Chris Cummins
Biographic Data
| ID | 3824075 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Chris Cummins |
| GIVEN NAMES | Chris |
| FAMILY NAME | Cummins |
| SIGNATURE | CUMMINS C |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Edinburgh |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8708-4515 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 14 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 23 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Comparing morphosyntactic and semantic-pragmatic competence in Polish-English bilinguals: Toward a Language-neutral assessment
Evidence that certain semantic and pragmatic skills follow a similar developmental trajectory cross-linguistically suggests an important role for semantic-pragmatic tasks in the assessment of bilingual children. This study investigates whether quantifiers constitute a language-neutral linguistic category in this context. Forty-three Polish–English bilingual children aged 4–7 years completed the Quantifier Comprehension Task (QCT) and the Test for…
Arguing with numbers in social media based Covid-19 debates: A study of the argumentative functions of visual graphs
This study engages with a growing body of literature on numerical communication in COVID-19, which suggests that numbers and numerical measurements can be manipulated to shape governmental policy and public health measures. It uniquely focuses on numerical graphs generated through professional open-resource visualization tools but used by laypersons in social media debates. By combining theories of multimodality and linguistic theories of argumen…
Saving lives, saving face: Mitigated directives during out-of-hospital cardiac arrest resuscitation
This paper investigates the occurrence and structures of mitigation of directives issued during the early minutes of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest resuscitation attempts, drawing on a dialogue analysis approach based on Searle’s Speech Act Theory. We transcribed the first 5 min of 40 pre-recorded, real-life resuscitation attempts. Line-by-line dialogue annotations, based on a bespoke dialogue annotation scheme, were applied to the dialogue trans…
The discursive function of additives in interaction
The insertion of additives such as too has been argued to be obligatory (in affirmative sentences) if the immediate context contains a suitable antecedent such that the presupposition triggered by additives is satisfied. However, the obligatoriness of additives has been found to be gradient and their insertion to depend on contextual factors. While most research has focused on comprehension, the present study examines the production of additives …
Noncooperative Communication
Much of pragmatics is founded on the assumption that interlocutors are disposed to be cooperative. However, communication can still proceed in cases where this assumption is not tenable. In this article I review the extent to which cooperativity is essential to accounts of communication, with particular reference to pragmatic meaning. I discuss how hearers negotiate situations in which speakers are fully or partially uncooperative and how these s…
Strategic use of English quantifiers in the reporting of quantitative information
This study investigates how quantifiers are used strategically to serve differ-ent argumentative goals. We report two experiments on how English speak-ers describe the results of school exams when being instructed to frame theirdescriptions either as a good or bad outcome. Experiment 1 shows thatparticipants have clear preferences for specific quantifier combinations inthis task. Experiment 2 shows that, in situations where producing descrip-tion…
Epistemicity and communicative strategies
When communicating, interlocutors negotiate knowledge by proposing propositional content to be added to their shared common ground. The way in which speakers put forward propositional content -expressing more or less confidence in its truthfulness -may affect the way in which other interlocutors react to such content. This article examines speakers' production choices and hearers' interpretations of the formulations believe/know/bare assertion to…
Strategic Use of (Un)certainty Expressions
Speakers have a number of options when introducing propositions which they take to be uncertain: for instance, they can use verbs such as ‘know’, ‘believe’ or ‘think’. The production of uncertainty expressions is highly context dependent. One promising approach to capturing the semantic meaning of these expressions takes them to be available only when the speaker’s confidence in the proposition exceeds some threshold. However, it is unclear wheth…
Rational Interpretation of Numerical Quantity in Argumentative Contexts
Numerical descriptions furnish us with an apparently precise and objective way of summarising complex datasets. In practice, the issue is less clear-cut, partly because the use of numerical expressions in natural language invites inferences that go beyond their mathematical meaning, and consequently quantitative descriptions can be true but misleading. This raises important practical questions for the hearer: how should they interpret a quantitat…
A computational model of the cultural co-evolution of language and mindreading
Several evolutionary accounts of human social cognition posit that language has co-evolved with the sophisticated mindreading abilities of modern humans. It has also been argued that these mindreading abilities are the product of cultural, rather than biological, evolution. Taken together, these claims suggest that the evolution of language has played an important role in the cultural evolution of human social cognition. Here we present a new com…
The Oxford Handbook of Experimental Semantics and Pragmatics
This handbook is the first to explore the growing field of experimental semantics and pragmatics. In the past twenty years, experimental data has become a major source of evidence for building theories of language meaning and use, encompassing a wide range of topics and methods. Following an introduction from the editors, the chapters in this volume offer an up-to-date account of research in the field spanning thirty-one different topics, includi…
Oxford Handbook of Experimental Semantics and Pragmatics
This handbook is the first to explore the growing field of experimental semantics and pragmatics. In the past 20 years, experimental data has become a major source of evidence for building theories of language meaning and use, encompassing a wide range of topics and methods. Following an introduction from the editors, the chapters in this volume offer an up-to-date account of research in the field spanning 31 different topics, including scalar im…
Contextual Causes of Implicature Failure
Theoretical and empirical research on quantity implicature has concurred that pragmatically strengthened, richer readings are not available when they are not relevant to the discourse purpose. However, this claim relies on an appeal to a notion of “relevance” that has proved difficult to make precise. In this article I discuss and contrast two potential contributory factors to relevance: adherence to the Question Under Discussion, and form-based …
Training and Timing Local Scalar Enrichments under Global Pragmatic Pressures
Elementary sentences containing the quantificational determiner some seem to be ambiguous between a ‘weak’ existential meaning ∃ and a ‘strengthened’ some but not all meaning ∃+. The strengthened meaning is commonly assumed to be the output of a general enrichment mechanism, call it G (for ‘global’), that applies to the weak meaning of the sentence: G(∃) = ∃+. The application of G has been shown to come with a processing cost (e.g. Bott & Noveck …
Why only some adults reject under-informative utterances
Are single and extended metaphors processed differently? A test of two Relevance-Theoretic accounts
The Phonetics–Phonology Interface: Representations and methodologies
This volume is a collection of advanced laboratory phonology research papers concerned with the interaction between the physical and the mental aspects of speech and language. The traditional linguistic theoretic distinction between phonetics and phonology is put to the test here in a series of articles that deal with some of the fundamental issues in the field, from first and second language acquisition to segmental and supra-segmental phenomena…
Teaching and Learning Guide for Computational Approaches to the Pragmatics Problem
Typicality made familiar: A commentary on Geurts and van Tiel (2013)
In their recent paper, Geurts and van Tiel (2013) review a range of evidence on the availability of embedded scalar enrichments (upper-bound construals, or UBCs). They argue that these readings are not readily available, except when triggered by contrast effects, and conclude that the experimental data do not support a conventionalist view of implicature. They also consider how some of these data can be analysed as exhibiting typicality effects. …
Computational Approaches to the Pragmatics Problem
Unlike many aspects of human language, pragmatics involves a systematic many‐to‐many mapping between form and meaning. This renders the computational problems of encoding and decoding meaning especially challenging, both for humans in normal conversation and for artificial dialogue systems that need to understand their users' input. A particularly striking example of this difficulty is the recognition of speech act or dialogue act types. In this …
Modelling implicatures from modified numerals
Comparative and Superlative Quantifiers: Pragmatic Effects of Comparison Type
It has historically been assumed that comparative (‘more than’, ‘fewer/less than’) and superlative (‘at most’, ‘at least’) quantifiers can be semantically analysed in accordance with their core logical–mathematical properties. However, recent theoretical and experimental work has cast doubt on the validity of this assumption. Geurts & Nouwen (2007) have claimed that superlative quantifiers possess an additional modal component in their semantics …
Teaching and Learning Guide for: Pragmatics: From Theory to Experiment and Back Again
This guide accompanies the following article : Napoleon Katsos and Chris Cummins, ‘Pragmatics: From Theory to Experiment and Back Again’, Language and Linguistics Compass 4/5 (2010) pp. 282–295. DOI: 10.1111/j.1749‐818x.2010.00203.x Authors’ Introduction Experimental pragmatics has emerged in recent years as a thriving and productive domain of linguistic research. The main contribution of experimental pragmatics is twofold: first, empirical psych…
Pragmatics: From Theory to Experiment and Back Again
This article 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 theory-critical evidence in cases beyond the reach of reflective intuition, whereas psychologists have benefited from having a wealth of linguistic phenomena to study as …
Why only some adults reject under-informative utterances
Pragmatics: From Theory to Experiment and Back Again
This article 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 theory-critical evidence in cases beyond the reach of reflective intuition, whereas psychologists have benefited from having a wealth of linguistic phenomena to study as …
A computational model of the cultural co-evolution of language and mindreading
Several evolutionary accounts of human social cognition posit that language has co-evolved with the sophisticated mindreading abilities of modern humans. It has also been argued that these mindreading abilities are the product of cultural, rather than biological, evolution. Taken together, these claims suggest that the evolution of language has played an important role in the cultural evolution of human social cognition. Here we present a new com…
Are single and extended metaphors processed differently? A test of two Relevance-Theoretic accounts
Modelling implicatures from modified numerals
Comparative and Superlative Quantifiers: Pragmatic Effects of Comparison Type
It has historically been assumed that comparative (‘more than’, ‘fewer/less than’) and superlative (‘at most’, ‘at least’) quantifiers can be semantically analysed in accordance with their core logical–mathematical properties. However, recent theoretical and experimental work has cast doubt on the validity of this assumption. Geurts & Nouwen (2007) have claimed that superlative quantifiers possess an additional modal component in their semantics …
Teaching and Learning Guide for: Pragmatics: From Theory to Experiment and Back Again
This guide accompanies the following article : Napoleon Katsos and Chris Cummins, ‘Pragmatics: From Theory to Experiment and Back Again’, Language and Linguistics Compass 4/5 (2010) pp. 282–295. DOI: 10.1111/j.1749‐818x.2010.00203.x Authors’ Introduction Experimental pragmatics has emerged in recent years as a thriving and productive domain of linguistic research. The main contribution of experimental pragmatics is twofold: first, empirical psych…
Pragmatics: From Theory to Experiment and Back Again
This article 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 theory-critical evidence in cases beyond the reach of reflective intuition, whereas psychologists have benefited from having a wealth of linguistic phenomena to study as …
Modelling implicatures from modified numerals
Typicality made familiar: A commentary on Geurts and van Tiel (2013)
In their recent paper, Geurts and van Tiel (2013) review a range of evidence on the availability of embedded scalar enrichments (upper-bound construals, or UBCs). They argue that these readings are not readily available, except when triggered by contrast effects, and conclude that the experimental data do not support a conventionalist view of implicature. They also consider how some of these data can be analysed as exhibiting typicality effects. …
Computational Approaches to the Pragmatics Problem
Unlike many aspects of human language, pragmatics involves a systematic many‐to‐many mapping between form and meaning. This renders the computational problems of encoding and decoding meaning especially challenging, both for humans in normal conversation and for artificial dialogue systems that need to understand their users' input. A particularly striking example of this difficulty is the recognition of speech act or dialogue act types. In this …
The Phonetics–Phonology Interface: Representations and methodologies
This volume is a collection of advanced laboratory phonology research papers concerned with the interaction between the physical and the mental aspects of speech and language. The traditional linguistic theoretic distinction between phonetics and phonology is put to the test here in a series of articles that deal with some of the fundamental issues in the field, from first and second language acquisition to segmental and supra-segmental phenomena…
Teaching and Learning Guide for Computational Approaches to the Pragmatics Problem
Training and Timing Local Scalar Enrichments under Global Pragmatic Pressures
Elementary sentences containing the quantificational determiner some seem to be ambiguous between a ‘weak’ existential meaning ∃ and a ‘strengthened’ some but not all meaning ∃+. The strengthened meaning is commonly assumed to be the output of a general enrichment mechanism, call it G (for ‘global’), that applies to the weak meaning of the sentence: G(∃) = ∃+. The application of G has been shown to come with a processing cost (e.g. Bott & Noveck …
Why only some adults reject under-informative utterances
Are single and extended metaphors processed differently? A test of two Relevance-Theoretic accounts
Contextual Causes of Implicature Failure
Theoretical and empirical research on quantity implicature has concurred that pragmatically strengthened, richer readings are not available when they are not relevant to the discourse purpose. However, this claim relies on an appeal to a notion of “relevance” that has proved difficult to make precise. In this article I discuss and contrast two potential contributory factors to relevance: adherence to the Question Under Discussion, and form-based …
The Oxford Handbook of Experimental Semantics and Pragmatics
This handbook is the first to explore the growing field of experimental semantics and pragmatics. In the past twenty years, experimental data has become a major source of evidence for building theories of language meaning and use, encompassing a wide range of topics and methods. Following an introduction from the editors, the chapters in this volume offer an up-to-date account of research in the field spanning thirty-one different topics, includi…
Oxford Handbook of Experimental Semantics and Pragmatics
This handbook is the first to explore the growing field of experimental semantics and pragmatics. In the past 20 years, experimental data has become a major source of evidence for building theories of language meaning and use, encompassing a wide range of topics and methods. Following an introduction from the editors, the chapters in this volume offer an up-to-date account of research in the field spanning 31 different topics, including scalar im…
Strategic Use of (Un)certainty Expressions
Speakers have a number of options when introducing propositions which they take to be uncertain: for instance, they can use verbs such as ‘know’, ‘believe’ or ‘think’. The production of uncertainty expressions is highly context dependent. One promising approach to capturing the semantic meaning of these expressions takes them to be available only when the speaker’s confidence in the proposition exceeds some threshold. However, it is unclear wheth…
Rational Interpretation of Numerical Quantity in Argumentative Contexts
Numerical descriptions furnish us with an apparently precise and objective way of summarising complex datasets. In practice, the issue is less clear-cut, partly because the use of numerical expressions in natural language invites inferences that go beyond their mathematical meaning, and consequently quantitative descriptions can be true but misleading. This raises important practical questions for the hearer: how should they interpret a quantitat…
A computational model of the cultural co-evolution of language and mindreading
Several evolutionary accounts of human social cognition posit that language has co-evolved with the sophisticated mindreading abilities of modern humans. It has also been argued that these mindreading abilities are the product of cultural, rather than biological, evolution. Taken together, these claims suggest that the evolution of language has played an important role in the cultural evolution of human social cognition. Here we present a new com…
Epistemicity and communicative strategies
When communicating, interlocutors negotiate knowledge by proposing propositional content to be added to their shared common ground. The way in which speakers put forward propositional content -expressing more or less confidence in its truthfulness -may affect the way in which other interlocutors react to such content. This article examines speakers' production choices and hearers' interpretations of the formulations believe/know/bare assertion to…
The discursive function of additives in interaction
The insertion of additives such as too has been argued to be obligatory (in affirmative sentences) if the immediate context contains a suitable antecedent such that the presupposition triggered by additives is satisfied. However, the obligatoriness of additives has been found to be gradient and their insertion to depend on contextual factors. While most research has focused on comprehension, the present study examines the production of additives …
Noncooperative Communication
Much of pragmatics is founded on the assumption that interlocutors are disposed to be cooperative. However, communication can still proceed in cases where this assumption is not tenable. In this article I review the extent to which cooperativity is essential to accounts of communication, with particular reference to pragmatic meaning. I discuss how hearers negotiate situations in which speakers are fully or partially uncooperative and how these s…
Strategic use of English quantifiers in the reporting of quantitative information
This study investigates how quantifiers are used strategically to serve differ-ent argumentative goals. We report two experiments on how English speak-ers describe the results of school exams when being instructed to frame theirdescriptions either as a good or bad outcome. Experiment 1 shows thatparticipants have clear preferences for specific quantifier combinations inthis task. Experiment 2 shows that, in situations where producing descrip-tion…
Arguing with numbers in social media based Covid-19 debates: A study of the argumentative functions of visual graphs
This study engages with a growing body of literature on numerical communication in COVID-19, which suggests that numbers and numerical measurements can be manipulated to shape governmental policy and public health measures. It uniquely focuses on numerical graphs generated through professional open-resource visualization tools but used by laypersons in social media debates. By combining theories of multimodality and linguistic theories of argumen…
Saving lives, saving face: Mitigated directives during out-of-hospital cardiac arrest resuscitation
This paper investigates the occurrence and structures of mitigation of directives issued during the early minutes of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest resuscitation attempts, drawing on a dialogue analysis approach based on Searle’s Speech Act Theory. We transcribed the first 5 min of 40 pre-recorded, real-life resuscitation attempts. Line-by-line dialogue annotations, based on a bespoke dialogue annotation scheme, were applied to the dialogue trans…
Comparing morphosyntactic and semantic-pragmatic competence in Polish-English bilinguals: Toward a Language-neutral assessment
Evidence that certain semantic and pragmatic skills follow a similar developmental trajectory cross-linguistically suggests an important role for semantic-pragmatic tasks in the assessment of bilingual children. This study investigates whether quantifiers constitute a language-neutral linguistic category in this context. Forty-three Polish–English bilingual children aged 4–7 years completed the Quantifier Comprehension Task (QCT) and the Test for…
Computer Science (19 works) · Linguistics (18 works) · Philosophy (14 works) · Psychology (13 works) · Pragmatics (12 works) · Epistemology (10 works) · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation (10 works) · Artificial Intelligence (9 works) · Implicature (7 works) · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition (7 works)