We investigate the processing of scalar inferences in first language (L1) and second language (L2). Expanding beyond the common focus on the scalar inference from ‘some’ to ‘not all’, we examine six scalar expressions: ‘low’, ‘scarce’, ‘might’, ‘some’, ‘most’ and ‘try’. An online sentence-picture verification task was used to measure the frequency and time course of scalar inferences for these expressions. Participants included native English speakers, native Slovenian speakers and Slovenian speakers who spoke English as their L2. The first two groups were tested in their L1, while the third group was tested in their L2. Results showed that the English-L2 group resembled the Slovenian-L1 group more than the English-L1 group in terms of inference frequency. The time course for scalar inference computation was similar across all groups. These findings suggest subtle pragmatic transfer effects from L1 to L2, varying across different scalar expressions.

中文翻译：

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标量多样性和标量推理的第二语言处理：跨语言分析


我们研究了第一语言 （L1） 和第二语言 （L2） 中标量推理的处理。超越了对从 “some” 到 “not all” 的标量推断的常见关注，我们研究了六个标量表达式： 'low'， 'scarce'， 'might'， 'some'， 'most' 和 'try'。在线句子图片验证任务用于测量这些表达式的标量推理的频率和时间过程。参与者包括以英语为母语的人、以斯洛文尼亚语为母语的人和以英语为第二语言的斯洛文尼亚人。前两组在 L1 中进行测试，而第三组在 L2 中进行测试。结果表明，在推理频率方面，English-L2 组比 English-L1 组更像 Slovenian-L1 组。标量推理计算的时间过程在所有组中都相似。这些发现表明从 L1 到 L2 的微妙的实用转移效应，在不同的标量表达中有所不同。