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ERIC Number: EJ742909
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2006-Oct
Pages: 18
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0749-596X
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Effects of What is Expected on the Focussing Properties of Quantifiers: A Test of the Presupposition-Denial Account
Moxey, Linda M.
Journal of Memory and Language, v55 n3 p422-439 Oct 2006
This paper reports three experiments that test the Presupposition-Denial account of complement set reference. According to the theory, complement set focus arises when focus is on the difference between the amount conveyed by a natural language quantifier and a large presupposed amount. We call this difference the shortfall. In this paper, what is expected is explicitly manipulated in a production study to test the theory in two ways. First it is shown that when the quantity expected by a character is much larger than that denoted by a "positive" quantifier, some participants refer anaphorically to the complement set. Thus, even without a negative natural language quantifier the existence of a shortfall leads to complement set focus. Second, it is shown that when the quantity expected by a character is none, the production of complement set reference is reduced for "negative" quantifiers. This provides strong support for shortfall as the key mechanism in the presupposition denial account. (Contains 3 tables and 6 figures.)
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A