The Role of Context in Interpreting Implicit Meaning Aspects Kristin Börjesson University of Leipzig
23.02.2011
Kristin Börjesson
Context and Implicit Meaning Aspects
Outline
Kristin Börjesson
Context and Implicit Meaning Aspects
Conceptual Frames and the ‘Background’ of Interpretation
one source of information in utterance interpretation: conceptual frames frames provide potential discourse referents in form of thematic roles contribute to the ‘background’ against which an utterance is interpreted background provides the basis for understanding implicit meaning aspects of utterances
Kristin Börjesson
Context and Implicit Meaning Aspects
IMAs: Examples
Example It’s raining. [here] I’ve had breakfast. [today] John broke a finger. [his own]
Kristin Börjesson
Context and Implicit Meaning Aspects
Levinson (2000)’s view: IMAs as GCIs
reduces Grice’s four maxims of conversation to three heuristics (Q, I and M) characterises GCIs as default interpretations: they are inferred unless something in the context suggests that they are not appropriate assumes GCIs are inferred locally nevertheless, Levinson takes GCIs to be implicatures
Kristin Börjesson
Context and Implicit Meaning Aspects
Relevance Theory’s view on IMAs vs. conversational implicatures
RT (e.g., Carston 2002, Sperber and Wilson 1995) differentiates between pragmatically inferred meaning aspects that are part of an utterance’s meaning and such that are inferred on the basis of that utterance meaning the former are implicit meaning aspects resulting from a process called free enrichment, the latter are implicatures generally, pragmatically inferred meaning aspects are always contextually conditioned, i.e., there are no GCIs
Kristin Börjesson
Context and Implicit Meaning Aspects
Garrett and Harnish on IMAs
Garrett and Harnish (2007, 2008, 2009) investigated what Levinson calls I-implicature their experimental results indicate that I-implicatures arise out of any particular context and they arise even in contexts where they clearly are not intended
cannot be explained by an approach that assumes of IMAs that they result from a solely context-driven and speaker intention-oriented pragmatic process in contrast, an approach where the interpretation of IMAs is based on information from conceptual frames considered by default, can
Kristin Börjesson
Context and Implicit Meaning Aspects
The General Idea
Irmer (2009) suggests the idea that conceptual frames (e.g. Fillmore 2010) are involved in discourse interpretation in his analysis of bridging inferences within SDRT Example John was murdered yesterday. The knife lay nearby.
Kristin Börjesson
Context and Implicit Meaning Aspects
Example: The Killing frame
Definition: A Killer or Cause causes the death of the Victim. Core Frame Elements: FE description inherited FE sort Killer The person or sentient entity that Agent sentient causes the death of the Victim Victim The living entity that dies as a Patient sentient result of the killing Instrument The device used by the Killer to Instrument physical bring about the death of the Victim entity Cause An inanimate entity or process that Cause causes the death of the Victim Means The method or action that the Killer Means state of or Cause performs resulting in the affairs death of the Victim Non-core Frame Elements: Beneficiary, Manner, Place, Purpose, Time . . . Lexical Units: annihilate.v, annihilation.n,. . . murder.v, murderer.n, . . .
Kristin Börjesson
Context and Implicit Meaning Aspects
Integration of Frame Information
e, j
e, j
| x1 , x3
e : Killing killer (e, x1 ), x1 =? victim(e, j), named(j, john) instrument(e, x3 ), x3 =?
named(j, john) murder (e) patient(e, j)
Kristin Börjesson
Context and Implicit Meaning Aspects
IMAs in discourse
Example I must wash my hands. I’ve eaten. [using my hands] rhetorical relation between the two utterances is one of EXPLANATION
second utterance is understood as providing an explanation for the proposition expressed in the first if the speaker’s hands introduced in the first utterance are identified as the instrument used for eating, the explanation becomes plausible
Kristin Börjesson
Context and Implicit Meaning Aspects
Example: The Ingestion frame
Definition: An Ingestor consumes food or drink (Ingestibles), which entails putting Ingestibles in the mouth for delivery to the digestive system. This may include the use of an Instrument. Core Frame Elements: FE description inherited FE sort Ingestible
The Ingestibles are the Substance n. s. entities that are being consumed by the Ingestor Ingestor The Ingestor is the person Agent Sentient eating or drinking Non-core Frame Elements: Degree, Duration, Instrument, Manner, Means, Place, Purpose, Source, Time Lexical Units: breakfast.v, consume.v,. . . drink.v, eat.v, . . .
Kristin Börjesson
Context and Implicit Meaning Aspects
IMAs in single utterances Example John broke a finger. [his own] break evokes the frame Experience_bodily_harm with the core FEs Body_part and Experiencer finger evokes the frame Observable_Bodypart with the core FEs Body_part and Possessor the referent of finger can be identified as playing the role of Body_part John is an accessible discourse referent and an appropriate value for the Possessor and the Experiencer variables, where the former can be identified with the latter
Kristin Börjesson
Context and Implicit Meaning Aspects
IMAs in single utterances Example John broke a finger, but not his own. this reading involves a sense of break that differs from that used in the preferred reading, thus evoking another frame: cause_harm with the core-FEs Agent, Body_part, Cause and Victim whereas in the Experience_bodily_harm frame it is the Experiencer that is identified as the Possessor of the Body_part under discussion, in the case of the cause_harm frame, it is the Victim that is identified as the Possessor of the Body_part question: how can the preferred reading be explained?
Kristin Börjesson
Context and Implicit Meaning Aspects
IMAs in single utterances discourse interpretation is subject to constraints/principles one is Asher and Lascarides’ (2003) meta-rule ‘maximise discourse coherence’, which consists of four parts, one being ‘resolve underspecifications’ if to break is assumed to evoke the frame cause_harm, the Possessor core-FE of the Observable_bodypart frame evoked by finger would get identified with the Victim core-FE of the cause_harm frame, where this actually remains underspecified if the frame Experience_bodily_harm is used, the Observable_bodypart’s Possessor core-FE will be identified with the former frame’s core-FE Experiencer which is actually assigned the value JOHN thus, if the frame Experience_bodily_harm is used more underspecifications will get resolved Kristin Börjesson
Context and Implicit Meaning Aspects
Summary
interpretation of IMAs is assumed to involve information gleaned from conceptual frames this information is considered automatically and integrated with the logical form being built in accordance with a range of principles generally constraining the interpretation process the integrated meaning aspects and their values are defeasible, thus, if the larger context makes their assumption inappropriate, the inferred logical form of the utterance at hand will be revised
Kristin Börjesson
Context and Implicit Meaning Aspects
Frame-information and Context
information from frames evoked by the expressions used in an utterance can be seen as contributing to the background against which utterances and ongoing discourse is interpreted information integrated into the developing logical form of the utterance interpreted may remain underspecified
Kristin Börjesson
Context and Implicit Meaning Aspects
Advantages
approach is consistent with/reflects the experimental results obtained by Garrett and Harnish for I-implicatures approach allows a characterisation of the process of free enrichment as contributing meaning aspects which are not the values of semantically provided slots, but as being restricted in the sense that it provides values to variables introduced into the utterance context by frames approach keeps the semantics of expressions minimal, while still allowing particular meaning aspects to figure in the interpreted utterance one and the same approach can be used to model the interpretation of discourse as well as single utterances
Kristin Börjesson
Context and Implicit Meaning Aspects
