The browser you are using is not supported by this website. All versions of Internet Explorer are no longer supported, either by us or Microsoft (read more here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-ie-support).

Please use a modern browser to fully experience our website, such as the newest versions of Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari etc.

The modifier effect in within-category induction: Default inheritance in complex noun phrases.

På svenska

Author

Summary, in English

Within-category induction is the projection of a generic property from a class (Apples are sweet) to a subtype of that class (Chinese apples are sweet). The modifier effect refers to the discovery reported by Connolly et al., that the subtype statement tends to be judged less likely to be true than the original unmodified sentence. The effect was replicated and shown to be moderated by the typicality of the modifier (Experiment 1). Likelihood judgements were also found to correlate between modified and unmodified versions of sentences. Experiment 2 elicited justifications, which suggested three types of reason for the effect-pragmatics, knowledge-based reasoning, and uncertainty about attribute inheritance. It is argued that the results provide clear evidence for the default inheritance of prototypical attributes in modified concepts, although a full account of the effect remains to be given.

Publishing year

2012

Language

English

Pages

90-116

Publication/Series

Language and Cognitive Processes

Volume

27

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Routledge

Topic

  • Philosophy

Keywords

  • Concepts
  • Prototypes
  • Compositionality
  • Conceptual combination

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0169-0965