Helena Aparicio
Department of Linguistics
Cornell University

Semantic adaptation supports pragmatic reasoning

Recent work has shown that listeners adapt their semantic representations in response to speaker input. This aligns with evidence that adaptation occurs across multiple levels of linguistic representation – including sound and structure – suggesting that it is a robust, general mechanism of language comprehension. However, the scope and functional role of meaning adaptation remain poorly understood. In particular, it is an open question whether, at the level of meaning, (a) listeners generalize semantic updates to other lexical categories, and (b) listeners leverage these updates for pragmatic reasoning. Across a series of experiments, I provide positive evidence for both questions. Using vagueness as a case study, I show that (a) listeners adapt their representations of vague quantifiers and extend these updates to other threshold-denoting lexical categories, such as gradable adjectives; and (b) listeners use these generalized updates to guide pragmatic reasoning. These findings not only advance our understanding of semantic adaptation and its role in pragmatic reasoning, but also shed new light on the dynamic context effects of assertions containing vague expressions.