Pragmatics: From Theory to Experiment and Back Again

This paper reviews some cases in which the collaboration of theoretical pragmaticians and psychologists of language has been most fruitful for all parties. Linguists have benefited from experimental data confirming the psychological validity of their observations and providing theorycritical evidence in cases beyond the reach of reflective intuition, while psychologists have benefited from having a wealth of linguistic phenomena to study as well as multiple theories furnished by semantics and pragmatics. Focusing on the much-discussed question of whether scalar implicature is a default inference, we aim to showcase the benefits of the experimental approach to pragmatics.

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2010
• Where: LLC
• Authors: Napoleon Katsos, Chris Cummins
• Keywords: LLC 2010, Much-discussed Question, Programming Languages, Reflective Intuition, Scalar Implicature