourse functions of clefted wh-interrogatives is established. This typology is partially governed by the strength of the presupposition of the proposition of the wh-interrogative. The results suggest the existence of two distinct constructionalization processes 1 March 2021. First, in the Spanish dialects, clefted wh-interrogatives with copula deletion are specialized in the expression of interactional challenges. Second, both Puerto Rican Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese evidence a change in the use of information-seeking clefted wh-interrogatives towards contexts in which the proposition of the interrogative is not activated. Consequently, in these dialects clefted wh-interrogatives can be used to establish questions not related to the current Question Under Discussion. However, this semantic change can be characterized as a constructionalization process only in Brazilian Portuguese.

Exploring the connection between Question Under Discussion and scalar diversity

Previous research has revealed that different scalar expressions give rise to scalar inferences (SIs) at different rates. This variation has been termed scalar diversity. In this study, we investigate the role of Questions Under Discussion (QUDs) in explaining this variation in SI rates. Investigating 43 different scalar expressions, we first show that explicit QUDs robustly affect calculation rates: questions based on the stronger of two scalar terms lead to higher SI rates than questions promoting the weaker one. Second, we explore whether the likelihood of asking the stronger question in general (Question Availability) can explain the scalar diversity effect. Our results suggest that Question Availability is indeed a predictor of scalar diversity, but only for scales where both terms denote intervals (unbounded scales), and not for scales where the stronger member has a fixed meaning (bounded scales).