Linguistics - Informativity
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Pragmatic inference relevance for language for communication debate
Listeners tracking speaker biases (color overspecification, informativity styles) supports language-for-communication view. Language shaped by communicative pressures, not transparent window to thought
Pragmatic inference relevance for cognitive science generally
Shows sophisticated probabilistic reasoning: tracking world statistics, learning speaker patterns, reverse-engineering intentions. Bayesian inference about hidden mental states, not simple stimulus-response
Contrastive inference example
pick up the big candle
Over specification and color redundancy example
pick up the [yellow/ purple] bananas
Importance of over specifying colour example
hearing ‘the boy saw the frog’ causes eyes to move to green objects
Omission as a signal example
click on the yellow [shirt/ banana]
Learning speakers’ level of informativity example
Suzy vs Anna train station study
Marking the unexpected example
there is a woman bus driver or ‘you did incredibly well on the test!!’
All informativity examples
contrastive inference overspecification of colour Importance of specifying colour omission as a signal adjusting to speakers informativity Marking The unexpected