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ERIC Number: EJ1345628
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2022
Pages: 16
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1048-9223
EISSN: EISSN-1532-7817
QUD Sensitivity in the Computation of Scalar Implicatures in Second Language Acquisition
Starr, Glenn; Cho, Jacee
Language Acquisition: A Journal of Developmental Linguistics, v29 n2 p182-197 2022
This study aims to investigate adult L2 speakers' use of different types of information in the comprehension of pragmatic inferences by examining L1-Mandarin Chinese L2-English speakers' sensitivity to cues "all" and "any" in scalar implicature (SI) computation for "some." This article and our experimental setup does not seek to understand how the question under discussion (QUD) affects implicature derivation. Rather, we examine whether comprehension of scalar sentences is modulated by QUD. We used an acceptability judgment task in which the felicitousness of the target response containing "some" in a given picture is manipulated by the QUD containing "all" or "any." The interpretation of "some" depends on the QUD. For instance, in the question "Are all/any of the squares red?," "all" primes an implicature "Some but not all squares are red" reading, whereas "any" does not. Linear mixed-effects regression analysis conducted on z-score transformed Likert-scale ratings with QUD type ("all"/"any") and Group (native vs. L2 speakers) showed that native speakers differentiated between "any" and "all" in their ratings for target sentences with "some," but L2 speakers did not. That is, native speakers rated target infelicitous sentences with some in the QUD-"any" condition significantly higher than in the QUD-"all" condition. Though we stress that these results must be considered exploratory in nature, our findings are in line with the proposal that native and L2 speakers differ in the type of information they attend to during language comprehension.
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A