Context, precision, and social perception: A sociopragmatic study

Abstract In two perception experiments we explore the social indexicality of numerical expressions, comparing evaluation three variants: precise (e.g. ‘forty-nine minutes’) vs. explicitly approximate ‘about fifty underspecified ‘fifty minutes’). We ask questions: (i) What constellations meanings are associated with each these variants? (ii) How such indexical associations modulated by conversational setting? find that choice forms differentially impact speaker along dimensions Status, Solidarity, and anti-Solidarity, numbers showing a flexible behavior. Furthermore, to some extent affected setting, in particular demands on descriptive precision placed context interlocutors’ goals. These findings reveal an intimate connection between pragmatic reasoning perception, highlighting importance integrating theory study indexicality. (Social meaning, variation, numerals, (im)precision)*