C02: Limits of Variability in Interpretation

The project studies interpretive adaptation processes employed by language users in order to ensure communicative success (felicity, truth) in the face of difficulties in discourse. In a series of offline experiments, we will identify variability and consistency in the interpretation of relative scope, bare SG object NPs, definite descriptions and counterfactuals across individual utterances, speakers, and languages (German, English, Akan). The focus lies on identifying adaptation processes that (i.) are systematically blocked across speakers and trials; (ii.) require structural reanalysis; and/or (iii.) show cross-linguistic variability. Such cases shed light on the underlying linguistic systems of individual languages and the workings of the syntax-semantics interface.