Scalar Implicature

This book takes the classic inference from some to not all as a starting point to examine why scalar interpretations vary across expressions and how pragmatic enrichment unfolds in real-time comprehension. Drawing on judgment experiments, corpus-based materials, and L2 learner data, it demonstrates that cross-scale differences in implicature behavior are associated with scale structure and with the extent to which scalar expressions support different forms of pragmatic enrichment. Evidence from visual-world eye-tracking further suggests that pragmatic enrichment can emerge rapidly as comprehension unfolds. Together, these findings broaden the empirical basis for theories of scalar implicature and shed new light on the pragmatic reasoning through which scalar expressions are enriched. Scalar implicature has long provided a window into how listeners go beyond literal meaning in interpreting utterances, and this book will be of interest to researchers in semantics, pragmatics, psycholinguistics, and second language acquisition.