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{
    "pk": 29436,
    "title": "Informational goals, sentence structure, and comparison class inference",
    "subtitle": null,
    "abstract": "Understanding a gradable adjective (e.g., big) requires mak-ing reference to a comparison class, a set of objects or entitiesagainst which the referent is implicitly compared (e.g., big fora Great Dane), but how do listeners decide upon a compari-son class? Simple models of semantic composition stipulatethat the adjective combines with a noun, which necessarily be-comes the comparison class (e.g., “That Great Dane is big”means big for a Great Dane). We investigate an alternativehypothesis built on the idea that the utility of a noun in anadjectival utterance can be either for reference (getting the lis-tener to attend to the right object) or predication (describing aproperty of the referent). Therefore, we hypothesize that whenthe presence of a noun N can be explained away by its util-ity in reference (e.g., being in the subject position: “That N isbig”), it is less likely to set the comparison class. Across threepre-registered experiments, we find evidence that listeners usethe noun as a cue to infer comparison classes consistent with atrade-off between reference and predication. This work high-lights the complexity of the relation between the form of anutterance and its meaning.",
    "language": "eng",
    "license": {
        "name": "",
        "short_name": "",
        "text": null,
        "url": ""
    },
    "keywords": [
        {
            "word": "comparison class; adjectives; information struc-ture; reference; predication"
        }
    ],
    "section": "Language and Meaning",
    "is_remote": true,
    "remote_url": "https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7t41d5rp",
    "frozenauthors": [
        {
            "first_name": "Michael",
            "middle_name": "Henry",
            "last_name": "Tessler",
            "name_suffix": "",
            "institution": "MIT",
            "department": ""
        },
        {
            "first_name": "Polina",
            "middle_name": "",
            "last_name": "Tsvilodub",
            "name_suffix": "",
            "institution": "Osnabruck University",
            "department": ""
        },
        {
            "first_name": "Jesse",
            "middle_name": "",
            "last_name": "Snedeker",
            "name_suffix": "",
            "institution": "Harvard University",
            "department": ""
        },
        {
            "first_name": "Roger",
            "middle_name": "P.",
            "last_name": "Levy",
            "name_suffix": "",
            "institution": "MIT",
            "department": ""
        }
    ],
    "date_submitted": null,
    "date_accepted": null,
    "date_published": "2020-01-01T18:00:00Z",
    "render_galley": null,
    "galleys": [
        {
            "label": "PDF",
            "type": "pdf",
            "path": "https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cognitivesciencesociety/article/29436/galley/19296/download/"
        }
    ]
}