1. On the Italian Molto and Tanto and the differences with the Slovenian Precej and VelikoGreta Mazzaggio, Penka Stateva, 2023, published scientific conference contribution abstract Abstract: The present work is based on a previous study in which Stateva and Stepanov (2017) compare speakers’ comprehension of two Slovenian m(any)-words, veliko and precej. S&S argue for a degree analysis of the two quantifiers suggesting that they are semantically equivalent but subject to different mechanisms of pragmatic enrichment. We present the results of two experiments that use the S&S protocol in order to assess i) the comprehension of two Italian translational equivalents of these m-words, namely, molti and tanti, and ii) potential crosslinguistic influence in the context of Italian-Slovenian bilingualism. Our results suggest that Italian m-words have the same numerical bounds even in direct competition in contrast to their Slovenian counterparts. Italian L2 speakers of Slovenian fail to differentiate between the two m-words in Slovenian which suggests that this aspect of L2 acquisition is subject to negative transfer. Keywords: amount quantifier, Italian, bilingualism, negative transfer, pragmatic enrichment Published in RUNG: 27.03.2023; Views: 454; Downloads: 0 This document has many files! More... |
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10. Quantifiers and pragmatic enrichmentPenka Stateva, unpublished invited conference lecture Abstract: One of the most studied scales in the literature on scalar implicatures is the quantifier scale. While the truth of 'some' is entailed by the truth of 'all', 'some' is felicitous only when 'all' is false. This opens the possibility that 'some' would be felicitous if, e.g., almost all of the objects in the restriction of the quantifier have the property ascribed by the nuclear scope. This prediction from the standard theory of quantifier interpretation clashes with native speakers’ intuitions. In Experiment 1 we report a questionnaire study on the perception of quantifier meanings in English, French, Slovenian and German which points to a cross-linguistic variation with respect to the perception of numerical bounds of the existential quantifier. In Experiment 2, using a picture choice task, we further examine whether the numerical bound differences correlate with differences in pragmatic interpretations of the quantifier 'some' in English and 'quelques' in French and interpret the results as supporting our hypothesis that 'some' and its cross-linguistic counterparts are subjected to different processes of pragmatic enrichment. Keywords: quantifier, cross-linguistic variation, experimental pragmatics, picture choice task Published in RUNG: 15.05.2019; Views: 2752; Downloads: 0 This document has many files! More... |