Embedded implicature in a new interactive paradigm

Abstract

Previous research on scalar implicature has primarily relied on metalinguistic judgment
tasks and found varying rates of such inferences depending on the nature of the task and
contextual manipulations. This paper introduces a novel interactive paradigm involving both a
production and a comprehension component, thereby fixing a precise conversational context.
The main research question is what is reliably communicated by some in this communicative
setting, when the quantifier occurs in unembedded positions as well as embedded positions.
Our new paradigm involves an action-based task from which participants’ interpretation of utterances
can be inferred. It incorporates a game–theoretic design, including a precise model
to predict participants’ behaviour in the experimental context. Our study shows that embedded
and unembedded implicatures are reliably communicated by some. We propose two cognitive
principles which describe what can be left unsaid. In our experimental context, a production
strategy based on these principles is more efficient (with equal communicative success and
shorter utterances) than a strategy based on literal descriptions.
Keywords: scalar implicature, embedded implicature, experimental pragmatics, game–theoretic
pragmatics.