“Maybe, but probably not”
Negotiating likelihood and perspective
The goal of our paper is to explore one of the functions of everyday expressions of likelihood; more specifically, to propose that they play an important role in negotiating not only likelihood but also perspective. We will examine examples of such expressions in the context of conversational interactions, identifying the roles of such expressions along with partner responses to them. Our analyses will be integrated with previous models from laboratory research on the production and comprehension of expressions of quantity and frequency (e.g., Moxey and Sanford 2000). Findings will also be interpreted in the context of ongoing discussions on the nature and role of perspective-taking (e.g., Duran, Dale, and Kreuz 2011).
References
Arnold, Jennifer E., and Michael K. Tannenhaus
2011 “Disfluency Effects in Comprehension: How New Information Becomes Accessible.” In
The Processing and Acquisition of Reference, ed. by
Edward Gibson, and
Neal J. Pearlmutter, 197–218. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Clark, Herbert H., and Jean E. Foxtree
2002 “Using ‘Uh’ and ‘Um’ in Spontaneous Speaking.” Cognition 841: 73–111.
Duran, Nicholas D., Rick Dale, and Roger J. Kreuz
2011 “Listeners Invest in an Assumed Other’s Perspective Despite Cognitive Cost.” Cognition 1211: 22–40.
Horton, William S., and Boaz Keysar
1996 “When Do Speakers Take Into Account Common Ground?” Cognition 591: 91–117.
Juanchich, Maire, Miroslav Sirota, and Christina Lea Butler
2012 “The Perceived Functions of Linguistic Risk Quantifiers and Their Effect on Risk, Negativity Perception and Decision Making.” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 1181: 72–81.
Juanchich, Marie, Karl Halvor Teigen, and Gaelle Villejoubert
2010 “
Is Guilt ‘Likely’ or ‘Not Certain’?: Contrast with Previous Probabilities Determines Choice of Verbal Terms.”
Acta Psychologica 1351: 267–277.
Jucker, Andreas H., Sara W. Smith, and Tanja Luedge
2003 “Interactive Aspects of Vagueness in Conversation.” Journal of Pragmatics 351: 1737–1769.
Moxey, Linda M., and Anthony J. Sanford
1987 “Quantifiers and Focus.” Journal of Semantics 51: 189–206.
Moxey, Linda M., and Anthony J. Sanford
2000 “Communicating Quantities: A Review of Psycholinguistic Evidence of How Expressions Determine Perspectives.” Applied Cognitive Psychology 14 (3): 237–255.
Moxey, Linda M
2006 “Effects of What is Expected on the Focussing Properties of Quantifiers: A Test of the Presupposition-Denial Account.” Journal of Memory and Language 551: 422–439.
Pickering, Martin J., Janet F. McLean, and Chiara Gambi
2012 “Do Addressees Adopt the Perspective of the Speaker?”
Acta Psychologica.
Piercey, M. David
2009 “Motivated Reasoning and Verbal vs. Numerical Probability Assessment: Evidence from an Accounting Context.” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 1081: 330–341.
Sanford, Anthony J., Eugene J. Dawydiak, and Linda M. Moxey
2007 “A Unified Account of Quantifier Perspective Effects in Discourse.” Discourse Processes 44 (1): 1–32.
Sanford, Anthony J., and Linda M. Moxey
2011 “Complement Focus and Reference Phenomena.” In
The Processing and Acquisition of Reference, ed. by
Edward Gibson, and
Neal J. Pearlmutter, 381–402. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Sher, Shlomi, and Craig R.M. McKenzie
2006 “Information Leakage from Logically Equivalent Frames.” Cognition 1011: 467–494.
Teigen, Karl Halvor, and Wibecke Brun
1995 “Yes, but it is Uncertain: Direction and Communicative Intention of Verbal Probabilistic Terms.” Acta Psychologica 881: 233–258.
Wallsten, Thomas S., David V. Budescu, Amnon Rapoport, Rami Zwick, and Barbara Forsyth
1986 “Measuring the Vague Meanings of Probability Terms.” Journal of Experimental Psychology 115(4): 348–365.
Zwarts, Frans
1994 “Polarity Items.” In
The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, ed. by
Ron E. Asher, and
J.M.Y. Simpson. Oxford: Pergamon Press.
Cited by
Cited by 3 other publications
Collins, Robert N. & David R. Mandel
2019.
Cultivating credibility with probability words and numbers.
Judgment and Decision Making 14:6
► pp. 683 ff.
Juanchich, Marie, Theodore G. Shepherd & Miroslav Sirota
2020.
Negations in uncertainty lexicon affect attention, decision-making and trust.
Climatic Change 162:3
► pp. 1677 ff.
Teigen, Karl Halvor, Marie Juanchich & Erik Løhre
2023.
Combining verbal forecasts: The role of directionality and the reinforcement effect.
Journal of Behavioral Decision Making 36:2
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 4 may 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.