“Yixie” is likely not created equal for everyone: Distinct reasoning procedures in interpreting the same scalar quantifier

Abstract

The present study examines the reasoning procedures involved in interpreting the scalar quantifier yixie (‘some’) in Mandarin Chinese via a mouse-tracking technique. Results showed that the aggregate mouse movement in accessing the pragmatic interpretation involved an extra step compared with that in accessing the logical interpretation. However, on the individual-trial level, participants differed significantly in their reasoning procedures. Some of the participants who consistently preferred the logical interpretation followed one-step processes; for those who consistently preferred the pragmatic interpretation, some of them followed two-step processes and some others followed one-step processes. These findings provided evidence for both the contextualist models and defaultist models, but raised concern over the constraint-based accounts. The distinct reasoning processes among the participants may reflect their different views on the nature of scalar implicatures, even for the same scalar quantifier. This extends the observation of scalar diversity to the level of language users. Not only are scalar implicatures from various scales accessed at different rates, but also the scalar implicature for the same scalar term may be represented with distinct status among language users.