Probability and implicatures: A unified account of the scalar effects of disjunction under modals

Santorio, Paolo; Romoli, Jacopo

doi:10.3765/sp.10.13

Cited by 18 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“… See Meyer (2018) and references therein.2 SeeKratzer and Shimoyama (2002), AlonsoOvalle (2005),Fox (2007),Bar-Lev and Fox (2017),Bar-Lev (2018),Klinedinst (2007),Franke (2011),Santorio and Romoli (2017),Chemla (2010), among others.…”

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confidence: 99%

Choice and prohibition in non-monotonic contexts

2020

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Disjunctions in the scope of possibility modals give rise to a conjunctive inference, generally referred to as 'free choice.' For example, Emma can take Spanish or Calculus suggests that Emma can take Spanish and can take Calculus. This inference is not valid on standard semantics for modals in combination with a Boolean semantics for disjunction. Hence free choice has sparked a whole industry of theories in philosophy of language and semantics. This paper investigates free choice in sentences involving a non-monotonic modified numeral, under which we embed a possibility modal scoping over disjunction. One example is Exactly one student can(not) take Spanish or Calculus. As we point out, the presence (or absence) of certain readings of these sentences is a key test for a prominent approach, which analyzes free choice as a kind of scalar implicature. We report on two experiments investigating the readings of such sentences, using an inferential task. Our results are challenging for the implicature approach. We sketch two possible solutions within this approach, either adopting a different recent implicature algorithm, or exploring a different meaning for modified numerals with exactly. Both of them suffer from a variety of problems. We then discuss a third solution, which exploits a recent account of free choice based on homogeneity. This approach can account for our results, in combination with plausible assumptions about homogeneity projection, though it too has open issues with related cases. Regardless of which solution is chosen, non-monotonic contexts turn out to be an important test case for theories of free choice, implicature, and modified numerals.

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confidence: 99%

Choice and prohibition in non-monotonic contexts

2020

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“…Against this background, we tested sentences like (3) and (4) using an inferential task (building on Chemla 2009;Spector 2011 andGotzner &Romoli 2017). We found clear evidence for both readings.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…For relevant discussion see Breheny, Klinedinst, Romoli & Sudo 2017 and references therein. 4 For alternative exclusion accounts, see Alonso Ovalle 2005;Klinedinst 2007;Franke 2011;Santorio & Romoli 2017;Chemla 2010. 5 On the parsing that involves only one occurrence of EXH IE , the prediction is that we simply exclude the conjunctive alternative, exactly as it happens for (8).…”

Section: Exclusion Accountsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The first proceeds by negating (or 'excluding') alternatives to a sentence and adding the information so obtained to the assertion. Accounts in this vein are the standard approach to implicature, and have been successful at capturing free choice and related phenomena (Alonso Ovalle 2005;Fox 2007;Klinedinst 2007;Chierchia 2013;Franke 2011;Santorio & Romoli 2017;Chemla 2010). The second and more recent account proceeds directly by conjoining (or 'including') alternatives to the content asserted by a sentence.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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More free choice and more inclusion: An experimental investigation of free choice in nonmonotonic environments

Gotzner

Romoli

Santorio

2018

SALT

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Disjunctions in the scope of possibility modals give rise to a conjunctive inference, generally labeled 'free choice.' A prominent approach derives free choice as a kind of scalar implicature. In this paper, we focus on the predictions of two main type of accounts within this approach, with the goal of investigating what implicature-generating algorithm best captures free choice and related data. The first is based on a standard algorithm for computing implicatures, which proceeds by negating (or 'excluding') alternatives to a sentence and adding the information so obtained to the assertion. The second proceeds by directly conjoining alternatives to the assertion (or 'including' them). This paper provides evidence that discriminates between the exclusion and the inclusion accounts. We focus on sentences involving possibility modals and disjunctions in the scope of nonmonotonic quantifiers: our key example is Exactly one girl cannot take Spanish or Calculus. We report on an inferential task experiment testing this case. We find clear evidence that the sentence has a free-choice-type reading, on which it suggests that one girl cannot take either Spanish or Calculus and all of the others can choose between the two. This is challenging for exclusion accounts, but in line with the predictions of inclusion accounts. This case constitutes, therefore, an argument for inclusion accounts.

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“… See Simons (2005),Fusco (2015),Aloni (2016a, b),Starr (2016b),Willer (2018) for semantic approaches andKratzer and Shimoyama (2002),Fox (2007),Franke (2011) andSantorio and Romoli (2017) for pragmatic approaches.65 In a modification, Aloni (2019) recovers this type of disjunction via a mechanism of pragmatic enrichment, rather than through the semantic clause for disjunction.…”

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Semantic expressivism for epistemic modals

Hawke

Steinert‐Threlkeld

2020

Linguist and Philos

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Expressivists about epistemic modals deny that 'Jane might be late' canonically serves to express the speaker's acceptance of a certain propositional content. Instead, they hold that it expresses a lack of acceptance (that Jane isn't late). Prominent expressivists embrace pragmatic expressivism: the doxastic property expressed by a declarative is not helpfully identified with (any part of) that sentence's compositional semantic value. Against this, we defend semantic expressivism about epistemic modals: the semantic value of a declarative from this domain is (partly) the property of doxastic attitudes it canonically serves to express. In support, we synthesize data from the critical literature on expressivism-largely reflecting interactions between modals and disjunctions-and present a semantic expressivism that readily predicts the data. This contrasts with salient competitors, including: pragmatic expressivism based on domain semantics or dynamic semantics; semantic expressivism à la Moss (Semant

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Probability and implicatures: A unified account of the scalar effects of disjunction under modals

Cited by 18 publications

References 41 publications

Choice and prohibition in non-monotonic contexts

Choice and prohibition in non-monotonic contexts

More free choice and more inclusion: An experimental investigation of free choice in nonmonotonic environments

Semantic expressivism for epistemic modals

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