Disentangling Semantic Empty-Set Effects in Quantifier Comprehension From Simple Associations: Processing Evidence From Exceptive-Additives

Abstract

According to a recent proposal, so-called empty-set (ES) quantifiers are extraordinarily difficult to interpret because their verification algorithm involves one specific rule intended to handle ES situations. The rule relies on the explicit representation of objects in the restrictor set that are not in the scope set. This type of encoding is assumed to be cognitively costly because the cognitive system is tuned to encoding the presence of properties rather than their absence, a strategy viable for non-ES quantifiers but doom to failure for ES quantifiers. While previous data support this assumption, they do not rule out the possibility that the observed ES effects were at least in part due to a superficial mismatch between the visual contexts and the content words in the tested sentences. We report on a picture verification experiment in which we combined ES quantifiers with German außer (‘besides’)-phrases to investigate how the additive inference, triggered by außer, interacts with ES effects. Our results indicate that ES effects are in fact based on compositional meaning and cannot be explained based on superficial features of the stimuli alone.