abstractScalar inferences occur when a weaker statement like It’s warm is used when a stronger one like It’s hot could have been used instead, resulting in the inference that whoever produced the weaker statement believes that the stronger statement does not hold. The rate at which this inference is drawn varies across scalar words, a result termed ‘scalar diversity’. Here, we study scalar diversity in adjectival scalar words from a usage-based perspective. We introduce novel operationalisations of several previously observed predictors of scalar diversity using computational tools based on usage data, allowing us to move away from existing judgment-based methods. In addition, we show in two experiments that, above and beyond these previously observed predictors, scalar diversity is predicted in part by the relevance of the scalar inference at hand. We introduce a corpus-based measure of relevance based on the idea that scalar inferences that are more relevant are more likely to occur in scalar constructions that draw an explicit contrast between scalar words (e.g., It’s warm but not hot). We conclude that usage has an important role to play in the establishment of common ground, a requirement for pragmatic inferencing.

中文翻译：

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相关性对标量多样性的作用：一种基于使用的方法

摘要当一个较弱的语句如很温暖当一个更强大的人喜欢时使用很热可以代替使用，从而得出这样的推论，即产生较弱陈述的人认为较强的陈述不成立。这种推断的速度因标量词而异，这种结果称为“标量多样性”。在这里，我们从基于用法的角度研究形容词标量词中的标量多样性。我们使用基于使用数据的计算工具引入了几个先前观察到的标量多样性预测因子的新操作，使我们能够摆脱现有的基于判断的方法。此外，我们在两个实验中表明，除了这些先前观察到的预测因子之外，标量多样性部分地由手头的标量推断的相关性来预测。温暖但不热）。我们得出结论，使用在建立共同点方面发挥着重要作用，这是语用推理的要求。