21 January 2014, Logic Tea, Michael Franke

Abstract

Classically, the meaning of a quantifier is a black-and-white affair. A statement of the form "Some As are Bs", for example, is true if at least one A is also a B. But that does not mean that such a statement would be equally typical or natural for every situation in which it is true. Indeed, two recent studies have independently found consistent patterns of typical use of quantified statements. These, however, are not black-and-white at all, but rather give a gray-scale picture: typicality of use is a matter of degree. To account for the attested gradient typicality patterns, I propose a probabilistic model of a Gricean speaker, who tries to choose maximally useful utterances, in which alternative expressions can be variably salient. By estimating the latent salience of quantifier alternatives, the observed typicality judgements can be explained.

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