Introduction: Meaning Across Languages
Résumé
In this chapter, we will introduce the basic research questions spanning all chapters in this volume: How do we ‘encode’ complex thoughts into linguistic signals, how do we interpret such signals in appropriate ways, and to what extent is what we encode constrained at the outset by the particular language we grow up with? We will introduce recent developments of an experimental approach to linguistics and argue for the necessity of cross-linguistic experimental paradigms for linguistic research at the interface of syntax, semantics and pragmatics.