Exploring the neurophysiological underpinnings of conversational implicature processing in Korean

• 발행기관: 경희대학교 언어정보연구소
• 저자명: Yunju Nam Hyenyeong Chung Shin-ae Yoon
• 간행물 정보: 『언어연구』제43권 제2호, 593~620쪽, 전체 28쪽
• 주제분류: 인문학 > 언어학
• 파일형태: PDF
• 발행일자: 2026.06.30

국문 초록

Conversational implicature involves recovering speaker-intended meaning beyond an utterance's literal content. This study examined the neural time course of pragmatic inference in Korean using event-related potentials (ERPs). Across four conditions, such as Direct Answer (DA), Moderately Implicit (MI), Highly Implicit (HI), and Unrelated Answer (UA), an offline norming study confirmed a graded appropriateness pattern (DA > MI > HI > UA). In the ERP experiment (N = 28), participants read dialogue pairs via rapid serial visual presentation. Reaction times were longer for MI and HI, reflecting greater processing demands. Three ERP effects emerged: (1) an N400 (300–450 ms) at the first word in HI, reflecting an unbridged referent cost; (2) a frontal P600 (450–600 ms) at the sentence-final predicate in HI, indexing implicature derivation; and (3) in UA, an N400 at the second word and a late left-anterior negativity (600–800 ms) at sentence-final predicate, reflecting semantic/pragmatic violation at the early stage and failed pragmatic repair. MI and DA showed no reliable ERP differences. These results support a model in which pragmatic inference engages both semantic integration (N400) and higher-order meaning construction (frontal P600).

목차

1. Introduction

2. Research questions

3. Methods

4. Results

5. Discussion

6. Conclusion

References

키워드

conversational implicature pragmatic inference N400 P600 ERPs Korean indirect reply Gricean maxims

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