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INFERENCING IN ESL: PRESUPPOSITIONS AND IMPLICATIONS OF FACTIVE AND IMPLICATIVE PREDICATES
Author(s) -
Carrell Patricia L.
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
language learning
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.882
H-Index - 103
eISSN - 1467-9922
pISSN - 0023-8333
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-1770.1984.tb00993.x
Subject(s) - presupposition , linguistics , sentence , psychology , meaning (existential) , comprehension , predicate (mathematical logic) , inference , competence (human resources) , linguistic competence , computer science , natural language processing , artificial intelligence , philosophy , social psychology , psychotherapist , programming language
One aspect of pragmatic competence in a second language is the ability to draw correct inferences. Much of the information conveyed by a text, or even a single sentence, is not conveyed directly as the literal meaning of that text or sentence, but is rather conveyed only indirectly, as inferences which are to be drawn from the text or sentence. The process of comprehending a text or sentence, then, is at least partially the process of drawing correct inferences. If second language learners are to be said to have comprehended a text or sentence, they must also have drawn the correct inferences from it. The study reported in this paper, which included both advanced and high‐intermediate ESL learners as well as a control group of native speakers, investigated the drawing of two types of inferences in ESL ‐ presuppositions and implications ‐from English sentences containing factive and implicative predicates (Kiparsky and Kiparsky 1970; Karttunen 1971). Results of the study, which are compared to earlier empirical studies of fully proficient native speakers of English (Just and Clark 1973; Vosniadou 1982), show the ESL learners are in the process of acquiring this aspect of pragmatic ability in English. Specific results reveal better comprehension of implied meaning over presupposed meaning, better performance on semantically positive predicates than on semantically negative predicates, and an interaction between inference type (implication versus presupposition) and predicate polarity (positive versus negative). These results are explained in terms of previous research on the distinction between given and new information. Additional research is proposed and potential pedagogical implications are also discussed.