An experimental comparison of global and local accommodation

Abstract Presupposition triggers have been noted to vary in how easily they can be globally or locally accommodated. A look at previous classifications with respect to these two properties (e.g. Kripke 2009 for global accommodation, Abusch 2010 for local accommodation) shows that there is substantial overlap between triggers with respect to both types of accommodation difficulty (e.g. too is difficult both globally and locally, whereas stop is easy for both). This paper presents two sets of experiments comparing twelve triggers in English with respect to their global and local accommodation difficulty to test (i) whether the two accommodation types do in fact pattern together, and (ii) how prior classifications line up with the results. The results provide evidence for a unified approach of global and local accommodation, and are overall in line with prior classifications. Some of the unexpected parts of the results, including a contrast between the aspectual verbs stop and continue , and the role of context are discussed.