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    The defeasibility of discourse-relation inferences is bet... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→Discourse relations are part of linguistic knowledge, not merely reflections of cooperative conversation and maxim following or flouting

    The defeasibility of discourse-relation inferences is better explained by pragmatic cancellability than by a distinct linguistic module.

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    Reasons For

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    • 1.Discourse inferences show the same cancellation patterns as scalar implicatures, which are paradigmatically pragmatic phenomena.
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    • 2.Positing a dedicated linguistic module for discourse relations multiplies theoretical entities beyond what empirical evidence requires.
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    • 3.Pragmatic accounts explain why discourse inferences vary with context, speaker intentions, and listener expectations uniformly.
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    Reasons Against

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    • 1.Discourse relations exhibit structural properties (binding constraints, island effects) characteristic of linguistic modules, not pragmatics.
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    • 2.Some discourse inferences are automatic and pre-conscious, resisting the deliberative cancellation characteristic of pragmatic reasoning.
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    • 3.Pragmatic accounts struggle to explain why certain discourse relations are strongly preferred regardless of speaker communicative goals.
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    Related

    Discourse inferences show the same cancellation patterns as scalar implicatures,...Discourse relations are part of linguistic knowledge, not merely reflections of ...Discourse relations exhibit structural properties (binding constraints, island e...Positing a dedicated linguistic module for discourse relations multiplies theore...
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    Pragmatic accounts explain why discourse inferences vary with context, speaker i...Pragmatic accounts struggle to explain why certain discourse relations are stron...Some discourse inferences are automatic and pre-conscious, resisting the deliber...

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