Uli Sauerland

• PD, Ph.D. dipl.math.
• Department Head at Leibniz-Center General Linguistics

We argue that human language learning proceeds in a manner that is different in nature from current approaches to training LLMs, predicting a difference in learning biases. We then present evidence from German plural formation by LLMs that confirm our hypothesis that even very powerful implementations produce results that miss aspects of the logic...

Background Logical reasoning in young children is difficult to ascertain experimentally even for single propositional operators. We present a novel argument that four- and five-year old children are capable of reasoning with complex representations containing multiple logical operators. Methods The argument is based on an interaction between sente...

The goal of the CRC 1412 "Register: Language Users' Knowledge of Situational-Functional Variation" is to answer the overarching research question "What constitutes a language user's register knowledge?". Our starting point is the observation that many situational and functional parameters-such as the relation between the interlocutors, the purpose...

Sentences such as Olivia can take Logic or Algebra (‘♢∨-sentences’) are typically interpreted as entailing that Olivia can take Logic and can take Algebra. Given a standard semantics for modals and disjunction, those ‘Free choice’ (FC) readings are not predicted from the surface form of ♢∨-sentences. Yet the standard semantics is appropriate for th...

Quantity distinctions are morphologically indicated in the majority of languages.However, the marking of these distinctions exhibits a high degree of cross-linguistic variation with respect to the number of quantity categories, their agreement properties, and the morphemes themselves. Furthermore, number marking on numerically quantified nouns vari...

The Meaning First Approach offers a model of the relation between thought and language that includes a Generator and a Compressor. The Generator build non-linguistic thought structures and the Compressor is responsible for its articulation through three processes: structure-preserving linearization, lexification, and compression via non-articulatio...

In the present review paper by members of the collaborative research center “Register: Language Users' Knowledge of Situational-Functional Variation” (CRC 1412), we assess the pervasiveness of register phenomena across different time periods, languages, modalities, and cultures. We define “register” as recurring variation in language use depending...

Words of estimative probability (WEPs), such as ‘possible’ and ‘a good chance’, provide an efficient means for expressing probability under uncertainty. Current semantic theories assume that WEPs denote crisp thresholds on the probability scale, but experimental data indicate that their use is characterised by gradience and focality. Here, we imple...

This paper addresses the syntactic and semantic analysis of nominal measurement structures like two liters of black coffee in German. German allows the case-marking on the substance noun phrase black coffee to vary: it can appear in genitive case or in the same case as the measure noun liter . The choice of case lacks semantic import with absolute...

The Collaborative Research Center 1412 “Register: Language Users’ Knowledge of Situational-Functional Variation” (CRC 1412) investigates the role of register in language, focusing in particular on what constitutes a language user’s register knowledge and which situational-functional factors determine a user’s choices. The following paper is an extr...

Dayal’s (1996) account of the presuppositions of wh-questions makes faulty predictions for languages which draw number distinctions in the domain of simplex wh-expressions: (Dayal, 1996) predicts that a singular wh-expression should always give rise to a Uniqueness Presupposition; the Anti-Singleton Inference associated with its plural counterpart...

Numerical and quantificational expressions differ not only in their logical meaning, but also in their conditions of use. In particular, One hypothesis suggested in previous work states that vague expressions should be associated with informality and precise expressions with formality. We introduce a novel corpusCorpus measure, the SOLT, to quantif...

Grammatical theories of Scalar Implicatures make use of an exhaustivity operator exh, which asserts the conjunction of the prejacent with the negation of excludable alternatives. We present a new Grammatical theory of Scalar Implicatures according to which exh is replaced with pex, an operator that contributes its prejacent as asserted content, but...

Significance Theoretical linguistics postulates abstract structures that successfully explain key aspects of language. However, the precise relation between abstract theoretical ideas and empirical data from language use is not always apparent. Here, we propose to empirically test abstract semantic theories through the lens of probabilistic pragmat...

Several researchers have suggested that languages vary as to whether number marking on noun phrases is obligatory or optional. We develop an implementation of this idea within a theory that assumes that the plural is a semantically vacuous, unmarked number (Sauerland et al. 2015 and others). We then explore the semantic consequences of this proposa...

Speech can be used to change societies in bad ways. It supports institutional oppression, establishes new oppressive norms, silences opponents, spreads disinformation and propagates feelings of hate. Online communities magnify the effects of individual speech acts. We'll look at social norms and institutions, silencing and free speech, social meani...

Acceptable analyticities, i.e. contradictions or tautologies, constitute problematic evidence for the idea that language includes a deductive system. In recent discussion, two accounts have been presented in the literature to explain the available evidence. According to one of the accounts, grammatical analyticities are accessible to the system but...

The theory of language must predict the possible thought—signal (or meaning—sound or sign) pairings of a language. We argue for a Meaning First architecture of language where a thought structure is generated first. The thought structure is then realized using language to communicate the thought, to memorize it, or perhaps with another purpose. Our...

The theory of language must predict the possible thought—signal (or meaning—sound or sign) pairings of a language. We argue for a Meaning First architecture of language where a thought structure is generated first. The thought structure is then realized using language to communicate the thought, to memorize it, or perhaps with another purpose. Our...

Quantity implicatures have been intensely debated since Grice's programmatic work more than 50 years ago. Grice assumed quantity implicatures could be derived entirely from general maxims of conversation not specific to language. His approach, however, was seen to be insufficient because of maxim selection, alternative choice, and embedded implicat...

Acceptable analyticities, i.e. contradictions or tautologies, constitute problematic evidence for the idea that language includes a deductive system. In recent discus-sion, two accounts have been presented in the literature to explain the available ev-idence. According to one of the accounts, grammatical analyticities are accessibleto the system bu...

Speakers generate inner speech and then may externalize it to share their thoughts with others. But communication is only one function of language. Another function is inner monologue as a memory aid.

Teiwa, an Alor-Pantar language of the Trans-New Guinea family, has been characterized as expressing speech reports not with complementation, but with combinations of two clauses juxtaposed under a single intonation contour with no morphological indication for integration (Klamer 2010: A Grammar of Teiwa, Mouton de Gruyter). We argue, contra Klamer,...

Teiwa, an Alor-Pantar language of the TransNew Guinea family, has been analyzed as expressing speech and belief reports not with complementation, but with combinations of two clauses juxtaposed under a single intonation contour (Klamer 2010: A Grammar of Teiwa, Mouton de Gruyter). We find that speech and attitude reports in Teiwa exhibit indeed mul...

This handbook is the first to explore the growing field of experimental semantics and pragmatics. In the past twenty years, experimental data has become a major source of evidence for building theories of language meaning and use, encompassing a wide range of topics and methods. Following an introduction from the editors, the chapters in this volum...

The brevity maxim of Gricean pragmatics states that unnecessary prolixity should be avoided. We report a case in which 5-year-old children’s performance conforms better to Grice’s maxim than adults’ behavior. Our data come from a semi-spontaneous German relative clause production study that we carried out with 5- and 7-year-old children as well as...

A novel principle, the Thought Uniqueness Hypothesis (TUH), unifies several restrictions on interpretation that work in theoretical semantics has observed, in particular the following: binding and scope economy of Fox (2000, MIT Press), and constraints on types (Heim 2017, unpublished; Hirsch 2017, MIT Dissertation). The principle not only derives...

In several three cell paradigms, it has been observed that one logically conceivable pattern – ABA under some arrangement of cells – is unattested. Existing approaches assume that such *ABA generalizations provide evidence for feature inventories which are restricted to features that stand in containment relations, and are thus subject to Pa?inian...

ZASPiL 61.2018 contains 29 articles.

In these volumes, we are very pleased to present a collection of papers based on talks andposters at Sinn und Bedeutung 22, which took place in Berlin and Potsdam on September 7-10,2017, jointly organized by the Leibniz-Centre for General Linguistics (ZAS) and the Universityof Potsdam.

Irene Heim in unpublished work proposed a new syntax-semantics interface for propositional attitude reports based on an ontology without transworld individuals, but counterpart functions instead. We show that the approach can capture the ‘de re’/‘de dicto’ distinction, but makes different predictions from accounts with transworld individuals. Speci...

In this article, we investigate questions like What is your name again?, which presuppose that the answer was already made common-ground knowledge in the past (Sauerland 2006). We call this a remind-me presupposition. While repetitive particles can trigger a remind-me presupposition in German and English, Japanese uses a specialized particle kke to...

Discrete infnity was identifed as a central feature of human language by Humboldt who famously spoke of making infnite use of fnite means. Later Chomsky refocused attention on this property starting with Chomsky (1957). In a number of works since, Chomsky has repeatedly stressed the centrality of infnity for understanding language. For example, Cho...

Kuno (1973) and others describe the Japanese junctor ya as conjunction. But, Sudo (2014) analyzes ya as a disjunction with a conjunctive implicature. We compare ya with other junctors and implicature triggers experimental using mouse-tracking. Our two main results are: (1) ya differs from lexical conjunctions corroborating Sudo’s (2014) proposal. (...

We consider the proposal that partitives always contain two positions for nouns which may be filled by silent material from the perspective of Japanese. We argue that it provides a novel account for cases of quantificational expressions that are frequently marked with genitive case in Japanese. Genitive case attached to nouns marks possession or pa...

The paper considers three features of disjunction that played a role in recent discussions relating to the question of whether implicature computation is pragmatic and global or grammatical and local: Hurford’s constraint, free choice inferences, and the mutual exclusivity of double disjunctions. The paper argues that both Hurford’s constraint data...

Relative measures such as percent and thirds relate one quantity to another. We observe that, in several languages, determiner phrases containing relative measures can express two distinct construals: (1) The ‘conservative’ construal in The company hired 75 % of the women considers the ratio of the company’s female hires to all women. (2) The ‘non-...

Across languages, the morpheme expressing conjunction frequently has other uses as well. Several linguists have attempted to unify all uses of conjunction morphemes under one general algebraic scheme. We argue in favor of a more limited unification and propose a universal decomposition of conjunction structures: We propose that there exist both a "...

When interpreting disjunctive sentences of the form'A or B', young children have been reported to differ fromadults in twoways. First, children have been reported to interpret disjunction inclusively rather than exclusively, accepting 'A or B' in contexts in which both A and B are true (Chierchia et al. 2001; Gualmini et al. 2001). Second, some chi...

Significance Although much research has been devoted to the acquisition of number words, relatively little is known about the acquisition of other expressions of quantity. We propose that the order of acquisition of quantifiers is related to features inherent to the meaning of each term. Four specific dimensions of the meaning and use of quantifier...

The comprehension of constituent questions is an important topic for language acquisition research and for applications in the diagnosis of language impairment. This article presents the results of a study investigating the comprehension of different types of questions by 5-year-old, typically developing children across 19 European countries, 18 di...

Pragmatics is already an established subfield of linguistics and the Gricean distinction between literal and speakers' meaning is one of the foundations of modern linguistic theory. But progress in pragmatics has been slow compared to other subfields of linguistics over the last four decades. We argue that one recent trend, namely Experimental Prag...

The particle ya in Japanese has been described as a marker of conjunction. But recently Sudo (2014, unpublished) suggested to analyze ya as a disjunction with a conjunctive implicature. We present data from a mouse-tracking study that support Sudo's general perspective. Our data further distinguish between two derivations of the conjunctive implica...

p>Relative measures such as percent and thirds relate one quantity to another. In several languages, determiner phrases containing relative measures can express two distinct construals: 1) The conservative construal in 'The company hired 55% of the women' considers the ratio of the company hires among all women. 2) The non-conservative construal in...

This study develops a single elicitation method to test the acquisition of third-person pronominal objects in 5-year-olds for 16 languages. This methodology allows us to compare the acquisition of pronominals in languages that lack object clitics (“pronoun languages”) with languages that employ clitics in the relevant context (“clitic languages”),...

This cross-linguistic study evaluates children’s understanding of passives in eleven typologically different languages: Catalan, Cypriot Greek, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, German, Hebrew, Lithuanian, and Polish. The study intends to determine whether the reported gaps between the comprehension of active and passive and between short...

In at least three environments – de se binding, distributive binding, and focus quantification – some presuppositions exhibit unexpectedly weak projection behavior. This holds for the presuppositions of bound pronouns, but also several other cases of presupposition. In this paper, I first describe a general approach to capture the interaction of pr...

O falecido físico Carl Sagan, citado na primeira parte do título deste artigo, formulou com habilidade a visão do senso comum sobre a natureza da evidência nas ciências maduras. Em linguística, no entanto, a evidência tornou-se um assunto controverso, especialmente quando se trata da investigação das línguas menos estudadas. Neste artigo, defendo q...

Remind-Me Readings: Evidence for Question Act Decomposition

Japanische und koreanische Touristen sind vielen Deutschen ein vertrauter Anblick. Über die Kulturen und Sprachen dieser Region wissen viele jedoch nur wenig. Die Kultur in Japan und in Korea hat sich bis vor weniger als zwei Jahrhunderten weitgehend unabhängig von den europäischen Kulturen entwickelt. Viele in Deutschland haben schon mal den Stil...

Several recent works have debated the question whether scalar implicatures should be accounted for in the semantics or the pragmatics of sentences. Sauerland (2012, Lang. and Ling. Compass) mentions that cases of Intermediate Implicatures provide a novel argument for a semantic account of scalar implicatures. Intermediate implicatures take scope be...

Doctors are more likely to implement guidelines in their everyday practice if the recommendations contained in them are understandable. So far, there has been little standardization in the wording of guideline recommendations. It would be important to know how certain terms are understood by guideline users. In this study, doctors were asked in a s...

Naive speakers find some logical contradictions acceptable, specifically borderline contradictions involving vague predicates such as Joe is and isn’t tall. In a recent paper, Cobreros et al. (J Philos Logic, 2012) suggest a pragmatic account of the acceptability of borderline contradictions. We show, however, that the pragmatic account predicts th...

We report data from an internet questionnaire of sixty number trivia. Participants were asked for the number of cups in their house, the number of cities they know and 58 other quantities. We compare the answers of familial sinistrals - individuals who are left-handed themselves or have a left-handed close blood-relative - with those of pure famili...

The supplementary discussion presents additional statistics, additional demographic factors, a description of some R language computer code segments used in the analysis, and a list of all survey questions used in the study. (PDF)

It has been generally assumed that certain categories of numerical expressions, such as ‘more than n’, ‘at least n’, and ‘fewer than n’, systematically fail to give rise to scalar implicatures in unembedded declarative contexts. Various proposals have been developed to explain this perceived absence. In this paper, we consider the relevance of scal...

I provide an overview of four current theories of scalar implicature: the pragmatic (or Gricean), the lexical, a combined pragmatic + lexical, and the grammatical theory. The empirical focus are global and local, but also intermediate implicatures. I argue that the grammatical theory is conceptually less well motivated than even the pragmatic + lex...

In Matses reported speech, the personal, spatial, and temporal indexicals of the reported speech act must be maintained from the point of view of the original speaker, thus resembling a strict form of direct speech. However, substantial paraphrasing, extraction, reconfiguration, and de re construals are permitted, which are features more typically...

The last decade witnessed a surge of new research in pragmatics, fuelled by the emergence of new theoretical frameworks, an increased interest in the semantics-pragmatics interface, and the establishment of experimental pragmatics as a new research paradigm. Many of these developments concern the line of pragmatics which originated with the work of...

1 Einleitung und Fragestellung 2 Methode 3 Ergebnis und Diskussion 4 Literatur

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One could define vagueness as the existence of borderline cases and characterise the philosophical debate on vagueness as being about the nature of these. The prevalent theories of vagueness can be divided into three categories, paralleling three logical interpretations of borderline cases: (i) a borderline case is a case of a truth-value gap; it i...

This chapter is about vagueness in natural language semantics. More specifically, we discuss lexical means of making vague assertions more or less precise in compositional semantics. Examples of expressions that have this effect are approximately, absolutely, definitely, and roughly speaking. While many of these expressions are modifiers and adverb...

This book constitutes the proceedings of the International Workshop on Vagueness in Communication, VIC 2009, held as part of ESSLLI 2009, in Bordeaux, France, July 20-24, 2009. The 11 contributions presented shed a light on new aspects in the area of vagueness in natural language communication. In contrast to the classical instruments of dealing wi...

Experimental evidence on embedded implicatures by Chemla (2009b) and Geurts & Pouscoulous (2009a) has fewer theoretical consequences than assumed: On the one hand, the evidence successfully argues against obligatory local implicature computation, which has however already been discredited. On the other hand, the data are fully consistent with optio...

In this overview, we look at embedded clauses that report somebody’s attitude or speech. Semantic content in the embedded clause can in some such cases be interpreted from either of two perspectives: that of the speaker or that of the attitude holder/speaker being reported on. Other classes of content do not exhibit this ambiguity. Our overview sho...

Büring and Hartmann (2001) and Reis (2005) discuss reconstruction data with focus particles in German which they claim show that German allows adjunction of phonologically integrated focus particles to the root clause. We show that the facts are better explained by independent pragmatic constraints on semantic judgments and conclude therefore that...

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy, 1998. Includes bibliographical references (p. 293-303).

Phi-features, such as person, number, and gender, present a rare opportunity for syntacticians, morphologists and semanticists to collaborate on a research enterprise in which they all have an equal stake and which they all approach with data and insights from their own fields. This volume is the first to attempt to bring together these different s...

Bound variable pronouns are usually taken to be interpreted solely as bound variables. This chapter argues that bound variable pronouns have an internal property argument P and that P is interpreted as a presupposition on the value of the bound variable pronoun. The argument leading to these conclusions proceeds through the following intermediate t...

The term Focus Dependency describes an important phenomenon at the syntax-semantics interface: Elided material can exhibit bound-variable-like behavior when its antecedent is a focussed phrase in the same sentence. In the past, focus dependency has been analyzed as actual binding or by means of copying. This paper presents a new account of focus de...

Emotional expressions like damn and bastard seem to bring out the extreme not only in the speakers who use them, but also in the linguists who try to account for them: For Potts, nothing short of a new dimension of meaning can accommodate these expressions. Potts already in earlier work (Potts, 2003) provides one interesting argument for this view:...

Focus dependency is an important phenomenon at the syntax-semantics interface: Elided material can exhibit bound-variable-like behavior when its antecedent is a focussed phrase in the same sentence. In the past, focus dependency has been ana-lyzed as actual binding or by means of copying. This paper presents a new account of focus dependency that r...