Conflicts in interpretation

Abstract

The leading hypothesis of this paper is that interpretation is a process of constraint satisfaction, conflict resolution, and optimization, along the lines of Optimality Theory. Support for this view is drawn from very different domains, and based on both experimental and theoretical research. We discuss the role of violable constraints in a computational model of pronoun resolution, ERP effects of constraint violations in incremental sentence processing in humans, different behavior of children and adults in the interpretation of indefinites and pronouns, the interaction between word meaning and context in polysemy, and cross-linguistic variation in the grammar of negative sentences. This approach opens new perspectives on the interfaces between different modules, not only within language (such as between the lexicon, syntax, semantics, pragmatics), but also in the wider domain of human cognition and communication, underscoring the bidirectional view of interpretation, that takes both the hearer’s and the speaker’s perspective into account.