Pragmatic inference of contrastive focus and presupposition processing

By conducting a self controlled reading experiment and an eye movement experiment, we aim to examine the processing of implicit meanings related to the contrast focus and preset during sentence comprehension. The experiment uses the focus marker words "yes" or "only" to mark the focus person, and manipulates the contextual information to be consistent with the preset of "yes" - focus (single person) or consistent with the preset of "only" - focus (double person). Experiment 1 found that when the context is single person, the reading time of "yes" - focus is shorter than that of "only" - focus, while there is no difference between the two conditions when there are two people; Experiment 2 found that when the context is for two people, both the "only" - focus component and the total reading time of the context are shorter than the "yes" - focus, while there is no difference between the two conditions when the context is for one person. The experimental results support that under certain conditions, the preset information hidden in the two contrasting focal points can be processed; Under high cognitive load, preset information is not processed. Overall, it supports the view that pragmatic reasoning requires cognitive effort.