Recent work has indicated that static word embeddings can predict human semantic categories (Majewska et al. 2021). In this paper, we consider the role of polysemy in semantic categorization, by comparing sense-level embeddings with previously studied static embeddings in their prediction of human-produced categories. We find that the polysemy is crucial for predicting human categories; sense-level embeddings dramatically outperform static embeddings in predicting semantic categories. Our findings highlight the role of polysemy in semantic categorization that is exclusively based on linguistic input.
最近的研究表明，静态词嵌入可以预测人类的语义类别(Majewska et al. 2021)。在本文中，我们考虑了多义词在语义分类中的作用，通过比较语义级嵌入与先前研究的静态嵌入对人类产生的类别的预测。我们发现，一词多义对人类范畴的预测至关重要;在预测语义类别方面，感觉级嵌入显著优于静态嵌入。我们的研究结果强调了多义词在完全基于语言输入的语义分类中的作用。
{"title":"Modeling the Role of Polysemy in Verb Categorization","authors":"Elizabeth Soper, Jean-Pierre Koenig","doi":"10.3765/elm.2.5379","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3765/elm.2.5379","url":null,"abstract":"Recent work has indicated that static word embeddings can predict human semantic categories (Majewska et al. 2021). In this paper, we consider the role of polysemy in semantic categorization, by comparing sense-level embeddings with previously studied static embeddings in their prediction of human-produced categories. We find that the polysemy is crucial for predicting human categories; sense-level embeddings dramatically outperform static embeddings in predicting semantic categories. Our findings highlight the role of polysemy in semantic categorization that is exclusively based on linguistic input.","PeriodicalId":154565,"journal":{"name":"Experiments in Linguistic Meaning","volume":"19 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121666375","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Giuliano Armenante, Vera Hohaus, Britta Stolterfoht
We report the results of one acceptability rating study and two self-paced reading studies on the form-meaning mismatch in the interpretation of past-under-past in complement clauses in English. Across the three experiments, we find an off-line and on-line preference for the backward-shifted interpretation, in line with predictions of the structural approach to the ambiguity when assuming a processing preference for morphological transparent interpretation.
{"title":"Transparency in the processing of temporal ambiguity: The case of embedded tense","authors":"Giuliano Armenante, Vera Hohaus, Britta Stolterfoht","doi":"10.3765/elm.2.5390","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3765/elm.2.5390","url":null,"abstract":"We report the results of one acceptability rating study and two self-paced reading studies on the form-meaning mismatch in the interpretation of past-under-past in complement clauses in English. Across the three experiments, we find an off-line and on-line preference for the backward-shifted interpretation, in line with predictions of the structural approach to the ambiguity when assuming a processing preference for morphological transparent interpretation.","PeriodicalId":154565,"journal":{"name":"Experiments in Linguistic Meaning","volume":"26 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123833620","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
We present a study investigating the effect of tense (past vs. future) on the computation of scalar implicatures in connection with the German quantifier einige ‘some’ in an interactive experiment, which included a financial incentive for participants to consider whether another speaker would share their judgment. We tested the hypothesis that scalar implicatures are less frequently drawn in future tense than in past tense. In addition, we studied to what extent sets with various cardinalities are prototypical representatives of einige + N. We hypothesized that larger cardinalities are more prototypical representatives of the quantifier einige than smaller cardinalities (relative to the cardinality of the total set). We analyzed the experimental data with probabilistic Bayesian models with a linking hypothesis between participants’ responses and readings based on utility maximization in simple decision problems. In line with the hypotheses, we found that less scalar implicatures are drawn in future tense than in past tense, which replicates the results of previous research on English some, and that with an increase in set size acceptance of statements involving einige also increases.
{"title":"On the interpretation of German einige. The effect of tense and cardinality","authors":"Maya Cortez Espinoza, Lea Fricke","doi":"10.3765/elm.2.5414","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3765/elm.2.5414","url":null,"abstract":"We present a study investigating the effect of tense (past vs. future) on the computation of scalar implicatures in connection with the German quantifier einige ‘some’ in an interactive experiment, which included a financial incentive for participants to consider whether another speaker would share their judgment. We tested the hypothesis that scalar implicatures are less frequently drawn in future tense than in past tense. In addition, we studied to what extent sets with various cardinalities are prototypical representatives of einige + N. We hypothesized that larger cardinalities are more prototypical representatives of the quantifier einige than smaller cardinalities (relative to the cardinality of the total set). We analyzed the experimental data with probabilistic Bayesian models with a linking hypothesis between participants’ responses and readings based on utility maximization in simple decision problems. In line with the hypotheses, we found that less scalar implicatures are drawn in future tense than in past tense, which replicates the results of previous research on English some, and that with an increase in set size acceptance of statements involving einige also increases.","PeriodicalId":154565,"journal":{"name":"Experiments in Linguistic Meaning","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130755537","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
On standard analyses, indicative conditionals behave in a Boolean fashion when interacting with and and or. We test this prediction by investigating probability judgments about sentences of the form "If A, then B {and, or} if C, then D". Our findings are incompatible with a Boolean picture. This is challenging for standard analyses of ICs, as well as for several nonclassical analyses. Some trivalent theories, conversely, may account for the data.
{"title":"Nonboolean Conditionals","authors":"P. Santorio, Alexis Wellwood","doi":"10.3765/elm.2.5377","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3765/elm.2.5377","url":null,"abstract":"On standard analyses, indicative conditionals behave in a Boolean fashion when interacting with and and or. We test this prediction by investigating probability judgments about sentences of the form \"If A, then B {and, or} if C, then D\". Our findings are incompatible with a Boolean picture. This is challenging for standard analyses of ICs, as well as for several nonclassical analyses. Some trivalent theories, conversely, may account for the data.","PeriodicalId":154565,"journal":{"name":"Experiments in Linguistic Meaning","volume":"103 2","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"120992912","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
We investigate experimentally whether American English adult speakers are influenced in their interpretation of mustn’t by pragmatic context (contexts favoring lack of necessity/necessity not to readings) and/or the semantic properties of the verbal complements of the modal (verbs denoting events in the physical realm vs. verbs expressing undesirable mental activities). In an experiment combining a forced choice task and a gradient acceptability task, participants saw sentences containing mustn’t and physical events/negative mental activities in lack of necessity/necessity not to contexts (e.g., You mustn’t worry. The woman will give you money) They had to choose the most suitable interpretation of mustn’t ('it is necessary not to'/'it is not necessary' interpretations). They then had to rate the acceptability of the sentences containing mustn’t in context on a Likert scale from 1 to 7. We find that participants split into two groups: an Interdiction Group, which always treated mustn’t as expressing interdiction, and a Variation Group, which tended to interpret mustn’t as lack of necessity when the context favored such a reading and when the verbal complement the modal combined with was a negative mental activity. We argue that the lack of necessity reading of mustn’t is obtained via pragmatic weakening from its primary interdiction reading, and that this process is sensitive to context, as well as to the cognitive difficulty of imposing or forbidding mental (but not physical) activities to others.
{"title":"You must worry! The interpretation of mustn’t varies with context and verbal complement","authors":"A. C. Bleotu, Anton Benz, R. Pǎtrunjel","doi":"10.3765/elm.2.5372","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3765/elm.2.5372","url":null,"abstract":"We investigate experimentally whether American English adult speakers are influenced in their interpretation of mustn’t by pragmatic context (contexts favoring lack of necessity/necessity not to readings) and/or the semantic properties of the verbal complements of the modal (verbs denoting events in the physical realm vs. verbs expressing undesirable mental activities). In an experiment combining a forced choice task and a gradient acceptability task, participants saw sentences containing mustn’t and physical events/negative mental activities in lack of necessity/necessity not to contexts (e.g., You mustn’t worry. The woman will give you money) They had to choose the most suitable interpretation of mustn’t ('it is necessary not to'/'it is not necessary' interpretations). They then had to rate the acceptability of the sentences containing mustn’t in context on a Likert scale from 1 to 7. We find that participants split into two groups: an Interdiction Group, which always treated mustn’t as expressing interdiction, and a Variation Group, which tended to interpret mustn’t as lack of necessity when the context favored such a reading and when the verbal complement the modal combined with was a negative mental activity. We argue that the lack of necessity reading of mustn’t is obtained via pragmatic weakening from its primary interdiction reading, and that this process is sensitive to context, as well as to the cognitive difficulty of imposing or forbidding mental (but not physical) activities to others.","PeriodicalId":154565,"journal":{"name":"Experiments in Linguistic Meaning","volume":"5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123926052","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
We report three experiments, in which we combined self-paced reading with picture-sentence verification to test how reading times are affected by meaning-related processes. In particular, we investigated German sentences containing the universal quantifier alle (“all”) and examined how restrictive processes incrementally interact with other aspects of quantifier meaning, comparably to previous studies using other methods. Our results show that reading times were sensitive towards a match between context and sentence meaning and also towards an interaction between picture complexity and task demands. The results also point to the need for integrated processing models that combine refined notions of the relation between memory and expectations, on the one hand, with assumptions about adaptive processes and about representations involved in compositional interpretation, on the other.
{"title":"Reading times show effects of contextual complexity and uncertainty in comprehension of German universal quantifiers","authors":"Fabian Schlotterbeck, Petra Augurzky","doi":"10.3765/elm.2.5392","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3765/elm.2.5392","url":null,"abstract":"We report three experiments, in which we combined self-paced reading with picture-sentence verification to test how reading times are affected by meaning-related processes. In particular, we investigated German sentences containing the universal quantifier alle (“all”) and examined how restrictive processes incrementally interact with other aspects of quantifier meaning, comparably to previous studies using other methods. Our results show that reading times were sensitive towards a match between context and sentence meaning and also towards an interaction between picture complexity and task demands. The results also point to the need for integrated processing models that combine refined notions of the relation between memory and expectations, on the one hand, with assumptions about adaptive processes and about representations involved in compositional interpretation, on the other.","PeriodicalId":154565,"journal":{"name":"Experiments in Linguistic Meaning","volume":"15 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115520319","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In this paper, we analyze how different temporal and referential properties of past-referring adverbials – specifically, hodiernality and deixis – are partially responsible for the crosslinguistic distribution of PAST and PERFECT markers across Dutch, Spanish, and English. To that end, we conducted an acceptability judgment task, where 160 subjects per language rated context-sentence pairs that display either a PAST or a PERFECT marker, and a temporal adverbial that is: (i) either temporally close to or temporally far from the speech time, and (ii), either deictic or not deictic. Results show that: (a) Dutch allows for its PERFECT marker to combine with any past-referring temporal adverbial, (b) Spanish only allows its PERFECT marker to combine with adverbials that locate the event temporally close to speech time, regardless of deixis, and (iii) that English prefers its PAST marker in all past-referring situations, but allows its PERFECT to combine with adverbials that are both deictic and temporally close to speech time, particularly when the adverb specifies an interval that is included in the day of utterance (e.g., this morning), as opposed to adverbs that describe an interval that includes it (e.g., this month).
{"title":"Crosslinguistic differences on the Present Perfect Puzzle: An experimental approach","authors":"Martín Fuchs, Martijn van der Klis","doi":"10.3765/elm.2.5366","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3765/elm.2.5366","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper, we analyze how different temporal and referential properties of past-referring adverbials – specifically, hodiernality and deixis – are partially responsible for the crosslinguistic distribution of PAST and PERFECT markers across Dutch, Spanish, and English. To that end, we conducted an acceptability judgment task, where 160 subjects per language rated context-sentence pairs that display either a PAST or a PERFECT marker, and a temporal adverbial that is: (i) either temporally close to or temporally far from the speech time, and (ii), either deictic or not deictic. Results show that: (a) Dutch allows for its PERFECT marker to combine with any past-referring temporal adverbial, (b) Spanish only allows its PERFECT marker to combine with adverbials that locate the event temporally close to speech time, regardless of deixis, and (iii) that English prefers its PAST marker in all past-referring situations, but allows its PERFECT to combine with adverbials that are both deictic and temporally close to speech time, particularly when the adverb specifies an interval that is included in the day of utterance (e.g., this morning), as opposed to adverbs that describe an interval that includes it (e.g., this month). ","PeriodicalId":154565,"journal":{"name":"Experiments in Linguistic Meaning","volume":"162 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122003436","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The study of clausal ellipsis in sentence processing has revealed that comprehenders are sensitive to multiple, sometimes conflicting, pressures when recovering elided content. This paper presents a pupillometry experiment investigating how the human language processing system responds to sentences in which the location of a pitch accent clashes with global preferences for local correlates. The results are discussed in light of existing literature, including the Enduring Focus Principle, in which locations for default pitch accent continue to influence focus-sensitive processes regardless of overt markers of focus.
{"title":"The enduring effects of default focus in let alone ellipsis: Evidence from pupillometry.","authors":"J. Harris","doi":"10.3765/elm.2.5363","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3765/elm.2.5363","url":null,"abstract":"The study of clausal ellipsis in sentence processing has revealed that comprehenders are sensitive to multiple, sometimes conflicting, pressures when recovering elided content. This paper presents a pupillometry experiment investigating how the human language processing system responds to sentences in which the location of a pitch accent clashes with global preferences for local correlates. The results are discussed in light of existing literature, including the Enduring Focus Principle, in which locations for default pitch accent continue to influence focus-sensitive processes regardless of overt markers of focus.","PeriodicalId":154565,"journal":{"name":"Experiments in Linguistic Meaning","volume":"34 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126585284","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The paper presents novel experimental data regarding reports of non-doxastic attitudes (expressed by verbs such as “wants”, “fear”, “is glad”, and etc.) As observed by some theorists, non-doxastic attitude ascriptions differ from the ascriptions of doxastic attitudes (e.g., “believes”) in that they do not support simple entailments or presuppositions of their complement clause. In particular, an ascription may intuitively change its truth-value if we alter the informational structure of the embedded clause without modifying its truth conditions. We present two experiments whose results support this observation. Experiment 1 shows that the truth-value and acceptability judgements of non-doxastic attitude ascriptions in a context generally depend on the informational structure of the embedded clause. Experiment 2 reveals that the truth-value judgements vary if we manipulate not only the “presupposition-assertion” structure of embedded clause, but also the components related to non-presuppositional entailments of the clause. This conclusion suggests that the contents on which attitude verbs operate should be represented as structured entities.
{"title":"Semantics of Non-Doxastic Attitude Ascriptions from Experimental Perspective","authors":"Wojciech Rostworowski, K. Kuś, Bartosz Maćkiewicz","doi":"10.3765/elm.2.5364","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3765/elm.2.5364","url":null,"abstract":"The paper presents novel experimental data regarding reports of non-doxastic attitudes (expressed by verbs such as “wants”, “fear”, “is glad”, and etc.) As observed by some theorists, non-doxastic attitude ascriptions differ from the ascriptions of doxastic attitudes (e.g., “believes”) in that they do not support simple entailments or presuppositions of their complement clause. In particular, an ascription may intuitively change its truth-value if we alter the informational structure of the embedded clause without modifying its truth conditions. We present two experiments whose results support this observation. Experiment 1 shows that the truth-value and acceptability judgements of non-doxastic attitude ascriptions in a context generally depend on the informational structure of the embedded clause. Experiment 2 reveals that the truth-value judgements vary if we manipulate not only the “presupposition-assertion” structure of embedded clause, but also the components related to non-presuppositional entailments of the clause. This conclusion suggests that the contents on which attitude verbs operate should be represented as structured entities.","PeriodicalId":154565,"journal":{"name":"Experiments in Linguistic Meaning","volume":"48 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"117302487","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sentence judgment tasks are used often in linguistics studies. However, there is no consensus on how significant the effect of instruction is in such tasks: some argue that instruction is trivial, while others argue that they affect the way participants respond. In this study, we investigate different keywords used in sentence judgment tasks and determine which keyword best teases apart speakers' response to semantically and pragmatically licit and illicit sentences. We test this in English and Mandarin, exploring the possibility of cross-linguistic variation on how speakers respond to different keywords. Our results show that the common keywords used in semantic and pragmatic judgment tasks such as 'natural' do distinguish semantic and pragmatic violations for English speakers, but that the common Mandarin translations of these words fail to distinguish between the two types of violations. Our results highlight the need for language- and study-specific norming procedures in sentence judgment tasks.
{"title":"Effects of instruction on semantic and pragmatic judgment tasks","authors":"Ziling Zhu, Dorothy Ahn","doi":"10.3765/elm.2.5380","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3765/elm.2.5380","url":null,"abstract":"Sentence judgment tasks are used often in linguistics studies. However, there is no consensus on how significant the effect of instruction is in such tasks: some argue that instruction is trivial, while others argue that they affect the way participants respond. In this study, we investigate different keywords used in sentence judgment tasks and determine which keyword best teases apart speakers' response to semantically and pragmatically licit and illicit sentences. We test this in English and Mandarin, exploring the possibility of cross-linguistic variation on how speakers respond to different keywords. Our results show that the common keywords used in semantic and pragmatic judgment tasks such as 'natural' do distinguish semantic and pragmatic violations for English speakers, but that the common Mandarin translations of these words fail to distinguish between the two types of violations. Our results highlight the need for language- and study-specific norming procedures in sentence judgment tasks.","PeriodicalId":154565,"journal":{"name":"Experiments in Linguistic Meaning","volume":"5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126098406","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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