What are implicit causality and consequentiality?

Authors: Pickering, Martin¹; Majid, Asifa²

Source: Language and Cognitive Processes, Volume 22, Number 5, August 2007 , pp. 780-788(9)

Publisher: Psychology Press, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

Buy & download fulltext article:

Price: $50.43 plus tax (Refund Policy)

Abstract:

Much work in psycholinguistics and social psychology has investigated the notion of implicit causality associated with verbs. Crinean and Garnham (2006) relate implicit causality to another phenomenon, implicit consequentiality. We argue that they and other researchers have confused the meanings of events and the reasons for those events, so that particular thematic roles (e.g., Agent, Patient) are taken to be causes or consequences of those events by definition. In accord with Garvey and Caramazza (1974), we propose that implicit causality and consequentiality are probabilistic notions that are straightforwardly related to the explicit causes and consequences of events and are analogous to other biases investigated in psycholinguistics.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01690960601119876

Affiliations: 1: Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK 2: Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Publication date: 2007-08-01

More about this publication?