Richard Breheny
Biographic Data
| ID | 1497846 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Richard Breheny |
| GIVEN NAMES | Richard |
| FAMILY NAME | Breheny |
| SIGNATURE | BREHENY R |
| AFFILIATIONS | University College London |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7801-9914 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 12 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2003 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
The ups and downs of ignorance
Plain disjunctive sentences, such as The mystery box contains a blue ball or a yellow ball, typically imply that the speaker does not know which of the two disjuncts is true. This is known as an ignorance inference. We can distinguish between two aspects of this inference: the negated universal upper bound part (i.e., the speaker is uncertain about each disjunct), which we call uncertainty, and the existential lower bound part (i.e., the speaker …
What Makes Linguistic Inferences Robust?
Sentences involving embedded disjunctions give rise to distributive and free choice inferences. These inferences exhibit certain characteristics of Scalar Implicatures (SIs) and some researchers have proposed to treat them as such. This proposal, however, faces an important challenge: experimental results have shown that the two inferences are more robust, faster to process, and easier to acquire than regular SIs. A common response to this challe…
Implicature priming, salience, and context adaptation
Recent experimental research has observed two kinds of priming effects on quantity implicatures. One is the Strong-Weak contrast, where more quantity implicatures are observed after prime trials forcing interpretations with quantity implicatures ('Strong primes') than after prime trials forcing interpretations without quantity implicatures ('Weak primes'). The other effect is the Alternative-Weak contrast, where prime trials mentioning alternativ…
The role of Alternatives in the interpretation of scalars and numbers: Insights Insights from the inference task
Numerical noun phrases (NNPs) are ambiguous between at least two and exactly two interpretations. This ambiguity has been commonly discussed as a case of Scalar Implicature (SI), where meaning is enriched by exclusion of an alternative. But the SI approach to NNPs has also been widely challenged. We tested NNPs and scalar expressions in inference tasks and found that scalars were sensitive to a manipulation that altered the relevance of alternati…
Negative free choice
Free Choice (FC) is an inference arising from the interaction between existential modals and disjunction. Schematically, a sentence of the form permitted(A or B) gives rise to the inference ◊A∧◊B. Many competing theories of FC have been proposed but they can be classified into two main groups: one group derives FC as an entailment, while the other derives it as an implicature. By contrast, Negative Free Choice (NFC), the corresponding inference f…
Representing Polar Questions
Although the linguistic properties of polar questions have been extensively studied, comparatively little is known about how polar questions are processed in real time. In this paper, we report on three eye-tracking experiments on the processing of positive and negative polar questions in English and French. Our results show that in the early stages, participants pay attention to both positive and negative states of affairs for both positive and …
Verifying Negative Sentences
In the long history of psycholinguistic research on verifying negative sentences, an often-reported finding is that participants take longer to correctly judge negative sentences true than false, while being faster to judge their positive counterparts true (e.g. Clark & Chase, Cogn Psychol 3(3):472−517, 1972; Carpenter & Just, Psychol Rev 82(1):45-73, 1975). While many linguists and psycholinguists have strongly advocated the idea that the costs …
Negation
Negation has long been of interest to logicians and philosophers, and relatively recently to psycholinguists and pragmatists. In terms of the processing of negation, psycholinguistics studies have shown two effects that call for an explanation: the first is the asymmetry between its frequent use in natural language and its apparent processing costs, often reported in psycholinguistics studies; the second is the finding that, in early stages of pr…
Scalar Implicatures
This chapter reviews recent experimental research into questions about how language and other functions of the mind are integrated when humans communicate. It posits a Gricean system that serves this purpose and discusses how recent developmental and ethological research provides evidence for such a system’s existence. Subsequently it focuses on the much-studied phenomenon of scalar implicature. It first considers the phenomenon of scalar implica…
Shared mechanism underlying unembedded and embedded enrichments: Evidence from enrichment priming
In this paper, we use a priming paradigm to explore the mechanisms underlyingunembedded and embedded scalar enrichments. In particular, the aim is to see if localpragmatic enrichment could be a shared mechanism, involved in both. The two experimentspresented adopt Bott & Chemla's (2016) enrichment priming paradigm and test whetherunembedded and embedded enrichments could prime each other. The goal is to investigatewhether local pragmatic enrichme…
The symmetry problem: Current Theories and Prospects
The structural approach to alternatives (Katzir in Linguist Philos 30(6):669–690, 2007; Fox and Katzir in Nat Lang Semant 19(1):87–107, 2011; Katzir in Semantics, pragmatics and the case of scalar implicatures, Palgrave Macmillan, London, pp 40–71, 2014) is the most developed attempt in the literature at solving the symmetry problem of scalar implicatures. Problematic data with indirect and particularised scalar implicatures have however been rai…
Experimental pragmatics
Listeners' eyes reveal spontaneous sensitivity to others' perspectives
Meaning and Analysis: New Essays on Grice
The anthology 'Meaning and Analysis' addresses the key topics of H. Paul Grice's philosophy of language, such as rationality, non-natural meaning, communicative actions, conversational implicatures, t
A New Look at the Semantics and Pragmatics of Numerically Quantified Noun Phrases
This paper presents some arguments against a unilateral account of numerically quantified noun phrases (NQNPs) and for a bilateral account of such expressions. It is proposed that where NQNP give rise to at least readings, this is the result of one of the two forms of pragmatic reasoning. To that end, the paper develops an independently motivated account of specificity and existential closure involving diagonalization. 1
Are generalised scalar implicatures generated by default? An on-line investigation into the role of context in generating pragmatic inferences
Commentary on ‘exaption and linguistic explanation’
Optimality Theory and Pragmatics
The symmetry problem: Current Theories and Prospects
The structural approach to alternatives (Katzir in Linguist Philos 30(6):669–690, 2007; Fox and Katzir in Nat Lang Semant 19(1):87–107, 2011; Katzir in Semantics, pragmatics and the case of scalar implicatures, Palgrave Macmillan, London, pp 40–71, 2014) is the most developed attempt in the literature at solving the symmetry problem of scalar implicatures. Problematic data with indirect and particularised scalar implicatures have however been rai…
Representing Polar Questions
Although the linguistic properties of polar questions have been extensively studied, comparatively little is known about how polar questions are processed in real time. In this paper, we report on three eye-tracking experiments on the processing of positive and negative polar questions in English and French. Our results show that in the early stages, participants pay attention to both positive and negative states of affairs for both positive and …
Verifying Negative Sentences
In the long history of psycholinguistic research on verifying negative sentences, an often-reported finding is that participants take longer to correctly judge negative sentences true than false, while being faster to judge their positive counterparts true (e.g. Clark & Chase, Cogn Psychol 3(3):472−517, 1972; Carpenter & Just, Psychol Rev 82(1):45-73, 1975). While many linguists and psycholinguists have strongly advocated the idea that the costs …
Listeners' eyes reveal spontaneous sensitivity to others' perspectives
Optimality Theory and Pragmatics
Commentary on ‘exaption and linguistic explanation’
Are generalised scalar implicatures generated by default? An on-line investigation into the role of context in generating pragmatic inferences
A New Look at the Semantics and Pragmatics of Numerically Quantified Noun Phrases
This paper presents some arguments against a unilateral account of numerically quantified noun phrases (NQNPs) and for a bilateral account of such expressions. It is proposed that where NQNP give rise to at least readings, this is the result of one of the two forms of pragmatic reasoning. To that end, the paper develops an independently motivated account of specificity and existential closure involving diagonalization. 1
Meaning and Analysis: New Essays on Grice
The anthology 'Meaning and Analysis' addresses the key topics of H. Paul Grice's philosophy of language, such as rationality, non-natural meaning, communicative actions, conversational implicatures, t
Experimental pragmatics
Listeners' eyes reveal spontaneous sensitivity to others' perspectives
Shared mechanism underlying unembedded and embedded enrichments: Evidence from enrichment priming
In this paper, we use a priming paradigm to explore the mechanisms underlyingunembedded and embedded scalar enrichments. In particular, the aim is to see if localpragmatic enrichment could be a shared mechanism, involved in both. The two experimentspresented adopt Bott & Chemla's (2016) enrichment priming paradigm and test whetherunembedded and embedded enrichments could prime each other. The goal is to investigatewhether local pragmatic enrichme…
The symmetry problem: Current Theories and Prospects
The structural approach to alternatives (Katzir in Linguist Philos 30(6):669–690, 2007; Fox and Katzir in Nat Lang Semant 19(1):87–107, 2011; Katzir in Semantics, pragmatics and the case of scalar implicatures, Palgrave Macmillan, London, pp 40–71, 2014) is the most developed attempt in the literature at solving the symmetry problem of scalar implicatures. Problematic data with indirect and particularised scalar implicatures have however been rai…
Negation
Negation has long been of interest to logicians and philosophers, and relatively recently to psycholinguists and pragmatists. In terms of the processing of negation, psycholinguistics studies have shown two effects that call for an explanation: the first is the asymmetry between its frequent use in natural language and its apparent processing costs, often reported in psycholinguistics studies; the second is the finding that, in early stages of pr…
Scalar Implicatures
This chapter reviews recent experimental research into questions about how language and other functions of the mind are integrated when humans communicate. It posits a Gricean system that serves this purpose and discusses how recent developmental and ethological research provides evidence for such a system’s existence. Subsequently it focuses on the much-studied phenomenon of scalar implicature. It first considers the phenomenon of scalar implica…
Negative free choice
Free Choice (FC) is an inference arising from the interaction between existential modals and disjunction. Schematically, a sentence of the form permitted(A or B) gives rise to the inference ◊A∧◊B. Many competing theories of FC have been proposed but they can be classified into two main groups: one group derives FC as an entailment, while the other derives it as an implicature. By contrast, Negative Free Choice (NFC), the corresponding inference f…
Representing Polar Questions
Although the linguistic properties of polar questions have been extensively studied, comparatively little is known about how polar questions are processed in real time. In this paper, we report on three eye-tracking experiments on the processing of positive and negative polar questions in English and French. Our results show that in the early stages, participants pay attention to both positive and negative states of affairs for both positive and …
Verifying Negative Sentences
In the long history of psycholinguistic research on verifying negative sentences, an often-reported finding is that participants take longer to correctly judge negative sentences true than false, while being faster to judge their positive counterparts true (e.g. Clark & Chase, Cogn Psychol 3(3):472−517, 1972; Carpenter & Just, Psychol Rev 82(1):45-73, 1975). While many linguists and psycholinguists have strongly advocated the idea that the costs …
The role of Alternatives in the interpretation of scalars and numbers: Insights Insights from the inference task
Numerical noun phrases (NNPs) are ambiguous between at least two and exactly two interpretations. This ambiguity has been commonly discussed as a case of Scalar Implicature (SI), where meaning is enriched by exclusion of an alternative. But the SI approach to NNPs has also been widely challenged. We tested NNPs and scalar expressions in inference tasks and found that scalars were sensitive to a manipulation that altered the relevance of alternati…
What Makes Linguistic Inferences Robust?
Sentences involving embedded disjunctions give rise to distributive and free choice inferences. These inferences exhibit certain characteristics of Scalar Implicatures (SIs) and some researchers have proposed to treat them as such. This proposal, however, faces an important challenge: experimental results have shown that the two inferences are more robust, faster to process, and easier to acquire than regular SIs. A common response to this challe…
Implicature priming, salience, and context adaptation
Recent experimental research has observed two kinds of priming effects on quantity implicatures. One is the Strong-Weak contrast, where more quantity implicatures are observed after prime trials forcing interpretations with quantity implicatures ('Strong primes') than after prime trials forcing interpretations without quantity implicatures ('Weak primes'). The other effect is the Alternative-Weak contrast, where prime trials mentioning alternativ…
The ups and downs of ignorance
Plain disjunctive sentences, such as The mystery box contains a blue ball or a yellow ball, typically imply that the speaker does not know which of the two disjuncts is true. This is known as an ignorance inference. We can distinguish between two aspects of this inference: the negated universal upper bound part (i.e., the speaker is uncertain about each disjunct), which we call uncertainty, and the existential lower bound part (i.e., the speaker …
Linguistics (16 works) · Philosophy (16 works) · Computer Science (13 works) · Psychology (11 works) · Pragmatics (10 works) · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation (10 works) · Epistemology (7 works) · Cognitive psychology (6 works) · Context (archaeology) (5 works) · Implicature (5 works)