Generic overgeneralization effect or quantifier domain restriction? Evidence from paraphrasing in Polish
Generic overgeneralization effect or quantifier domain restriction? Evidence from paraphrasing in Polish

Summary/Abstract: This study examines how native speakers of Polish paraphrase two types of quantified statements: (i) minority statements (e.g., Wszystkie kangury mają torby ‘All kangaroos have pouches’), that is, false universal generalizations about properties possessed by only a subset of a category, and (ii) statements involving pragmatically implied quantifier domain restriction (e.g., Wszyscy przynieśli prezenty dla Hani ‘Everyone brought presents for Hania’), where the quantifier is understood to apply to a limited set. The aim is to contribute to the ongoing discussion on overgeneralization bias, that is, the tendency of adults to endorse false universal statements. Two competing accounts have been proposed for this phenomenon: the generic overgeneralization effect hypothesis (Leslie et al., 2011) and the quantifier domain restriction hypothesis (Lazaridou-Chatzigoga et al., 2017, 2019). The analysis of paraphrases showed that participants rarely referred to a restricted subset of the category. Instead, they either retained a strong universal quantifier or omitted the quantifier in their paraphrases. These findings lend support to the generic overgeneralization effect hypothesis over the domain restriction account.

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