When stereotypical inferences prevail in polysemy processing: Explaining fallacies of equivocation

Fischer, Eugen ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2088-1610, Lazaridou-Chatzigoga, Dimitra, Stanton, Kate Hazel, Haket, Nina and Engelhardt, Paul E. (2026) When stereotypical inferences prevail in polysemy processing: Explaining fallacies of equivocation. Mind and Language. ISSN 0268-1064 (In Press)

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Abstract

This paper develops and examines the first psycholinguistic explanation of fallacies of equivocation. On this basis, it addresses questions about polysemy processing. The paper proceeds from a case study on fallacies involving polysemous appearance verbs. Three studies provide evidence that subordinate uses of these verbs are interpreted through selective suppression of features from an event knowledge schema that overspecifies the relevant information, and that a comprehension bias interferes with the execution of this strategy and prevents the contextualisation of stereotypical inferences from the verbs. These contextualisation failures result in fallacies of equivocation, e.g., in philosophically influential “arguments from illusion”.

Item Type:	Article
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of Politics, Philosophy and Area Studies Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Psychology
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > UEA Experimental Philosophy Group Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Wittgenstein Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Philosophy
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	16 Sep 2026 08:47
Last Modified:	16 Sep 2026 08:47
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/104550
DOI:	issn:0268-1064

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