Emmanuel Chemla

• Address

  Emmanuel Chemla

  Ecole Normale Supérieure

  Laboratoire de Sciences Cognitives et Psycholinguistique

  29 rue d'Ulm

  75005 Paris

  France

• e-mail: last name at ens.fr

Click on the titles to see full abstracts

• Predicting moral judgments from causal judgments. [with Paul Egré and Philippe Schlenker] (pdf)

  This paper models and shows how to test the role of causal judgments in moral judgments (in trolley dilemmas).

  Reference (BibTeX): Chemla, Emmanuel, Egré, Paul & Schlenker, Philippe (2012). "Predicting moral judgments from causal judgments". Ms. LSCP, IJN, NYU.

  Abstract:

  Several factors have been put forward to explain the variability of moral judgments for superficially analogous moral dilemmas, in particular in the paradigm of trolley cases. In this paper we elaborate on Mikhail's view that (i) causal analysis is at the core of moral judgments and that (ii) causal judgments can be quantified by linguistic methods. According to this model, our moral judgments depend both on utilitarian considerations (whether positive effects outweigh negative effects) and on a representation of the causal structure of the action (whether the negative effects are essentially side-effects rather than main goals). However the exact contribution of each factor, as well as the precise way in which causal considerations interact with utilitarian considerations, has yet to be quantified and investigated. We present several variations on trolley dilemmas in which subjects had to assess the morality of the action and to evaluate their preference between two competing descriptions of the scene ('a caused the death of m, thereby saving n' vs. 'a saved n, thereby causing the death of m'). Our main finding is that moral judgments are highly correlated with causal judgments in terms of such descriptions, allowing us to predict the former from the latter. Furthermore, we observe that the effect of causal judgments on the relative permissibility of actions is felt even in anti-utilitarian scenarios, namely scenarios for which the proposed action diminishes aggregate utility.

• Processing inferences at the semantics/pragmatics frontier: disjunctions and free choice. [with Lewis Bott] (pdf)

  Free choice inferences are derived without delay, although they have been argued to be a kind of scalar implicatures (which do come at a cost). New version July 2012 - added: within-experiment comparison of scalar implicatures and free choice.

  Reference (BibTeX): Chemla, Emmanuel and Bott, Lewis (2012). "Processing inferences at the semantics/pragmatics frontier: disjunctions and free choice". Under revision.

  Abstract:

  Diverse types of linguistic inferences have been described and classified, broadly: entailments, implicatures, presuppositions. This typology is mostly based on traditional linguistic means, such as introspective judgments about phrases occurring in different constructions, in different conversational contexts. More recently, the processing properties of these inferences have also been studied (see, e.g., recent work showing that scalar implicatures is a costly phenomenon). Our focus is on free choice permission, a phenomenon by which conjunctive inferences are unexpectedly added to disjunctive sentences. For instance, a sentence such as "Mary is allowed to eat an ice-cream or a cake" is normally understood as granting permission both for eating an ice-cream and for eating a cake. We provide data from two processing studies, which show that, contrary to arguments coming from the theoretical literature, free choice inferences are different from scalar implicatures, and in fact closer to presuppositions.

• Modularity and intuitions in formal semantics: the case of polarity items. [with Vincent Homer and Daniel Rothschild] (pdf)

  A correlation between acceptability judgments about NPIs, and inferential judgments about monotonicity and scalar implicatures.

  Reference (BibTeX): Chemla, Emmanuel, Homer, Vincent & Rothschild, Daniel (2011). "Modularity and intuitions in formal semantics: the case of polarity items". Linguistics and Philosophy 34(6), pp 537-570, doi:10.1007/s10988-012-9106-0.

  Abstract:

  Linguists often sharply distinguish the different modules that support linguistics competence, e.g., syntax, semantics, pragmatics. However, recent work has identified phenomena in syntax (polarity sensitivity) and pragmatics (implicatures), which seem to rely on semantic properties (monotonicity). We propose to investigate these phenomena and their connections as a window into the modularity of our linguistic knowledge. We conducted a series of experiments to gather the relevant syntactic, semantic and pragmatic judgments within a single paradigm. The comparison between these quantitative data leads us to four main results. (i) Our results support a departure from one element of the classical Gricean approach, thus helping to clarify and settle an empirical debate. This first outcome also confirms the soundness of the methodology, as the results align with standard contemporary accounts of scalar implicature. (ii) We confirm that the formal semantic notion of monotonicity underlies negative polarity item syntactic acceptability, but (iii) our results indicate that the notion needed is perceived monotonicity. We see results (ii) and (iii) as the main contribution of this study: (ii) provides an empirical interpretation and confirmation of one of the insights of the model-theoretic approach to semantics, while (iii) calls for an incremental, cognitive implementation of the current generalizations. (iv) Finally, our results do not indicate that the relationship between negative polarity item acceptability and monotonicity is mediated by pragmatic features related to scalar implicatures: this tells against elegant attempts to unify polarity sensitivity and scalar implicatures (pioneered by Krifka and Chierchia). These results illustrate a new methodology for integrating theoretically rigorous work in formal semantics with an experimentally-grounded cognitively-oriented view of linguistic competence.

• Experimenting on Contextualism [by Nat Hansen and myself] (pdf)

  We present an experiment on context sensitive expressions (e.g., "know" and color words), which improves on usual designs for context shifting experiments and supports contextualist predictions.

  Reference (BibTeX): Nat Hansen and Chemla, Emmanuel (2013). "Experimenting on Contextualism". Mind and Language 28(3), pp 287-322.

  Abstract:

  In this paper we refine the design of context shifting experiments, which play a central role in contextualist debates, and we subject a large number of scenarios involving different types of expressions of interest to contextualists, including 'know' and color adjectives like 'green', to experimental investigation. Our experiment (i) reveals an effect of changing contexts on the evaluation of uses of the sentences that we examine, thereby overturning the absence of results reported in previous experimental studies (so-called null results), (ii) uncovers evidence for a 'truth bias' in favor of positive over negative sentences, and (iii) reveals previously unnoticed distinctions between the strength of the contextual effects displayed by scenarios involving knowledge ascriptions and for scenarios concerning color and other miscellaneous scenarios.

• Interpreting numerals and scalar items under memory load [by Paul Marty, Benjamin Spector and myself] (pdf)

  In a dual task study, we show that working memory ressources are involved differently in the derivation of scalar implicatures and in the computation of the exact reading of numerals. Consequences for current theories of numerals are discussed.

  Reference (BibTeX): Marty, Paul, Chemla, Emmanuel & Spector, Benjamin (2013). "Interpreting numerals and scalar items under memory load". Lingua , in press.

  Abstract:

  A sentence such as 'Four children are blond' can be interpreted as meaning either that at least four children are blond (weak reading), or that exactly four children are blond (strong reading). On the classical neo-Gricean view (Horn 1972), this ambiguity is similar to the ambiguity generated by scalar terms such as 'some', for which both a weak reading (i.e., some (possibly all)) and a strong reading (i.e., some but not all) are available. On this view, the strong reading of numerals, just like the strong reading of 'some', is derived as a scalar implicature (SI), on the basis of the weak reading. However, more recent studies have found significant differences between the two phenomena. The syntactic distribution of the strong reading is not the same in both cases (Horn 1992, Breheny 2008), and children seem to acquire the strong reading of numerals before they acquire the strong reading of standard scalar items (Noveck 2001, a.o.). Using a dual task approach, we provide evidence for another type of difference between numerals and standard scalar items. We show that tapping memory resources has opposite effects on 'some' and on bare numerals. Under high cognitive load, participants reported fewer SIs for sentences involving 'some' (compared to low cognitive load conditions), but they report more strong readings for sentences involving bare numerals. We discuss the consequences of this result for the current theoretical debates regarding the semantics of numerals.

• Scalar implicatures: working memory and a comparison with 'only' [by Paul Marty and myself] (pdf)

  In a dual task study, we show that working memory ressources are involved differently in the derivation of scalar implicatures and in the computation of the meaning of "only". Consequences for current debates between grammatical and pragmatic approaches of scalar implicatures are discussed.

  Reference (BibTeX): Marty, Paul and Chemla, Emmanuel (2011). "Scalar implicatures: working memory and a comparison with 'only'". Ms. LSCP.

  Abstract:

  Scalar implicatures arise when the use of a weaker expression (e.g., "some") implies the denial of a stronger alternative (e.g., "all"). Although they are traditionally viewed as a pragmatic phenomena, some researchers have recently argued that such inferences are derived from the application of a plain grammatical operator, very close in meaning to "only". We present a dual task study which results show that (i) tapping participant's memory resources interferes with the derivation of scalar implicatures (replicating recent results from De Neys and Schaeken), whereas (ii) it does not affect their understanding of similar sentences containing the word "only". We explain how this new difference between scalar implicatures and "only" bares on recent linguistic debates on the division of labor between grammar and pragmatics.

• Processing presuppositions: dynamic semantics vs pragmatic enrichment [with Lewis Bott] (pdf)

  In negative sentences, global accommodation is faster than local accommodation.

  Reference (BibTeX): Chemla, Emmanuel and Lewis Bott (2013). "Processing presuppositions: dynamic semantics vs pragmatic enrichment". Language and Cognitive Processes 28(3), pp 241-260.

  Abstract:

  One defining and yet puzzling feature of linguistic presuppositions is the way they interact with linguistic operators. For instance, when a presupposition trigger (e.g., realise) occurs under negation (e.g., Zoologists do not realise that elephants are mammals), the sentence is most commonly interpreted with the same global presupposition (elephants are mammals) as if negation was not present. Alternatively, the presupposition may be locally accommodated, i.e., the presupposition may become part of what is negated. In this paper, we use a sentence verification task similar to that used to study scalar implicatures (Bott and Noveck, 2004) to show that global interpretations are faster than local interpretations. We argue that these results are inconsistent with certain pragmatic accounts of presupposition projection.

• Experimental evidence for embedded scalar implicatures [with Benjamin Spector] (pdf, 2-page abstract)

  We describe an experimental methodology to detect embedded scalar implicatures which are not detected otherwise.

  Reference (BibTeX): Chemla, Emmanuel and Benjamin Spector (2011). "Experimental evidence for embedded scalar implicatures". Journal of Semantics 28(3), pp 359-400, doi:10.1093/jos/ffq023.

  Abstract:

  Scalar implicatures are traditionally viewed, following Grice's seminal work, as pragmatic inferences which result from a reasoning about speakers' communicative intentions. This view has nevertheless been disputed in recent years, and an alternative view has emerged, according to which the computation of scalar implicatures is a grammatical phenomenon. One important argument for this grammatical approach is the claim that scalar implicatures can be computed in embedded positions and enter into the recursive computation of meaning---something that is not expected under the traditional, pragmatic view. Recently, Geurts and Pouscoulous (2009) presented an experimental study in which embedded scalar implicatures were not detected. We present two experiments in which embedded scalar implicatures were detected, thanks to a novel elaboration on the standard truth-value judgment task.

• Expressible semantics for expressible counterfactuals (prefinal version)

  This paper investigates versions of ordering and premise semantics of counterfactuals which are constrained to fit the limitations of natural language actual users. Consequences for the limit assumption are discussed.

  Reference (BibTeX): Chemla, Emmanuel (2011). "Expressible semantics for expressible counterfactuals". Review of Symbolic Logic 4(1), pp 63-80, doi:10.1017/S175502031000016X.

  Abstract:

  I argue that our semantic intuitions about counterfactuals should be accounted for with restricted versions of dominant semantic theories. The relevant restricted versions should respect the limitations of actual speakers. I first define expressible versions of ordering semantics and premise semantics and extend Lewis' (1981) general equivalence result between the two frameworks to these particular versions. More importantly, I show that moving to these expressible semantics necessarily alter the predicted truth value of accordingly expressible counterfactuals. This unexpected negative result has problematic consequences in particular for a certain defense of the limit assumption by means of coarse-graining.

• Incremental vs. Symmetric Accounts of Presupposition Projection: An Experimental Approach [with Philippe Schlenker] (NEW VERSION January 2012, older version)

  This paper is an experimental existence proof of symmetric (non-incremental) patterns of presupposition projection. The new version contains 5 new experiments and complement the previous acceptability data with inferential judgments.

  Reference (BibTeX): Chemla, Emmanuel and Philippe Schlenker (2012). "Incremental vs. Symmetric Accounts of Presupposition Projection: An Experimental Approach". Natural Language Semantics 20(2), pp 177-226, doi:10.1007/s11050-012-9080-7.

  Abstract:

  The presupposition triggered by an expression E is generally satisfied by information that comes before rather than after E in the sentence or discourse. In Heim's classic theory (1983), this left-right asymmetry is encoded in the lexical semantics of dynamic connectives and operators. But several recent analyses offer a more nuanced approach, in which presupposition satisfaction has two separate components: a general principle (which varies from theory to theory) specifies under what conditions a presupposition triggered by an expression E is satisfied; and an ‘incremental’ component specifies that the principle must be checked on the basis of information that comes before E. Several researchers take this incremental component to be a processing bias, which can be overcome at some cost. If so, it should be possible, though costly, to satisfy presuppositions ‘symmetrically’, i.e. taking into account linguistic material that comes both before and after the presupposition trigger. We test this claim with experimental means. Using inferential (and to some extent acceptability) tasks involving ‘anaphoric’ triggers, we show that in the propositional case symmetric readings are indeed possible (albeit degraded) in environments involving the connectives if, or and unless.

• Universal implicatures and free choice effects: experimental data (paper)

  Parallel investigation of free choice effects and scalar implicatures from the scope of positive and negative universal quantifiers.

  Reference (BibTeX): Chemla, Emmanuel (2009). "Universal Implicatures and Free Choice Effects: Experimental Data". Semantics and Pragmatics 2(2), pp 1-33, doi:10.3765/sp.2.2.

  Abstract:

  Universal inferences like (i) have been taken as evidence for a local/syntactic treatment of scalar implicatures (i.e. theories where the enrichment of "some" into "some but not all" can happen sub-sententially):

  1. Everybody read some of the books
     --> Everybody read [some but not all the books].

  In this paper, I provide experimental evidence which casts doubt on this argument. The counter-argument relies on a new set of data involving free choice inferences (a sub-species of scalar implicatures) and negative counterparts of (i), namely sentences with the quantifier "no" instead of "every".

  The results show that the globalist account of scalar implicatures is incomplete (mainly because of free choice inferences) but that the distribution of universal inferences made available by the localist move remains incomplete as well (mainly because of the negative cases).

• Similarity: Towards a Unified Account of Scalar Implicatures, Free Choice Permission and Presupposition Projection (pdf)

  I show that the differences between the three phenomena do not prevent a unified account.

  Reference (BibTeX): Chemla, Emmanuel (2009). "Similarity: towards a Unified Account of Scalar Implicatures, Free Choice Permission and Presupposition Projection". Under revision for Semantics and Pragmatics.

  Abstract:

  I propose a new theory of scalar implicatures: the speaker should be in the same epistemic status with respect to alternatives obtained via similar transformations (e.g., replacements of a scalar items with various stronger items). This theory extends naturally to explain presupposition projection. Cases where scalar items and presupposition triggers co-occur are also accounted for. The main focus is the unification between various phenomena: scalar implicatures, free choice effects and presupposition projection. Yet, the system can be split into independent proposals for each of these issues.

• An Epistemic Step for Anti-Presuppositions (pdf)

  Detailed investigations of the contextual conditions under which implicated presuppositions do acquire a strong epistemic status and discussion of new empirical predictions.

  Reference (BibTeX): Chemla, Emmanuel (2008). "An Epistemic Step for Anti-Presupposition". Journal of Semantics 25(2), pp 141-173, doi:10.1093/jos/ffm017.

  Abstract:

  Sentence (i) strongly suggests that the speaker does not have a sister:

  1. John believes that I have a sister.
     1. Alternative: John knows that I have a sister.
     2. Predicted inference: it is not common belief that the speaker has a sister.
     3. Actual inference: the speaker does not have a sister.

  According to Heim (1991), Percus (2006) and Sauerland (2006), this inference might follow from the comparison of (i) to (ia). However, such an analysis would only predict a very weak implicature: it is not common belief that the speaker has a sister.

  I propose to strengthen this prediction by two means. First, I rely on a precise understanding of the modern stalnakerian view of presuppositions and common ground (Stalnaker, 1998, 2002; von Fintel, 2000; Schlenker, 2006). Second, I argue that this inference depends on contextual factors. More precisely, I show that the Competence Assumption (see Spector, 2003, van Rooij and Schulz, 2004 and Sauerland, 2004) necessary to obtain secondary scalar implicatures should be supplemented with an Authority Assumption. I motivate this additional assumption on independent empirical grounds. Finally, I show how my proposal applies for a wide variety of inferences with fine variations governed by 1) contextual differences and 2) specific properties of the presupposition triggers involved.

• Presuppositions of quantified sentences: experimental data (pdf, old version from my dissertation, poster)

  An experimental study of the projection properties of presupposition in quantified sentences. The new version contains new data for more quantifiers. The old version contains more on the comparison between presuppositions and other phenomena.

  Reference (BibTeX): Chemla, Emmanuel (2009). "Presuppositions of quantified sentences: experimental data". Natural Language Semantics 17(4), pp 299-340, doi:10.1007/s11050-009-9043-9.

  Abstract:

  Some theories assume that sentences like (i) with presupposition triggers in the scope of a quantifier carry an existential presupposition, as in (ii); others assume that they carry a universal presupposition, as in (iii).

  1. No student knows that he is lucky.
  2. Existential presupposition: At least one student is lucky.
  3. Universal presupposition: Every student is lucky.

  This work is an experimental investigation of this issue in French. Native speakers were recruited to evaluate the robustness of the inference from (i) to (iii). The main result is that presuppositions triggered from the scope of the quantifier "no" are in fact universal. But the present results also suggest that the presuppositions triggered from the scope of other quantifiers depend on the quantifier. This calls for important changes in the main theories of presupposition projection.

  NB: In the older version of this paper, presuppositions were compared more directly with cases of adverbial modification and scalar implicatures. The old version of the paper is still available and a more focussed discussion can still be found in "An experimental approach to adverbial modification" below.

• An experimental approach to adverbial modification (pdf)

  This paper experimentaly shows that inferences driven by adverbial modification are intermediate between presuppositions and scalar implicatures.

  Reference (BibTeX): Chemla, Emmanuel (2009). "An experimental approach to adverbial modification". In Uli Sauerland and Kazuko Yatsushiro (ed.), Semantics and Pragmatics: From Experiment to Theory, Palgrave Macmillan New York, pp 249-263.

  Abstract:

  Adverbial modification gives rise to inferences which pattern very much like presuppositions. In particular, these inferences persist when the original sentence —e.g., (i)— is embedded in various downward entailing environments —e.g., negation in (ii), the scope of the quantifiers 'none' and 'less than 3' in (iii) and (iv):

  1. John arrived late.
     implies that: John came.
  2. John didn't arrive late.
     also implies that: John came.
  3. None of these 10 students arrived late.
     implies that: all of the 10 students involved came.
  4. Less than 3 of these 10 students arrived late.
     implies that: all of the 10 students involved came.

  In this paper, adverbial modification is compared to presuppositions and to (indirect) scalar implicatures which also show intriguing similarities with presuppositions. The present experiment reveals differences between implicatures and presuppositions, both in terms of their projection properties and the underlying derivation processes (reaction times). However, in this very same experiment, adverbial modification cannot be distinguished from any of the other two phenomena.

  These results paradoxically argue against a strong distinction between presuppositions and scalar implicatures. They support recent proposals which account for presuppositions in terms of implicatures (Simons 2001, Schlenker 2008, Chemla 2009) which would allow adverbial modification to fall in the middle of this hierarchial spectrum of linguistic inferences.

• Transparency Theory: Empirical Issues and Psycholinguistic Routes (pdf)

  This short paper is a comment on Schlenker's Transparency Theory.

  Reference (BibTeX): Chemla, Emmanuel (2008). "Transparency Theory: Empirical Issues and Psycholinguistic Routes". Theoretical Linguistics 34(3), pp 229-236, doi:10.1515/THLI.2008.015.

  Abstract:

  no abstract

• Aren't Dummy Alternatives only Technical Shortcuts? (paper)

  Technical, limited criticism of Schlenker (2006)'s theory of the projection problem of presuppositions.

  Reference (BibTeX): Chemla, Emmanuel (2006). "Aren't Dummy Alternatives only Technical Shortcuts?". Ms. ENS & MIT.

  Abstract:

  The transparency theory seems to make heavy use of tautologous pieces of sentences. I discuss here the necessity of such a baffling technical trick to match the achievement of dynamic semantics (Heim, 1983). I show that 1) tautologies are not necessary when the language is limited to the propositional fragment proposed in the first part of Schlenker's analysis and 2) they are necessary for quantificational cases (and similarly with modal operators but this is not part of Schlenker's discussion). Finally, I suggest that this trick could actually be avoided in more expressive frameworks.

• French both: a gap in the theory of antipresupposition (paper)

  French lacks a lexical item for both; I discuss here in a few lines the consequences of this for a theory of anti-presuppostion.

  Reference (BibTeX): Chemla, Emmanuel (2007). "French both: a gap in the theory of antipresupposition". Snippets 15, pp 4-5.

  Abstract:

  The most relevant examples are:

  1. 1. *Philippe broke all his arms.
     2. Philippe broke both his arms.
  2. 1. *Philippe s'est cassé tous les bras.
     2. ?Philippe s'est cassé ?French-both les bras.

• Local Implicatures and Double Negatives (paper)

  Early work on Chierchia (2004)'s local derivation of implicatures: the case of downward entailing operators embedded under each other.

  Reference (BibTeX): Chemla, Emmanuel (2006). "Local Implicatures and Double Negatives". Ms. LSCP.

  Abstract:

  In this note, I investigate a particular aspect of Chierchia (2004)'s local derivation of implicatures: the system relies on a hardwire asymmetry between downward and upward monotonic operators. As a result, logically equivalent sentences might have different implicatures. I argue that it reveals a lack of motivation for some operations in the system.

  1. John ate an apple, a banana or an orange.
     Predicted implicature: John ate exactly one of these fruits.
  2. It's not true that John did not eat an apple, a banana or an orange.
     Predicted implicature: If John ate an orange, he did not eat any apple or banana.

• Categorizing Words Using "Frequent Frames" (pdf)

  On language acquisition: the feasibility of a particular distributional strategy for the early development of grammatical categories.

  Reference (BibTeX): Chemla, Emmanuel, Toby H. Mintz, Savita Bernal & Anne Christophe (2009). "Categorizing Words Using 'Frequent Frames': What Cross-Linguistic Analyses Reveal About Distributional Acquisition Strategies". Developmental Science 12(3), pp 396-406, doi:10.1111/j.1467-7687.2009.00825.x.

  Abstract:

  Mintz (2003) described a distributional environment called a frame, defined as the co-occurrence of two context words with one intervening target word. Analyses of English child-directed speech showed that words that fell within any frequently occurring frame consistently belonged to the same grammatical category (e.g., noun, verb, adjective, etc.). In this paper, we first generalize this result to French, whose function word system allows patterns that are potentially detrimental to a frame-based analysis procedure. Second, we show that the discontinuity of the chosen environments -- i.e., the fact that target words are framed by the context words -- is crucial for the mechanism to be efficient. This property might be relevant for any computational approach to grammatical categorization. Finally, we investigated a recursive application of the procedure and observed that the categorization is paradoxically worse when context elements are categories rather than actual lexical items. Item-specificity is thus also a core computational principle for this type of algorithm. Our analysis, along with results from behavioral studies (Gómez, 2002; Gómez and Maye, 2005; Mintz, 2006), provide strong support for frames as a basis for the acquisition of grammatical categories by infants. Discontinuity and item-specificity appeared to be crucial features.

• LSCP (my lab)

  Linguae research group

• Homepages	• Lewis Bott
  	• Anne Christophe
  	• Emmanuel Dupoux
  	• Paul Egré
  	• Bart Geurts
  	• Nat Hansen
  	• Vincent Homer
  	• Daniel Rothschild
  	• Philippe Schlenker
  	• Benjamin Spector

• A convenient way to type in Hebrew with a French or English keyboard. here

• Stats: How evil is it to explore multiple thresholds for exclusion of outliers in a data set? here

  Simulations show that exploring 25 thresholds systematically do not dramatically increase the rate of false positives.

• Stats: Some personal notes about appropriate ways to represent data graphically, when they are analyzed using mixed model analyses. here

  Representing averages may in some cases end up showing an effect that's opposite of what a mixed model analysis argues for.