The pragmatics of profiling: Framing effects in text interpretation and text production

Abstract

When describing sets or entities in terms of a two-valued variable, one may choose either value to do the job. For instance, the success of a medical treatment may be described in terms of its survival rate (i.e. in a positive frame) or in terms of its mortality rate (the negative frame). Psychological studies have shown that the frame, or profile as we prefer to call it, influences the evaluations of readers: positively profiled objects are evaluated more positively than negatively profiled ones. This article analyzes the communicative mechanisms behind profile production and interpretation. It suggests two pragmatic inference rules to be at work: a heuristic called Argumentative Orientation, and a Manner implicature based on markedness differences. Data from six experiments with discourse completion tasks show consistent effects of Argumentative Orientation and Markedness. Argumentative Orientation accounts for the tendency for speakers to choose the profile in line with the conclusion one wants to draw and for hearers to interpret the profile accordingly. The strength of the implicated Argumentative Orientation is further modified by markedness inferences, stemming from whether the marked or unmarked profile for this particular pair and context is chosen. A so-called Marked Skewness effect produces a stronger Argumentative Orientation for the marked member of the opposition.