Abrusan, M;
Szendroi, K;
(2013)
Experimenting with the King of France -- Topics, verifiability and definite descriptions.
Semantics and Pragmatics
, 6
(10)
1 - 43.
10.3765/sp.6.10.
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Abstract
Definite descriptions with reference failure have been argued to give rise to different truth-value intuitions depending on the local linguistic context in which they appear. We conducted an experiment to investigate these alleged differences, thereby contributing new data to the debate. We have found that pragmatic strategies dependent on verification and topicalisation, suggested in the context of trivalent/partial theories, indeed play a role in people's subjective judgments. We discuss the consequences of these findings for all major approaches to definite descriptions (i.e. Russellian, Strawsonian, pragmatic). Finally, we offer a discussion of the relative contribution of verificational and topicality effects on truth values, reaching the conclusion that verification is primarily relevant and topicality is dependent on that. We thus support von Fintel's (2004) position on the primacy of verification, but not his dismissal of topicality as a factor.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Experimenting with the King of France -- Topics, verifiability and definite descriptions |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.3765/sp.6.10 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.3765/sp.6.10 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | ©2013 Márta Abrusán and Kriszta Szendr˝oi This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of a Creative Commons NonCommercial License (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0). |
| Keywords: | definite descriptions; presupposition; experimental pragmatics; verifiability; topics |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Linguistics |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1327626 |
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