Speakers and listeners exploit word order for communicative efficiency: A cross-linguistic investigation.

Abstract

Pragmatic theories and computational models of reference must account for people's frequent use of redundant color adjectives (e.g., referring to a single triangle as 'the blue triangle'). The standard pragmatic view holds that the informativity of a referential expression depends on pragmatic contrast: color adjectives should be used to contrast competitors of the same kind to preempt an ambiguity (e.g., between two triangles of different colors), otherwise they are redundant. Here we propose an alternative to the standard view, the incremental efficiency hypothesis, according to which the efficiency of a referential expression must be calculated incrementally, over the entire visual context. This is the first theoretical account of referential efficiency that is sensitive to the incrementality of language processing, making different crosslinguistic predictions depending on word order. Experiment 1 confirmed that English speakers produced more redundant color adjectives (e.g., 'the blue triangle') than Spanish speakers (e.g., 'el triángulo azul'), but both language groups used more redundant color adjectives in denser displays where it would be more efficient. In Experiments 2a and 2b, we used eye tracking to show that pragmatic contrast is not a processing constraint. Instead, incrementality and efficiency determine that English listeners establish color contrast across categories (BLUE SHAPES > TRIANGULAR ONE), whereas Spanish listeners establish color contrast within a category (TRIANGLES > BLUE ONE). Spanish listeners, however, reversed their visual search strategy when tested in English immediately after. Our results show that speakers and listeners of different languages exploit word order to increase communicative efficiency.

Word Order Predicts Cross‐Linguistic Differences in the Production of Redundant Color and Number Modifiers

“…Furthermore, we found no difference in the number of redundant number modifiers that were produced across English and Spanish speakers. This matches the predictions of the incremental efficiency hypothesis (Rubio‐Fernández et al, 2020), which states that speakers try to choose referential descriptions that make the referent easy for listeners to find. Accordingly, English speakers often include redundant color words to cue listeners’ visual search before they encounter the noun, and both English and Spanish speakers often include redundant number words as similar cues.…”

“…The design and materials were adapted from Rubio‐Fernández et al (2020). More specifically, our study was identical to the four‐shape condition in Experiment 2 except that it was conducted online instead of being run in‐person.…”

“…1, for example, “the red circle,” even though the description “the circle” is sufficient. Even more interestingly, Rubio‐Fernández et al (2020) observed that Spanish speakers tend to produce fewer redundant color words than English speakers. Thus, while an English speaker might refer to the boxed object in Fig.…”

“…According to Grice’s Maxim of Quantity, to communicate successfully, people should say enough to uniquely identify a referent, but avoid redundancy by saying no more than is necessary (Grice, 1975; Olson, 1970). Interestingly, however, people often use redundant adjectives in referential communication (Engelhardt, Bailey, & Ferreira, 2006; Koolen, Goudbeek, & Krahmer, 2013; Sedivy, 2005), especially redundant color words (Arts, Maes, Noordman, & Jansen, 2011a, 2011b; Brown‐Schmidt & Konopka, 2011; Rubio‐Fernández, 2016, 2019; Rubio‐Fernández & Jara‐Ettinger, 2020; Rubio‐Fernández, Mollica, & Jara‐Ettinger, 2020). For instance, people will often produce both color and shape words to label objects in Fig.…”

“…To explain this finding, Rubio‐Fernández et al (2020) appealed to the different word orders for adjectives and nouns across the two languages. In English, color adjectives are prenominal and come before their head nouns, whereas in Spanish they are postnominal and come after.…”