Social meaning and pragmatic reasoning: The case of (im)precision

Authors

  • Stephanie Solt Leibniz-Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft
  • Roland Mühlenbernd Leibniz-Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft
  • Mariya Burbelko Leibniz-Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3765/elm.3.5809

Keywords:

social meaning, alternatives, Gricean reasoning, numerical expressions, approximation, matched guise methodology

Abstract

On the basis of a speaker's choice between linguistic alternatives, a hearer can draw inferences not only about facts of the world, but also about the social properties of the speaker. The goal of this work is to investigate how such social meanings arise, particularly in the case where the alternatives in question differ in their core logical or semantic meaning. Taking variation in numerical precision level as a case study, we seek to test the broad general hypothesis that social inferences may be derived via pragmatic reasoning about the needs of the situation, the epistemic state of the speaker, and the reasons for their choice of form. We report on two matched guise studies which demonstrate that the social meaning of (im)precision is sensitive to context and (to some extent) speaker knowledge state, and are correlated with inferred reasons for expression choice, findings which support the predictions of the pragmatic view.

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Published

2025-01-24

Issue

Section

Articles