Comprehension Of Implicatures Research Articles

Unraveling Conversational Implicatures: A Study on Arabic EFL Learners

Abstract The present research aimed to evaluate the comprehension level of conversational implicature among a group of 30 senior Native Arabic-speaking students enrolled in the BA program of English Language and Literature at a UAE university. The participants’ comprehension of implicatures was assessed by providing them with 20 excerpts from the American sitcom Seinfeld (https://www.seinfeldscripts.com/seinfeld-scripts.html). The participants were asked to select the implied meaning of one underlined utterance as it occurred in context. The findings of the study indicate that Arab English as a Foreign Language learners have a slightly below-average proficiency in comprehending implicatures produced by native English speakers, which can be attributed to their lower level of proficiency, lack of pragmatic competence, and their lack of information about the American culture. The most challenging types of implicatures to grasp were those flouting the maxim of manner (35.34%), while the easiest types to interpret were those flouting the maxim of quantity.

The cognitive cost of deriving implicature: A reaction-time study

If A asks B “Do you like berries?”, and B replies “I like some berries,” B would infer that A does not like all kinds of berries. Such inference derived by negating the stronger alternative (all) is known as the scalar implicature (SI). Earlier experimental studies showed that computation of SI requires additional processing time compared to literal interpretation, and hence they argued that derivation of implicature is cost-demanding. Some recent experiments, however, found that derivation of implicature does not require any additional processing cost. The present study re-examines the comprehension of implicature using a Truth Value Judgement task. The hypothesis of this study is that the computation of implicature is as immediate as the computation of literal meaning if the sentences are preceded by prior context and communicative intent as in real conversation. The study uses a two-between-subject design where 32 native English speakers were required to read a ‘context’, followed by a ‘question’ and an ‘answer’. The context followed by the question either demanded the lower-bounded ‘literal’ meaning or the upper-bounded ‘pragmatic’ meaning of the under-informative answers which is the implicature. The result indicates that when a prior context and a clear communicative intent guide the hearer toward the intended meaning, both literal and pragmatic meaning comprehension is immediate. The result certainly indicates against the Default Inference accounts, but it also opposes the Literal-first hypothesis of the Contextualist school. The result strongly supports the Constraint-Based account of implicature derivation and brings additional support to the studies which argue for immediate implicature computation.

Conversations between ages five and seven – Connections to executive functions and implicature comprehension

A language user must rely on several different abilities to carry out a conversation, e.g., the ability to acknowledge the conversational contributions of others, to respond appropriately, to stay on topic, etc. There are many aspects of the development of conversational conduct that are yet unknown. In this study, the longitudinal development of conversational conduct, as in acknowledging one's interlocutor's previous turn, was traced from age 5;0 to 7;2. We also investigated whether conversational conduct was predicted by core language skill, executive functions, and specific pragmatic abilities. Previous findings of productive morphosyntactic accuracy were replicated, while findings concerning longitudinal receptive vocabulary were not. We also found connections between children's conversational responses and executive functions, working memory, and the comprehension of conversational implicatures. The results suggest that conversational conduct is dependent on inferring communicative intentions, as well as being able to keep track of others' contributions and how they relate to previous turns.

A Study of Kurdish EFL University Learners’ Comprehension of Implicatures

This study investigates the extent of the comprehension of implicatures by Kurdish EFL learners at the university level. For this purpose, the Implicature Comprehension Instrument (ICI) was the sole instrument used for the data collection using a 14-item administered to 43 respondents whose responses were calculated and analyzed quantitatively and descriptively. The data analysis reveals that a noticeable number of the participants comprehended different types of implicatures to different levels for each category in comprehending implicatures. The results also show no statistically significant difference between the participants’ comprehension of implicature according to gender. Finally, the participants also showed a moderately high level of implicature comprehension, which may benefit students, instructors, and curricula designers.

A Review on Second Language Learners’ Irony Comprehension

Irony, as a pragmatic tool, is often used in daily conversation by native speakers. However, for second-language learners, irony comprehension can be a barrier in conversation when they try to understand native speakers’ usage of this pragmatic tool. This study aims to identify factors that are critical for irony comprehension and find out training methods that address these issues to improve second-language learners’ ability of comprehending irony. To this end, we review studies about (1) native speakers’ irony comprehension, highlighting three factors that play an important role: intonation, common ground, and context; (2) second-language learners’ implicature comprehension, elaborating the role of two kinds of factors: within-implicature factors and learner-related factors; (3) second-language learners’ irony comprehension and training projects that help improve this ability, finding out the key difficulties of irony comprehension for language learners and the ways to improve. In addition, this study also proposed some future directions for this line of research.

FACTORS INFLUENCING THE COMPREHENSION OF CONVERSATIONAL IMPLICATURES BY NATIVE AND NON-NATIVE SPEAKERS OF ENGLISH: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY INSPIRED BY BOUTON’S (1988)

The main goal of the present study has been to examine implicature comprehension in native and foreign/second language speakers of English from different linguistic backgrounds. The project was inspired by an earlier work of Bouton (1988), whose objective was to measure the influence of cultural background on the ability to grasp implied meanings in English, by comparing native and non-native speakers' performance. A modified digital version of the original multiple-choice test (Bouton 1988) was used to collect the data. Gricean (1989) theory of conversational implicature served as a theoretical framework for the study. The quantitative analysis of the data collected from the speakers of 33 languages was compared against the original results and the scope of the analysis was expanded to incorporate the examination of other factors affecting implicature understanding in native and nonnative languages. The present results corroborate some of the earlier findings and suggest that language competence and cultural background are crucial factors in understanding implicated meanings.

ZPD-based mediation of L2 learners’ comprehension of implicatures: An educational praxis framework

Abstract Conversational implicatures (CIMs) are implied by the speaker in context rather than being linguistically encoded, and learners’ inability to infer the intended meaning, if not remedied through instruction (or mediation), leads to communication breakdowns. Given this premise, the current study aimed to examine effects of classroom praxis-based instruction adjusted to EFL learners’ Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) on their comprehension of CIMs. Participants were 36 Iranian high school students in 2 classrooms, assigned to experimental and comparison groups. A 20-item CIM test was administered at pretest and posttest times to collect the data. Microgenetic trajectories were also traced through audio-recorded role-plays and social interactions within the ZPD setting. ZPD-adjusted mediational instruction on CIMs was given based on a multi-level regulatory scale and a view of microgenetic development along an other-to self-regulated functioning continuum. In the non-ZPD setting, mainstream teacher-fronted instruction was employed. ANCOVA results revealed differential instructional effects in favor of the praxis-based mediational setting. Microgenetic learning episodes also portrayed how collectively-mediated, ZPD-activated learning led to L2 learners’ progressively improved comprehension of CIMs. The findings suggest that comprehension (and perhaps production) of L2 CIMs can be improved through praxis-oriented co-construction of pragmatic knowledge through collaborative engagement with communicative activity.

How Qualitative Inquiry Can Enlighten Instructional Pragmatics: An Example from a Case of Teaching Implicatures

Pragmatic competence is a constituent of overall communicative ability, and within pragmatic competence, implicature comprehension is itself a constituent. This generates studies on teaching implicature comprehension, most of which are lacking in qualitative probes into how attributable the ensuing performance changes are to the instructional materials and procedures themselves. Nevertheless, effective assessment of pedagogical interventions/innovations would require experimental studies to be adopted along with qualitative research for in-depth understanding from participants’ perspective. In this regard, through semi-structured retrospective interviews, the current study investigated how far and in what ways the performance changes after a project on teaching implicatures via film could be ascribed to the treatment itself. The content analysis results indicate that the performance changes originated mainly from the instruction and illuminate the share of the filmic materials as the innovative component there. On account of these, with its epistemological approach enabling triangulation, the study contributes to instructional pragmatics by providing an exemplary practice of quality assurance in teaching implicature comprehension/interpretation.

The Role of Executive Function and Theory of Mind in Pragmatic Computations.

In sentences such as "Some dogs are mammals," the literal semantic meaning ("Some and possibly all dogs are mammals") conflicts with the pragmatic meaning ("Not all dogs are mammals," known as a scalar implicature). Prior work has shown that adults vary widely in the extent to which they adopt the semantic or pragmatic meaning of such utterances, yet the underlying reason for this variation is unknown. Drawing on theoretical models of scalar implicature derivation, we explore the hypothesis that the cognitive abilities of executive function (EF) and theory of mind (ToM) contribute to this observed variation. In Experiment 1, we show that individuals with better ToM are more likely to compute a scalar implicature and adopt the pragmatic meaning of an utterance; however, EF makes no unique contribution to scalar implicature comprehension after accounting for ToM. In Experiment 2, we replicate this finding and assess whether it generalizes to the comprehension of other pragmatic phenomena such as indirect requests (e.g., "It's hot in here" uttered to ask for something to be done) and metaphor (e.g., "to harvest courage"). This is the first evidence that differences in ToM are associated with pragmatic competence in neurotypical adults across distinct pragmatic phenomena.

Complex Inferential Processes Are Needed for Implicature Comprehension, but Not for Implicature Production.

Upon hearing “Some of Michelangelo’s sculptures are in Rome,” adults can easily generate a scalar implicature and infer that the intended meaning of the utterance corresponds to “Some but not all Michelangelo’s sculptures are in Rome.” Comprehension experiments show that preschoolers struggle with this kind of inference until at least 5 years of age. Surprisingly, the few studies having investigated children’s production of scalar expressions like some and all suggest that production is adult-like already in their third year of life. Thus, children’s production of implicatures seems to develop at least 2 years before their comprehension of implicatures. In this paper, we present a novel account of scalar implicature generation in the framework of Bidirectional Optimality Theory: the Asymmetry Account. We show that the production–comprehension asymmetry is predicted to emerge because the comprehension of some requires the hearer to consider the speaker’s perspective, but the production of some does not require the speaker to consider the hearer’s perspective. Hence, children’s comprehension of scalar expressions, but not their production of scalar expressions, is predicted to be related to their theory of mind development. Not possessing fully developed theory of mind abilities yet, children thus have difficulty in comprehending scalar expressions such as some in an adult-like way. Our account also explains why variable performance is found in experimental studies testing children’s ability to generate scalar implicatures; moreover, it describes the differences between children’s and adults’ implicature generation in terms of their ability to recursively apply theory of mind; finally, it sheds new light on the question why the interpretation of numerals does not require implicature generation.

"Second guessing yourself all the time about what they really mean…": Cognitive differences between autistic and non-autistic adults in understanding implied meaning.

This study investigated cognitive differences between autistic and non-autistic people in understanding implied meaning in conversation using a novel computerized test, the Implicature Comprehension Test. Controlling for core language ability, autistic participants (N = 66) were over twice as likely to endorse a non-normative interpretation of an implied meaning and over five times as likely to select "do not know" when asked about the presence of an implied meaning, compared to non-autistic participants (N = 118). A further experiment suggested that the selection of "do not know" reflected a cognitive preference for certainty and explicit communication, and that the normative inference could often be made when the test format was more constrained. Our research supports the hypothesis that autistic individuals can find it challenging to process language in its pragmatic context, and that cognitive preferences play a role in this. LAY SUMMARY: We investigated differences between autistic and non-autistic people in understanding implied meanings in conversation. We found that autistic people were more likely to select a different interpretation of implied meanings compared to other people, and also much more likely to avoid processing implied meanings when the task allowed this. Our research supports the view that autistic people can find it challenging to process indirect meanings, and that they tend to prefer explicit forms of communication.

Conversational implicature comprehension strategies used by English learners in Indonesia

Conversational implicature comprehension strategies used by English learners in Indonesia

Some Pieces Are Missing: Implicature Production in Children

Until at least 4 years of age, children, unlike adults, interpret some as compatible with all. The inability to draw the pragmatic inference leading to interpret some as not all, could be taken to indicate a delay in pragmatic abilities, despite evidence of other early pragmatic skills. However, little is known about how the production of these implicature develops. We conducted a corpus study on early production and perception of the scalar term some in British English. Children's utterances containing some were extracted from the dense corpora of five children aged 2;00 to 5;01 (N = 5,276), and analysed alongside a portion of their caregivers' utterances with some (N = 9,030). These were coded into structural and contextual categories allowing for judgments on the probability of a scalar implicature being intended. The findings indicate that children begin producing and interpreting implicatures in a pragmatic way during their third year of life, shortly after they first produce some. Their production of some implicatures is low but matches their parents' input in frequency. Interestingly, the mothers' production of implicatures also increases as a function of the children's age. The data suggest that as soon as they acquire some, children are fully competent in its production and mirror adult production. The contrast between the very early implicature production we find and the relatively late implicature comprehension established in the literature calls for an explanation; possibly in terms of the processing cost of implicature derivation. Additionally, some is multifaceted, and thus, implicatures are infrequent, and structurally and contextually constrained in both populations.

English

Conversational implicature is a case in which a speaker produces a coded utterance to convey certain intent. The listener of the utterance then decodes the speaker’s intent accurately and ‘intuitively’. For instance, a speaker saying that ‘the room is hot’ could mean that the listener is expected to turn on the air conditioner. However, ‘intuition’ tends to work seamlessly for native speakers but it becomes rather problematic for second language learners. This study comes with two questions: ‘what are the most problematic implicatures for second language learners?’ and ‘what are the factors affecting learners’ competence to comprehend implicatures?’ The implicatures discussed in this study are in the form of joint-taxonomy adopted from the studies of Bouton, Grice and Arseneault. The joint-taxonomy produces ten types of implicatures: POPE-Q, Indirect Criticism, Sequential, Minimum Requirement Rule, Scalar, Idiomatic, Quantity, Quality, Manner and Relevance. 110 college students at one university in Indonesia participated in this study. Vocabulary, grammar formal exposure and informal exposure are four variables affecting the students’ competence in comprehending implicatures in English. This research has been influenced primarily by the study of Bouton and Roever. The results of this study show that indirect criticism implicatures are the most problematic implicatures for all groups of respondents. Additionally, this study is able to illustrate how both Bouton’s claim on proficiency and Roever’s claim on exposure as affecting factors of implicature comprehension can be correct at the same time. Keywords: pragmatic competence; pragmatic comprehension; conversational implicature; second language learning; communicative competence

A Study on the Implicature Comprehension Ability of Korean Language Leaners - Fucus on Comparative Analysis with Korean Native Speakers.

A Study on the Implicature Comprehension Ability of Korean Language Leaners - Fucus on Comparative Analysis with Korean Native Speakers.

L2 Learners’ Enhanced Pragmatic Comprehension of Implicatures via Computer-Mediated Communication and Social Media Networks

L2 Learners’ Enhanced Pragmatic Comprehension of Implicatures via Computer-Mediated Communication and Social Media Networks

Reading between the lines, seeing beyond the images: an empirical study on the comprehension of implicit film dialogue meaning across cultures

Exploring the synergies between audiovisual translation, cognitive (experimental) pragmatics and film studies, the present article proposes a novel approach to the empirical investigation of audience reception. The proposed methodology is applied to a study on the comprehension of implicatures by British and Greek viewers in the two Bridget Jones films Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001) and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004) and their subtitled versions. Inter alia, it is demonstrated that implicatures whose understanding presupposes familiarity with specific aspects of the British culture presented the Greek audience with substantial difficulties. Overall, experimental data analysis shows that source and target viewers did not always understand implicatures in the way the filmmakers would like them to and/or the analyst had predicted. This finding highlights the subjectivity and creativity of audience response and, therefore, the need regularly to corroborate research hypotheses through studies of actual audiences.

Learner background factors and learning of second language pragmatics

AbstractLearner background factors have been shown to affect learning of L2 pragmatics, which has been demonstrated especially for proficiency and length of residence. However, these factors have generally been investigated individually, not allowing conclusions as to their relative contributions. In this study, we use Poisson regression to investigate the effect of proficiency, length of residence, gender and multilingualism on learners' comprehension of implicature, recognition of routine formulae and production of speech acts in English. 229 ESL and EFL learners completed a web-based pragmatics test with 12 items per section. We found that only proficiency significantly affected implicature comprehension, length of residence and proficiency were significant factors in the recognition of routine formulae, and proficiency and gender significantly impacted speech act production. Although the effect of proficiency in our study is far greater than for any other background factor, we caution against overemphasizing its importance to learning of pragmatics overall.

Comprehension of conversational implicature in L2 Chinese

This study examined the ability to comprehend conventional and non-conventional implicatures, and the effect of proficiency and learning context (foreign language learners vs. heritage learners) on comprehension of implicature in L2 Chinese. Participants were three groups of college students of Chinese: elementary-level foreign language learners (n=21), advanced-level foreign language learners (n=25), and advanced-level heritage learners (n=25). They completed a 36-item computer-delivered listening test measuring their ability to comprehend three types of implicature: conventional indirect refusals, conventional indirect opinions, and non-conventional indirect opinions. Comprehension was analyzed for accuracy (scores on a multiple-choice measure) and comprehension speed (average time taken to answer items correctly). There was a significant effect of implicature type on accuracy, but not on comprehension speed. A significant effect of participant group was observed on accuracy, but the effect was mixed on comprehension speed.

Comprehending Speaker Meaning

This paper reviews research on the comprehension of speaker meaning. The starting point for this review is Grice’s (1975) theory of conversational implicature, an extremely heuristic approach but one that is incomplete in several respects. The present review centers on the processes that are involved in the generation of conversational implicatures, and the specific inferences that recipients will tend to generate. In terms of processing, research suggests that the comprehension of implicatures varies as a function of implicature type (particularized vs. generalized), utterance conventionality, and relative status. For particularized implicatures (e.g., violations of the relevance maxim) the specific implicature that is generated is based on a process whereby the recipient reasons about why the violation occurred. Because face management is a major motive for speaking indirectly, it will play a parallel role in the interpretation of speaker meaning. Individual, cultural, and perspective differences in the interpretive process, and the possibility that conversational maxims may provide a framework for understanding the generation of unintended inferences, are considered as well.