Abstract
In the Romance languages, definite plural articles (e.g., le rane ‘the frogs’) are generally ambiguous between a generic and a specific interpretation, and speakers must reconstruct the intended interpretation through the linguistic or extra-linguistic context. Following the “polar bear” paradigm implemented in Czypionka & Kupisch (2019)’s investigation on German, the goal of the present study is to check the suitability of their test on article semantics, by establishing to what extent native speakers of Italian interpret ambiguous definite plural DPs as generic or specific in the presence of a nonlinguistic picture context. We present judgment and reaction time data monitoring the preferred reading of sentences introduced by different kinds of noun phrases (e.g., Le rane/Queste rane/Le rane di solito sono verdi/gialle ‘The/These/Usually frogs are green/yellow’), while looking at pictures showing prototypical or non-prototypical properties (e.g., green vs. yellow frogs). Our results show that both possible interpretations of definite plural articles are routinely considered in Italian, despite the presence of a picture with specific referents, validating the “polar bear” paradigm as a suitable test of article semantics.
Highlights
Glossa: a journal ofThis paper is concerned with sentences such as (1), which make a generalizing statement about members of a particular class
Reaction times and acceptance rates from all participants were analyzed for the conditions relevant for the experiment
The statistical analysis revealed that there is an effect of determination on conditions with noncanonical sentences: Reaction times are shorter for unambiguously specific sentences than for sentences ambiguous between specific and generic readings
Summary
This paper is concerned with sentences such as (1), which make a generalizing statement (here, being yellow) about members of a particular class (here, bananas). There are claims in the theoretical literature that German allows definite article use with generic plural subjects too, like in (2) (e.g., Brugger 1993; Longobardi 1994; Krifka et al 1995; Dayal 2004; Oosterhof 2008). There are claims in the theoretical literature that German allows definite article use with generic plural subjects too, like in (2) (e.g., Brugger 1993; Longobardi 1994; Krifka et al 1995; Dayal 2004; Oosterhof 2008). (2)
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