Experimental Pragmatics: (Palgrave Studies in Pragmatics, Language and Cognition)

How do we understand what we are told, resolve ambiguities, appreciate metaphor and irony, and grasp both explicit and implicit content in verbal communication? This book provides the first comprehensive introduction to an exciting new field in which models of language and meaning are tested and compared using techniques from psycholinguistics.

Table of Contents:
Introduction; I.Noveck & D.Sperber PART I: PIONEERING APPROACHES Changing Ideas about Reference; H.H.Clark & A.Bangerter On the Automaticity of Pragmatic Processes: A Modular Proposal; S.Glucksberg Psycholinguistic Experiments and Linguistic Pragmatics; R.W.Gibbs Jr. Reasoning, Judgment and Pragmatics; G.Politzer Exploring Quantifiers: Pragmatics Meets the Psychology of Comprehension; A.J.Sanford & L.Moxey PART II: CURRENT ISSUES IN EXPERIMENTAL PRAGMATICS Testing the Cognitive and Communicative Principles of Relevance; J-B.Van der Henst & D.Sperber Contextual Strength: The Whens and Hows of Context Effects; O.Peleg, R.Giora & O.Fein Electrophysiology and Pragmatic Language Comprehension; S.Coulson Speech Acts in Children: The Example of Promises; J.Bernicot & V.Laval Reasoning and Pragmatics: The Case of Even If ; S.J.Handley & A.Feeney PART III: THE CASE OF SCALAR IMPLICATURES Implicature, Relevance, and Default Pragmatic Inference; A.L.Bezuidenhout & R.K.Morris Semantic and Pragmatic Competence in Children's and Adults' Comprehension of 'or'; G.Chierchia, M.T.Guasti, A.Gualmini, L.Meroni , S.Crain & F.Foppolo Pragmatic Inferences Related to Logical Terms; I.A.Noveck Conversational Implicatures: Nonce or Generalized?; A.Reboul Index

About the Author :
Ira A. Noveck received his PhD in Cognitive Psychology from New York University in 1992. He has since held research or teaching positions in Paris, Minneapolis, Montreal and Grenoble. He is currently a full-time research scientist at the institut des Sciences Cognitives in Lyon, France, where he heads a team focusing on the role of pragmatics in reasoning and comprehension Dan Sperber is a French social and cognitive scientist at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in Paris. He is the author of Rethinking Symbolism (1975), On Anthropological Knowledge (1985), Explaining Culture (1996). He is also co-author with Deirdre Wilson of Relevance: Communication and Cognition (1986, 1995). He has held visiting positions at, among others, Cambridge University, the London School of Economics and Political Science, the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, Princeton University, and the University of Michigan.

Review :
Reviews of the hardback edition: 'If you want to understand how your knowledge of the world shapes your use of language and your grasp of its deepest significance, read this book. Experimental pragmatics began in the 1960's; forty years on, this book marks its coming of age. Its leading practitioners show that pragmatics is far from a peripheral topic but integral to the fundamental mechanisms of language. The chapters are accessible, and the book will provide the basis for an excellent course in experimental pragmatics.' - Professor P. N. Johnson-Laird, Department of Psychology, Princeton University, USA 'Psycholinguists have been investigating the pragmatics of discourse since the early seventies; but it is only recently that linguists working in that area have felt the need to resort to psychological experiments to test their models. Experimental psychology and linguistic pragmatics interact also in the study of reasoning. A new field is emerging - experimental pragmatics - to which this book, the first of its kind, provides an exciting and most welcome introduction.' - Professor Francois Recanati, Institut Jean-Nicod, France