Fokus kvantifikatora u hrvatskom jeziku na zadatku nadopunjavanja recenica

• Published in: Psychological Topics Vol. 23; no. 2; p. 289
• Main Authors: Bajsanski, Igor, Valerjev, Pavle
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Croatian; English
• Published: Rijeka Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts and Sciences 01.07.2014; University of Rijeka
• Subjects: efekti perspektive; fokus kvantifikatora; hrvatski jezik; kvantifikatori; Psychology; Slavic languages
• ISSN: 1332-0742; 1849-0395

Natural language quantifiers are used to express information about quantity. Many psychological studies researched the subjective meaning of such expressions, as well as individual and contextual differences in their interpretation. Quantifiers differ in the property of focus, i.e. in focusing attention on different aspects of the described situation (Sanford, Dawydiak, & Moxey, 2007). The aim of the present study was to explore this property of quantifiers in Croatian. Eighty-three students participated in an experiment. Focus effect was tested for three quantifiers (malo/few, puno/many, nekoliko/a few) using sentence continuation procedure. Participants read 18 sentences, each combined with one of the three quantifiers. Type of continuation was also manipulated: one group was required to produce anaphoric continuation, and the other to produce an explanation. Produced continuations were classified as referring to reference or complementary set. The results showed strong focus effect: continuations for sentences with positive quantifiers (puno, nekoliko) referred to reference set, and continuations for the quantifier malo referred to complementary set. A significant effect of the type of continuation, as well as the interaction between the type of continuation and the quantifier were also obtained: participants produced more complementary set continuations when they were asked to produce explanations.