Understanding of implicature as inner simulation of speaker's context retrieval
Poster No:
635
Submission Type:
Abstract Submission
Authors:
Shingo Tokimoto1, Naoko Tokimoto2
Institutions:
1Mejiro University, Tokyo, Japan, 2Shobi University, Kawagoe, Japan
First Author:
Co-Author:
Introduction:
In everyday conversation, speakers often communicate their intentions as implicit meaning (implicature) by indirect utterances (e.g., the interrogative "Can you reach the salt?" intended as a request). An implicature is assumed to be derived from the literal meaning of an utterance and pragmatic inference. Our research questions are (a) whether the pragmatic inference can be understood as a chain of propositional expressions for abductive inference (Grice ,1975), and (b) the relevance of temporal information to understanding of implicature.
Methods:
Participants
24 right-handed native speakers of Japanese with their sociality estimated by Japanese version of Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ).
Materials and procedure
The experimental stimuli were conversations between three speakers (A, B, and C), which were manipulated by two factors: (1) whether the implicature is on the speaker's present intention or past experience, (2) whether the context for inference is explicit or implicit. As in examples (1) and (2), C responds indirectly to the question by B. The explicitness of context was manipulated by modifying part of A's utterance as shown in parentheses ("{explicit context/implicit context}").
(1) Implicature on present intention
A: Samui-naa. {Sekiyu-stove/stove} tsukete-yo.
'It's cold. Turn on the {oil stove/stove}.'
B: Tsukete-kureru?
'Can you turn on it？'
C: Sekiyu-ga nai-nda.
'There is no oil.' (implicature: No, I can't.)
(2) Implicature on past experience
A: Kono-mae-no nichiyoo-bi, {eigo-no shiken/shiken}-dattan-desho?
'You had an {English exam/exam} last Sunday, didn't you?'
B: Shiken gookaku-shita?
'Did you pass the exam?'
C: Eigo-wa nigate-da.
'I'm poor at English.' (implicature: No, I didn't pass the exam.)
If we assume abductive reasoning for understanding implicature, at least one more inferential step is required for the implicit context, that is, "the stove is an oil stove" in (1), and "the exam was an English exam" in (2).
Totally 100 experimental conversations were auditorily presented to the participants, and the EEG during the presentation was recorded with 62 electrodes on the scalp with event markers for EEG analyses placed at the critical words in C's utterances, at which the implicature could be calculated ("nai" (not exist) in (1) and "nigate" (poor at) in (2)).
24 right-handed native speakers of Japanese with their sociality estimated by Japanese version of Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ).
Materials and procedure
The experimental stimuli were conversations between three speakers (A, B, and C), which were manipulated by two factors: (1) whether the implicature is on the speaker's present intention or past experience, (2) whether the context for inference is explicit or implicit. As in examples (1) and (2), C responds indirectly to the question by B. The explicitness of context was manipulated by modifying part of A's utterance as shown in parentheses ("{explicit context/implicit context}").
(1) Implicature on present intention
A: Samui-naa. {Sekiyu-stove/stove} tsukete-yo.
'It's cold. Turn on the {oil stove/stove}.'
B: Tsukete-kureru?
'Can you turn on it？'
C: Sekiyu-ga nai-nda.
'There is no oil.' (implicature: No, I can't.)
(2) Implicature on past experience
A: Kono-mae-no nichiyoo-bi, {eigo-no shiken/shiken}-dattan-desho?
'You had an {English exam/exam} last Sunday, didn't you?'
B: Shiken gookaku-shita?
'Did you pass the exam?'
C: Eigo-wa nigate-da.
'I'm poor at English.' (implicature: No, I didn't pass the exam.)
If we assume abductive reasoning for understanding implicature, at least one more inferential step is required for the implicit context, that is, "the stove is an oil stove" in (1), and "the exam was an English exam" in (2).
Totally 100 experimental conversations were auditorily presented to the participants, and the EEG during the presentation was recorded with 62 electrodes on the scalp with event markers for EEG analyses placed at the critical words in C's utterances, at which the implicature could be calculated ("nai" (not exist) in (1) and "nigate" (poor at) in (2)).
Results:
Result 1: Scalp ERP
We observed a significant positive deflection in the right frontal region from 300 to 500 ms latency for the implicit context relative to the explicit context only for the conversations on past experience (Fig. 1).
Result 2: Effective connectivity at source level
To examine the effective connectivity in time window of 300-500 ms at source level, we placed 28 regions of interest (ROIs) in the brain referring to the recent fMRI studies on indirect utterance comprehension and time perception (Jang, et al., 2013; Tang, et al., 2020), and we calculated the source wave form at each ROI. We then evaluated the information flow between the 28 ROIs by partial directed coherence (PDC). We found significant increases of information flow from the whole brain to the left parahippocampal gyrus for the implicit context relative to the explicit context only for the conversations on past experience (Fig. 2). Furthermore, the PDC increase of the flow to the parahippocampal gyrus was significantly correlated with two AQ subscales (imagination and communication) of the participants.
We observed a significant positive deflection in the right frontal region from 300 to 500 ms latency for the implicit context relative to the explicit context only for the conversations on past experience (Fig. 1).
Result 2: Effective connectivity at source level
To examine the effective connectivity in time window of 300-500 ms at source level, we placed 28 regions of interest (ROIs) in the brain referring to the recent fMRI studies on indirect utterance comprehension and time perception (Jang, et al., 2013; Tang, et al., 2020), and we calculated the source wave form at each ROI. We then evaluated the information flow between the 28 ROIs by partial directed coherence (PDC). We found significant increases of information flow from the whole brain to the left parahippocampal gyrus for the implicit context relative to the explicit context only for the conversations on past experience (Fig. 2). Furthermore, the PDC increase of the flow to the parahippocampal gyrus was significantly correlated with two AQ subscales (imagination and communication) of the participants.
Conclusions:
We found no neural activity for the implicit context common to the conversations on present intention and those on past experience. We thus cannot assume a chain of propositional expressions for pragmatic inference.
The increase of information flow to the left parahippocampal gyrus can be interpreted as a manifestation of access to autobiographical memory, and the significant correlation between the PDC value of the flow and the two AQ subscales suggests that an inner simulation was performed as a function of theory of mind to understand the speaker's past intention.
The increase of information flow to the left parahippocampal gyrus can be interpreted as a manifestation of access to autobiographical memory, and the significant correlation between the PDC value of the flow and the two AQ subscales suggests that an inner simulation was performed as a function of theory of mind to understand the speaker's past intention.
Emotion, Motivation and Social Neuroscience:
Social Cognition 1
Language:
Language Comprehension and Semantics 2
Keywords:
Computational Neuroscience
Electroencephaolography (EEG)
Language
Memory
Social Interactions
Source Localization
Other - Pragmatic inference
1|2Indicates the priority used for review
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Provide references using APA citation style.
Jang, G., Yoon, S., Lee, S.-E., Park, H., Kim, J., Ko, J. H. & Park, H.-J. (2013). Everyday conversation requires cognitive inference: Neural bases of comprehending implicated meanings in conversations. NeuroImage, 81(C), 61–72.
Tang, L., Takahashi, T., Shimada, T., Komachi, M., Imanishi, N., Nishiyama, Y., Iida, T., Otsu, Y. & Kitazawa, S. (2020). Neural Correlates of Temporal Presentness in the Precuneus: A Cross-linguistic fMRI Study based on Speech Stimuli. Cerebral Cortex, 31(3), 1538–1552.