Loading...
Making the Question under Discussion explicit shifts counterfactual interpretation
Title / Series / Name
Publication Volume
Publication Issue
Pages
Authors
Editors
Keywords
QuD
consideration of alternatives
counterfactual interpretation
visual-world eye tracking
Artificial Intelligence
Computer Science Applications
Human-Computer Interaction
Cognitive Neuroscience
consideration of alternatives
counterfactual interpretation
visual-world eye tracking
Artificial Intelligence
Computer Science Applications
Human-Computer Interaction
Cognitive Neuroscience
URI
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14018/27147
Abstract
The comprehension of counterfactual statements ('If there had been zebras, there would have been lions') has been subject to much research, but two key questions remain: Can comprehenders interpret counterfactuals without relying on causal inferences? And can comprehenders reach the actual state interpretation relying only on grammatical cues, or is this interpretation triggered by communicative goals? We answer these questions by relying on non-causal counterfactuals, and by manipulating the Question under Discussion between experiments: In Exp. 1, we replicate Orenes et al. (2019), using a web-based eye-tracking paradigm. In Exp. 2, we make the QuD explicit by asking about the actual state of affairs. The results reveal that making a contextually relevant alternative explicit via the QuD shifts counterfactual interpretation, but in general, the suppositional state interpretation is preferred in non-causal counterfactuals. These results imply that the driving forces behind counterfactual processing are pragmatic, not syntactic.
Topic
Publisher
Place of Publication
Type
Conference paper
Date
2022