Project Participants
Dr. Nadine Bade
(Principal Investigator)
University of Potsdam
nadine.bade@uni-potsdam.de
Nadine Bade’s research focuses on experimental investigations of phenomena at the semantics-pragmatics interface. Her work addresses the question how different contextual and structural factors influence pragmatic inferences and reasoning. Her research mostly uses methods from psychology to study pragmatic meaning in a variety of languages, including but not limited to mouse- and eye-tracking, reaction time as well as rating studies. Before starting her project “Pragmatic reasoning with (non-)visual alternatives” in ViCom she was working in different interdisciplinary projects at the University of Potsdam, École Normale Supérierure in Paris and the University of Tübingen.
Selected publications
- Bade, Nadine, et al. “Alternatives and attention in language and reasoning: A reply to Mascarenhas & Picat 2019.” Semantics and Pragmatics 15.2 (2022).
- Bade, Nadine, and Florian Schwarz. “New data on the competition between definites and indefinites.” Experiments in Linguistic Meaning 1 (2021): 15-26.
- Bade, Nadine. “On the scope and nature of Maximise Presupposition.” Language and Linguistics Compass 15.6 (2021): e12416.
- Bade, Nadine, and Agata Renans. “A cross-linguistic view on the obligatory insertion of additive particles—Maximize Presupposition vs. Obligatory Implicatures.” Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 6.1 (2021).
- Bade, Nadine, and Konstantin Sachs. “EXH passes on alternatives: A comment on Fox and Spector (2018).” Natural Language Semantics 27.1 (2019): 19-45.
Project Description
The project investigates the role of visual alternatives in pragmatic reasoning. Specifically, it looks at the interaction of visual with non-visual (verbal) alternatives in the derivation of three inference types – presuppositional and conversational implicatures as well as presuppositions – using experimental methods. A first theoretical goal of the project is to inform and build multi-modal models of how pragmatic strengthening proceeds incorporating the role of visual material. A second theoretical goal is to inform theories of presupposition triggering by investigating the role of visual salience in triggering processes. An overarching methodological goal is to compare different visual paradigms in their impact on experimental investigations in pragmatics using visual stimuli.
Publications
Bade, N., P. Schlenker & E. Chemla. (2024). Word learning tasks as a window into the triggering problem for presuppositions. Natural Language Semantics 32, 473-503. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11050-024-09224-5
Bade, N., W. Chung, L. Picat, R. Dudley & S. Mascarenhas. (to appear). Shared mechanisms in pragmatic enrichment with contextual and lexical alternatives. Journal of Memory and Language.
Bade, N. New data on the ‘triggering problem’ for presuppositions. Proceedings of SALT 34.
Conference contributions
Bade, N. 2024. New data on the triggering problem for presuppositions. Semantics and Linguistic Theory (SALT), University of Rochester, Rochester, New York.
Invited talks and guest lectures
2024
Bade, Nadine. “Finding the gap or filling it? – Experimental measures of truth value gaps.” Gaps and Imprecision in Natural Language Semantics, Leibniz-ZAS Berlin.
Bade, Nadine. “Shared mechanisms between local and global implicatures – evidence from priming.” Semantics Colloquium, University of Frankfurt.
Bade, Nadine, Vera Hohaus & Ryan Walter Smith. “Linguistic Illusions Revisited: The Role of Maximal Informativity.” Semantics Colloquium, University of Frankfurt.
2023
Bade, Nadine, Philippe Schlenker & Emmanuel Chemla. “Word learning tasks as a window into the ‘triggering problem’ for presuppositions.” Linguistics Colloquium, University of Stuttgart.
Bade, Nadine, Philippe Schlenker & Emmanuel Chemla. “Word learning tasks as a window into the ‘triggering problem’ for presuppositions.” Semantics Circle, Leibniz-ZAS Berlin.
Outreach
Bade, Nadine, presentation of research done at the university to the general public, Potsdamer Tag der Wissenschaften (Potsdam day of science), University of Potsdam.