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Title
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Once again on norms and comparison classes
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Author
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Abstract
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| A central assumption about relative adjectives (e.g., big, old) is that their positive form is interpreted vis-à-vis a class-specific reference point located in the midzone of a series (norm). More recently, functional-cognitive studies argued that other reference points (e.g., argumentative zero, endpoints) are more relevant in actual language use than a norm. This paper argues that the two positions are not necessarily irreconcilable and experimentally tests a hypothesis that a norm is a default reference point used for the interpretation of relative adjectives in zero contexts. Experiment 1 addressed the location of a norm in the midzone of a series and its category dependence. As predicted by the traditional semantic studies, the cutoff point between big and small is located around the midpoint of a scale. Furthermore, its location is category-dependentand sensitive to prototypicality effects. The results further indicate that adults easily compute a contextually relevant norm by integrating their world knowledge with the visually provided information. Experiment 2 investigated the relevance of a norm in the online processing of relative adjectives. The results suggest that language users indeed exploit norms for the interpretation of relative adjectives in real time. |
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Language
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English
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Source (journal)
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Linguistics : an interdisciplinary journal of the language sciences. - The Hague, 1963, currens
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Publication
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The Hague
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2011
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ISSN
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0024-3949
[print]
1613-396X
[online]
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DOI
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10.1515/LING.2011.016
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Volume/pages
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49
:3
(2011)
, p. 525-553
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ISI
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000292688100002
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Full text (Publisher's DOI)
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