Generation of scalar implicatures in Spanish-speaking adults and children: The role the Question Under Discussion

  • Amy S. Pratt The Ohio State University
  • John A. Grinstead The Ohio State University
  • Nicolette Leon The Ohio State University
  • Ramón Padilla-Reyes The Ohio State University
Keywords: developmental semantics, developmental pragmatics, indefinites, pragmatics, semantics

Abstract

Independent lines of research have examined both what children know about pragmatic implicatures and, with respect to quantifier scope, the role of structuring experimental discourse with an explicit Question Under Discussion (QUD) to make interpretations easier for children to access. Our research question was whether an explicit QUD can facilitate the generation of implicatures. We compared two specific QUDs to determine whether the level of specificity is important. Results showed that adults, but not children, generated implicatures and that their judgments were more categorical than in previous research. General vs. specific QUD were not significantly different.

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Author Biographies

Amy S. Pratt, The Ohio State University
Amy S. Pratt: Ph.D., Postdoctoral Scholar, School of Education, University of Ca­lifornia, Irvine. Her research investigates the co-occurrence of language and reading disorders, especially in children who speak Spanish, and the underlying relationships among language ability, reading ability, and cognition.
John A. Grinstead, The Ohio State University
John A. Grinstead: Ph.D., Professor, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, De­partment of Linguistics, Department of Speech and Hearing Science, The Ohio State University. Academic Interests include typical and atypical linguistic and cognitive development, especially in Spanish; the relationships among mental faculties, formal theories of linguistics and language development.
Nicolette Leon, The Ohio State University
Nicolette Leon: B.A., Department of Spanish and Portuguese, The Ohio State University. Academic interests include child language development, second language acquisition and Spanish-English bilingualism.Academic Interests include typical and atypical linguistic and cognitive development, especially in Spanish; the relationships among mental faculties, formal theories of linguistics and language development. 
Ramón Padilla-Reyes, The Ohio State University
Ramón Padilla-Reyes: Ph.D., Linguist, Facebook. Interests include Psycholinguis­tics, Semantics and Pragmatics, Philosophy of Language and Caribbean & Latin American Spanish. His research addresses pluractionality, semantic and pragmatic scales and intesionality.nguistics and language development. 

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Published
2019-12-19
How to Cite
S. Pratt, A., A. Grinstead, J., Leon, N., & Padilla-Reyes, R. (2019). Generation of scalar implicatures in Spanish-speaking adults and children: The role the Question Under Discussion. Signos Lingüísticos, 14(28). Retrieved from https://signoslinguisticos.izt.uam.mx/index.php/SL/article/view/274