Effects of what is expected on the focussing properties of quantifiers: A test of the presupposition-denial account [An article from: Journal of Memory and Language]

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Description:
This paper reports three experiments that test the Presupposition-Denial account of complement set reference. According to the theory, complement set focus arises when focus is on the difference between the amount conveyed by a natural language quantifier and a large presupposed amount. We call this difference the shortfall. In this paper, what is expected is explicitly manipulated in a production study to test the theory in two ways. First it is shown that when the quantity expected by a character is much larger than that denoted by a positive quantifier, some participants refer anaphorically to the complement set. Thus, even without a negative natural language quantifier the existence of a shortfall leads to complement set focus. Second, it is shown that when the quantity expected by a character is none, the production of complement set reference is reduced for negative quantifiers. This provides strong support for shortfall as the key mechanism in the presupposition denial account.