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{
    "pk": 25582,
    "title": "Semantically underinformative utterances trigger pragmatic inferences",
    "subtitle": null,
    "abstract": "Most theories of pragmatics and language processing predict\nthat speakers avoid informationally redundant utterances.\nFrom a processing standpoint, it remains unclear what happens\nwhen listeners encounter such utterances, and how they interpret\nthem. We argue that uninformative utterances can trigger\npragmatic inferences, which increase utterance utility in line\nwith listener expectations. In this study, we look at utterances\nthat refer to stereotyped event sequences describing common\nactivities (scripts). Literature on processing of event sequences\nshows that people automatically infer component actions, once\na script is ‘invoked.’ We demonstrate that when comprehenders\nencounter utterances describing events that can be easily\ninferred from prior context, they interpret them as signifying\nthat the event conveys new, unstated information. We also\nsuggest that formal models of language comprehension would\nhave difficulty in accurately estimating the predictability or potential\nprocessing cost incurred by such utterances.",
    "language": "eng",
    "license": {
        "name": "",
        "short_name": "",
        "text": null,
        "url": ""
    },
    "keywords": [
        {
            "word": "Psycholinguistics; pragmatics; redundancy; information\ntheory."
        }
    ],
    "section": "Papers",
    "is_remote": true,
    "remote_url": "https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3f48n0tr",
    "frozenauthors": [
        {
            "first_name": "Ekaterina",
            "middle_name": "",
            "last_name": "Kravtchenko",
            "name_suffix": "",
            "institution": "Saarland University",
            "department": ""
        },
        {
            "first_name": "Vera",
            "middle_name": "",
            "last_name": "Demberg",
            "name_suffix": "",
            "institution": "Saarland University",
            "department": ""
        }
    ],
    "date_submitted": null,
    "date_accepted": null,
    "date_published": "2015-01-01T18:00:00Z",
    "render_galley": null,
    "galleys": [
        {
            "label": "PDF",
            "type": "pdf",
            "path": "https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cognitivesciencesociety/article/25582/galley/15206/download/"
        }
    ]
}