{"pk":25671,"title":"The pragmatics of negation across contexts","subtitle":null,"abstract":"Why do some negative sentences sound strange, even when\nthey are both true and grammatical? We explore the pragmatics\nof negation by examining adults’ explicit felicity judgments\nof negative sentences in context. In Experiment 1, we found\nthat a pragmatically supportive context elicited higher felicity\nratings for negative sentences, and that negative sentences\nexpressing nonexistence were rated higher than negative sentences\nreferring to an alternative object. In Experiment 2, we\nused a within-subjects design to compare three context types,\nand found that negative sentences were rated more felicitous in\na context where most of the characters possessed the negated\nobject, compared to contexts where the other characters possessed\nan alternative object or nothing. We discuss the pragmatics\nof negation in light of these results, arguing that the\nfelicity of negative sentences is influenced by changes in the\ninformativeness of these sentences in different contexts","language":"eng","license":{"name":"","short_name":"","text":null,"url":""},"keywords":[{"word":"Negation; felicity judgments; pragmatics"}],"section":"Papers","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/401783vw","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Ann","middle_name":"E","last_name":"Nordmeyer","name_suffix":"","institution":"Stanford University","department":""},{"first_name":"Michael","middle_name":"C","last_name":"Frank","name_suffix":"","institution":"Stanford 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/25671/galley/15295/download/"}]}