Davies, C orcid.org/0000-0001-9347-7905 and Katsos, N (2009) Are interlocutors as sensitive to over-informativeness as they are to under-informativeness? In: Proceedings of the Workshop on Production of Referring Expressions: Bridging Computational and Psycholinguistic Approaches. PRE-CogSci 2009, 29 Jul 2009, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. PRE-CogSci-09, Amsterdam
Abstract
Research by Engelhardt, Bailey and Ferreira (2006) suggests that speakers avoid under-informativeness and listeners penalise it, but that neither of these behaviours apply to overinformativeness. We argue that what may appear as lack of sensitivity to over-informativeness is in fact preference for information that, even though it is not contributing to the unique identification of a referent, it is nevertheless addressee-oriented and pragmatically motivated because it minimizes the risk of ambiguity. In experiments 1A and 1B, where we remove the addressee-oriented motivation for over-informing that was implicit in Engelhardt et al’s experiments, we document that speakers avoid and listeners penalise overinformativeness (though less than under-informativeness). This supports the Gricean prediction of some leniency towards over-informativeness relative to under-informativeness but nevertheless sensitivity to both. In a further experiment (2), increased visual salience of an attribute, typically understood as a non-Gricean, non-addressee oriented factor, was also found to contribute to increased rates of over-informativeness in production. We conclude that a careful study of the factors that affect the production and comprehension of referring expressions is needed to identify cases where over-informing is in fact the optimal choice for speakers, or for listeners, or for both. Computational modelling of the relevant constraints could lead to further testable predictions.
Metadata
Item Type: | Proceedings Paper |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Keywords: | Pragmatics; Informativeness; Referential Expressions; Speaker - and Hearer - oriented factors |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures (Leeds) > School of Languages Cultures & Societies (Leeds) > Linguistics & Phonetics (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 06 May 2014 09:39 |
Last Modified: | 28 Feb 2020 09:56 |
Published Version: | http://pre2009.uvt.nl/pdf/davies_katsos_7_8.pdf |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | PRE-CogSci-09, Amsterdam |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:78607 |