Warm (for Winter): Inferring Comparison Classes in Communication.

ABSTRACT: The meanings of natural language utterances depend heavily on context. Yet, what counts as context is often only implicit in conversation. The utterance it's warm outside signals that the temperature outside is relatively high, but the temperature could be high relative to a number of different comparison classes: other days of the year, other weeks, other seasons, etc. Theories of context sensitivity in language agree that the comparison class is a crucial variable for understanding meaning, but little is known about how a listener decides upon the comparison class. Using the case study of gradable adjectives (e.g., warm), we extend a Bayesian model of pragmatic inference to reason flexibly about the comparison class and test its qualitative predictions in a large-scale free-production ex

SUBMITTER: Tessler MH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9286384 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature