Adjectival polarity and the processing of scalar inferences. Issue 1 (31st March 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: van Tiel, Bob; Pankratz, Elizabeth
• Is Part Of: Glossa. Volume 6:Issue 1(2021)
• Publication Date: 2021-03-31
• Subjects: scalar inference -- adjective -- polarity -- sentence processing -- implicature; Linguistics -- Periodicals; Language and languages -- Periodicals; 410.5
• DOI: 10.5334/gjgl.1457
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2397-1835

Abstract

Abstract : In a seminal study, Bott & Noveck (2004 ) found that the computation of the scalar inference of 'some' implying 'not all' was associated with increased sentence verification times, suggesting a processing cost. Recently, van Tiel and colleagues (2019b ) hypothesised that the presence of this processing cost critically depends on the polarity of the scalar word. We comprehensively evaluated this polarity hypothesis on the basis of a sentence-picture verification task in which we tested the processing of 16 types of adjectival scalar inferences. We develop a quantitative measure of adjectival polarity which combines insights from linguistics and psychology. In line with the polarity hypothesis, our measure of polarity reliably predicted the presence or absence of a processing cost (i.e., an increase in sentence verification times). We conclude that the alleged processing cost for scalar inferencing in verification tasks is not due to the process of drawing a scalar inference, but rather to the cognitive difficulty of verifying negative information.