Electrophysiological Correlates of Presuppositional Inference in Contrastive Focus

Abstract

This study investigated the electrophysiological correlates of presuppositional inferences in contrastive focus during online reading. In a series of mini-discourses involving two characters, contrastive focus was marked by either the Chinese focus particle zhiyou (equivalent to only) or shi (equivalent to an it-cleft), which carry different presuppositions. Before the focus sentence, a critical context sentence was presented that was congruent with the zhiyou-presupposition (i.e., the two characters previously did the action together) or with the shi-presupposition (i.e., the other character previously did it alone). Participants read and listened to the discourses alongside a partner, as social context may potentially facilitate pragmatic inference. Results showed that the particle zhiyou elicited a larger LPC waveform following incongruent than congruent contexts, while the discourse-final word with shi-focus elicited a larger P300 following incongruent than congruent contexts. These findings suggest that presupposition violations of only-focus relate to early disconfirmation of pragmatic expectations, while presupposition violations of cleft-focus involve late-stage pragmatic integration during discourse update. These results highlight the role of focus particles in modulating presuppositional inference and offer insights into their distinct electrophysiological signatures.