Processing Of Presuppositions Research Articles

Discourse comprehension and referential processing: effects of contextual distance and semantic plausibility on presupposition processing

Discourse comprehension and referential processing: effects of contextual distance and semantic plausibility on presupposition processing

Presupposition processing in language comprehension

Presupposition processing in language comprehension

Presupposition processing declines with age

The present study investigates the processing of presuppositions across the life span and extends the findings of the only available study on presupposition processing and typical aging by Domaneschi and Di Paola (J Pragmat 140:70–87, 2019). In an online and offline task, we investigate the impact of cognitive load during the processing and recovery of two presupposition triggers—definite descriptions and change-of-state verbs—comparing a group of younger adults with a group of older adults. The collected experimental data show that (1) presupposition recovery declines during normal aging, (2) presupposition recovery of change-of-state verbs is more cognitively demanding for older adults than the recovery of definite descriptions, and lastly (3) presupposition recovery for the change-of-state verb begin is more demanding than the change-of-state verb stop. As of today, few works have directly investigated presupposition processing across the life span. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work revealing that cognitive load directly impacts the recovery of presuppositions across the life span, which in turn suggests an involvement of verbal working memory.

Capacity limitations of processing presuppositions triggered by determiners

Definite determiners trigger existence- and uniqueness-presuppositions, that is, the speaker assumes that it is taken for granted that there exists exactly one of the mentioned object in the relevant discourse. Indefinite determiners are associated with anti-uniqueness, that is, that there are several of the mentioned object. Applying the Maximize Presupposition principle, this additional meaning component arises as an anti-presupposition and involves first considering the definite determiner's uniqueness-presupposition and then its negation. We here investigate processing of the two determiners in more detail and ask whether this processing is automatic or requires limited central capacities. To do so, we employed the Psychological Refractory Period (PRP) approach and the locus of slack-logic. We observed more difficult processing for the indefinite compared to the definite determiner in felicitous sentences, and also in infelicitous compared to felicitous sentences. Further, immediate processing of the indefinite determiner appears capacity-limited. These results support the Maximize Presupposition principle and are an important step forward toward understanding cognitive processing of presuppositions.

Is Immediate Processing of Presupposition Triggers Automatic or Capacity-Limited? A Combination of the PRP Approach with a Self-Paced Reading Task

Informally speaking, presuppositions are meaning components which are part of the common ground for speakers in a conversation, that is, background information which is taken for granted by interlocutors. The current literature suggests an immediate processing of presuppositions, starting directly on the word triggering the presupposition. In the present paper, we focused on two presupposition triggers in German, the definite determiner the (German der) and the iterative particle again (German wieder). Experiment 1 replicates the immediate effects which were previously observed in a self-paced reading study. Experiment 2 then investigates whether this immediate processing of presuppositions is automatic or capacity-limited by employing the psychological refractory period approach and the locus of slack-logic, which have been successfully employed for this reason in various fields of cognitive psychology. The results argue against automatic processing, but rather suggest that the immediate processing of presuppositions is capacity-limited. This potentially helps specifying the nature of the involved processes; for example, a memory search for a potential referent.

The aging factor in presupposition processing

This work takes a first step towards a psycholinguistic investigation on the role of aging in processing presuppositions. Experimental data collected support two main results. First, in online language comprehension older adults exhibit higher processing costs when presuppositions involve demanding mental representations. Second, the ability to recover information introduced in the discourse as taken for granted is affected by the age factor. Overall, beyond other more explored levels of pragmatic processing, the decline with age of processing speed and working memory ability seems to affect presuppositions processing.

The Aging Factor in Presupposition Processing

The Aging Factor in Presupposition Processing

Who's who? The incremental processing of presuppositions (and beyond)

Who's who? The incremental processing of presuppositions (and beyond)

O estudo da aquisição de inferências pragmáticas como elemento na escolha entre modelos teóricos em disputa

Fenômeno de comportamento ambivalente, pressuposição tem desafiado algumas gerações de linguistas em relação a dois problemas complementares: o problema da projeção de pressuposições e o problema da origem das pressuposições. Embora o problema descritivo da projeção tenha recebido maior atenção, não se pode lidar com ele sem assumir algum posicionamento quanto ao problema explanatório, relativo à origem das inferências consideradas pressuposicionais. O desacordo que se observa quanto à descrição da projeção de pressuposições contrasta, no entanto, com um relativo consenso, historicamente construído, sobre a natureza das pressuposições. Segundo esse consenso, pressuposição é fenômeno de natureza convencional, sujeito, apenas em sua projeção, a injunções de ordem conversacional. Mais recentemente, esse consenso tem sido abalado por uma nova onda de trabalhos, que, de diversos modos, passaram a defender a ideia de que pressuposição é fenômeno de natureza fundamentalmente conversacional. Entre essas propostas, uma que merece atenção pela plausibilidade é a que identifica pressuposição com implicatura de quantidade escalar. As duas formas de encarar a origem de pressuposições, no entanto, permitem realizar predições distintas quanto ao seu processamento. Interessados na comprovação de uma das duas hipóteses, estudos experimentais foram conduzidos recentemente com a finalidade de avaliar o modo como pressuposições e implicaturas escalares são processadas. Os resultados desses estudos têm sido importante elemento no debate sobre o problema explanatório da origem de pressuposições. Este artigo revisita alguns experimentos que avaliam o modo como ocorre o processamento de implicaturas escalares e pressuposições e procura avaliar a importância, no quadro mais geral desse debate, de trabalhos que investiguem o modo como sujeitos em fase de aquisição processam inferências pragmáticas. Mostra, nesse percurso, que as evidências obtidas podem ser vistas como elementos de apoio a certos modelos ou, alternativamente, como pistas para o aprimoramento das suposições dos modelos que, inicialmente, parecem problematizar.

The Processing Costs of Presupposition Accommodation.

The present study investigates the processing of presupposition accommodation. In particular, it concerns the processing costs and the time-course of accommodation as compared to presupposition satisfaction. Data collected in a self-paced word-by-word reading times experiment support three results. First, independently on the presupposition trigger in use, accommodation is costlier than satisfaction. Second, presupposition accommodation takes places immediately just as the trigger becomes available and proceeds incrementally during the sentence processing. Third, accommodated information is harder to be recalled. The results offer evidence for the on-line processing of presuppositions and, consistently with the traditional semantic framework, support the idea that, presuppositions are semantic properties encoded in the lexical meaning of the presupposition triggers.

N400 and P600 modulation in presupposition accommodation: The effect of different trigger types

Abstract This study investigates the neurophysiological correlates of presupposition processing in conditions of satisfaction and accommodation, comparing two types of triggers: definite descriptions and change-of-state verbs. Results showed that, for both types, the accommodation of presuppositions is associated with a biphasic N400-P600 pattern at the processing point. With definite descriptions, we observed a more clear involvement of the N400, while for change-of-state verbs the costs of accommodation were associated with a more pronounced P600. Moreover, when conveyed by change of state predicates, presuppositions seem to elicit also a P200 visible already at the trigger verb. The data nicely fit into the Linking-Updating model and support two main conclusions. First, presupposition accommodation is a sequential process unfolding through a biphasic ERP pattern presumably related to search for antecedent and discourse update. Second, the kind of presupposition trigger seems to affect the cognitive cost of presupposition accommodation at different processing times, with definite description capitalizing more on the earlier search for antecedent and change-of-state verbs capitalizing more on the later updating of the discourse mental model with the presupposed information. Overall, our findings suggest that the brain understands information taken for granted by going through a process whose time course involves several phases, differently modulated based on specific linguistic expressions.

Presupposition of new information as a pragmatic garden path: Evidence from Event-Related Brain Potentials

Abstract This study investigates the processing of presupposition in discourse through the Event-Related Brain Potential technique. While theoretical linguistics has largely described the phenomenon of presupposition, there is little empirical investigation, mainly from behavioural studies. Here we employed the Event Related Potential (ERP) technique to search for the brain signature of presupposition as opposed to assertion in discourse. Based on theoretical accounts, we hypothesized that presupposing new information should elicit higher efforts due to the mismatch between the information packaging and the actual knowledge, and to the need of accommodating the presupposed content in the mental model of discourse. We also hypothesized that these efforts could reflect in enhanced N400, similarly to other mechanisms operating at the discourse-context level. Twenty-seven participants were presented with passages containing new information packaged either as presupposition or as assertion. Two types of presupposition triggers were selected: definite descriptions and temporal subordinate clauses. Results evidenced a difference between the processing of presuppositions and that of assertions, reflected in a more enhanced N400 for the former. Results also showed that the temporal development of the presupposition effect is earlier for subordinate clauses than for definite descriptions. Differently from some behavioural studies on presupposition, but consistently with the theoretical literature and with other ERP studies on discourse processing, our data offer the first neurophysiological evidence that presupposition is more costly than assertion when new information is presented, with differences in the time development of the effect across trigger types. We proposed to account for the N400 effect induced by new presuppositions as stemming from a pragmatic “garden path” effect, in that, being presented with a new presupposition, the receiver is led down a mismatch between information packaging and discourse representation.

Processing temporal presuppositions: an event-related potential study

ABSTRACTThe ability to efficiently process presuppositions, which contain information that the speaker believes to be in the background to the conversation, is essential for effective communication. To get a deeper understanding of the nature and the time-course of temporal presupposition processing, we examined event-related potential evoked by the word again in two types of sentence contexts. The word again was presented in contexts that supported a presupposition (e.g. Jake had tipped a maid at the hotel once before. Today he tipped a maid at the hotel again … ) or violated it (e.g. Jake had never tipped a maid at the hotel before. Today he tipped a maid at the hotel again … ). The presupposition violation was associated with increased amplitudes of the P3b/P600 but not the N400 component. We argue for the centrality of the P3b/P600 component for presupposition processing. These findings demonstrate rapid integration of lexical presuppositions with contextual knowledge.

Scalar Implicatures Versus Presuppositions: The View from Acquisition

This paper reports an experimental investigation of presuppositions and scalar implicatures in language acquisition. Recent proposals (Chemla 2009; Romoli 2012, Romoli in J Semant 1–47, 2014) posit the same mechanisms for generating both types of inferences, in contrast to the traditional view. We used a Covered Box picture selection task to compare the interpretations assigned by two groups of children (4/5 and 7 year olds) and by adults, in response to sentences with presuppositions and ones with either ‘direct’ or ‘indirect’ scalar implicatures. The main finding was that the behavior of children and adults differed across inference types. This asymmetry is consistent with the traditional perspective, but poses a challenge for the more recent uniform accounts. We discuss how the latter could be amended to account for these findings, and also relate the findings to previous results on presupposition processing. Finally, we discuss an unexpected difference found between direct and indirect scalar implicatures.

Presupposition Processing and the (Re)activation of Negated Concepts

Negated words take longer to recognize than non-negated words following sentences with negation, suggesting that negated concepts are less active. The present experiments tested the possibility that this reduced activation would not persist beyond immediate testing. Experiment 1 used a probe task and materials similar to those used in previous research but manipulated the timing of the probe. The negation effect was present at 0 ms, replicating previous studies, but not at 500 ms or 1,000 ms, suggesting that unlicensed negated concepts are initially reduced in activation but then reactivated by presuppositional processing. Experiment 2 produced similar results when activation was measured during ongoing comprehension and reading time was controlled, and Experiment 3 demonstrated that these effects occur when negation is unlicensed but not when it is licensed. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that the reduced activation seen from unlicensed negation is short-lived.

Processus d'inférence dans le traitement des phrases par l'enfant d'âge préscolaire

Summary : A study of inference in sentence processing by three to six year old children. Some results of an experiment, in which three to six year old children had to repeat and comment on some elementary sentences, allow us to hypothesise about the genetical evolution of the processing of presuppositions and pragmatical implications. The inference from the focus to the presupposed, is a process which goes from one fact to another which occurred earlier in time. Therefore, there is a conflict between two types of sentence directionality : an inferential one and a temporal one. The resolution of such a conflict, which needs a certain level of mastery of the language, does not appear before five years. At six years, with the appearance of a metalinguistic activity, the child becomes able to place himself within the framework defined by the presupposition ; the temporal directionality is considered in the second instance. This lag between the two processes may be at the origin of mistakes in the interpretation of the sentences by the child. Since implication is a process which temporally agrees with the sequence of facts, it can easily occur in very young children. Key words : language development, pragmatical implication, presupposition.