Representing Polar Questions

Bibliographic Data

ID5712682
AuthorsYe Tian (0000-0003-0545-942X, Tiandi Science & Technology (China), corresponding author), Bob Van Tiel (0000-0002-4169-3179, Radboud University Nijmegen), Elise Clin (0000-0003-4064-0697, Université Libre de Bruxelles), Richard Breheny (0000-0001-7801-9914, University College London)
Year2021
Volume50
Issue6
Pages1535-1555
Publication date2021-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Psycholinguistic Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0090-6905 • E-ISSN: 1573-6555
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s10936-021-09814-y
PMID34674142
OpenAlexW3206510472
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited27

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 negative questions. In the late stages, positive and certain negative polar questions were associated with a bias for the positive state, and this bias appears to be pragmatic in nature. We suggest that different biases in mental representations reflect the hearer's reasoning about the speaker's purposes of enquiry

Cognition · Cognitive psychology · Eye tracking · Linguistics · Pedagogy · Physics · Polar · Positive relationship · Psycholinguistics · Tracking (education) · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition · Neuroscience · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

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