2026

1. Hyperbole is not a rational speech act

   Rick Nouwen

   2026

   Under review

   Abs PDF

   This paper concerns what a proper account of hyperbole interpretation should look like. I consider what I will call "rational repair theories" of hyperbole. These are theories that assume that the interpretation of a hyperbolic utterance is triggered by the defective nature of the literal meaning. Because exaggeration makes this literal meaning extremely unlikely to be truthful, the listener reasons that its utility must lie in some other meaning dimension. In particular, I zoom in on the computational approach of Kao et al. 2014, who propose an implementation of this repair idea in the Rational Speech Act framework. I show that there are several problems with this kind of approach and with the idea of rational repair more generally. Ultimately, I suggest that hyperbole may not be a phenomenon that is based on rational pragmatic reasoning at all.

2. When Models Decide and When They Bind: A Two-Stage Computation for Multiple-Choice Question-Answering

   H. M. Wong, Rick Nouwen, and Albert Gatt

   In Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL Findings), 2026

   Abs arXiv

   Multiple-choice question answering (MCQA) is easy to evaluate but adds a meta-task: models must both solve the problem and output the symbol that *represents* the answer, conflating reasoning errors with symbol-binding failures. We study how language models implement MCQA internally using representational analyses (PCA, linear probes) as well as causal interventions. We find that option-boundary (newline) residual states often contain strong linearly decodable signals related to per-option correctness. Winner-identity probing reveals a two-stage progression: the winning *content position* becomes decodable immediately after the final option is processed, while the *output symbol* is represented closer to the answer emission position. Tests under symbol and content permutations support a two-stage mechanism in which models first select a winner in content space and then bind or route that winner to the appropriate symbol to emit.

2025

1. Memory Retrieval in Discourse: Illusions of Coherence during Presupposition Resolution

   T. Schmitz, Rick Nouwen, and Jakub Dotlačil

   Journal of Memory and Language, 2025

   DOI
2. Can LLMs Detect Ambiguous Plural Reference? An Analysis of Split-Antecedent and Mereological Reference

   A. Dang, Rick Nouwen, and Massimo Poesio

   In Proceedings of BlackboxNLP, 2025

   arXiv
3. VAQUUM: Are vague quantifiers grounded in visual data?

   H. M. Wong, Rick Nouwen, and Albert Gatt

   In Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL Findings), 2025

   arXiv

2024

1. Searching for semantic distance effects

   J. Winkowski, Rick Nouwen, and Jakub Dotlačil

   Glossa Psycholinguistics, 2024

   Website
2. Meiosis and hyperbole as scalar phenomena

   Rick Nouwen

   In Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 28, 2024

   PDF
3. The semantics and probabilistic pragmatics of deadjectival intensifiers

   Rick Nouwen

   Semantics and Pragmatics, 2024

   DOI
4. Semantic accessibility and interference in pronoun resolution

   T. Schmitz, J. Winkowski, M. Hoeks, Rick Nouwen, and Jakub Dotlačil

   Glossa Psycholinguistics, 2024

   Website

2022

1. Unknown numbers

   Rick Nouwen

   In Measurements, Numerals and Scales, 2022

   PDF

2020

1. Numeral Semantics

   Lisa Bylinina and Rick Nouwen

   Language and Linguistics Compass, 2020

   DOI
2. Is there any licensing in non-DE contexts?

   Stavroula Alexandropoulou, Lisa Bylinina, and Rick Nouwen

   In Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 24, 2020

   Website
3. Multidisciplinary and Interdisciplinary Teaching in the Utrecht Artificial Intelligence Program: Why and How?

   Christian P. Janssen, Rick Nouwen, Krista Overvliet, Frans Adriaans, Sjoerd Stuit, and 2 more authors

   IEEE Pervasive Computing, 2020

   DOI PDF
4. E-type discourse: congressmen, sheep and paychecks

   Rick Nouwen

   In The Companion to Semantics, 2020

   PDF
5. Degree modification across categories in Afrikaans

   Robyn Berghoff, Rick Nouwen, Lisa Bylinina, and Yaron McNabb

   Linguistic Variation, 2020

   PDF

2019

1. Scalar vagueness regulation and locative reference

   Rick Nouwen

   Snippets, 2019

   PDF

2018

1. Splitting Germanic negative indefinites

   Dominique Blok, Lisa Bylinina, and Rick Nouwen

   2018

   Manuscript

   PDF
2. A remark on conceptual metaphor and scalarity

   Rick Nouwen

   2018

   Manuscript

   PDF
3. On “zero” and semantic plurality

   Lisa Bylinina and Rick Nouwen

   Glossa, 2018

   DOI
4. Free choice and distribution over disjunction: the case of free choice ability

   Rick Nouwen

   Semantics and Pragmatics, 2018

   DOI
5. A note on positive and negative evaluative adjectives

   Rick Nouwen

   2018

   Written for a Festschrift for Dany Jaspers
6. Experimental work on the Semantics and Pragmatics of Modified Numerals

   Rick Nouwen, Stavroula Alexandropoulou, and Yaron McNabb

   In Handbook of Experimental Semantics and Pragmatics, 2018

   PDF
7. Cumulative comparison: experimental evidence for degree cumulation

   Rick Nouwen and Jakub Dotlačil

   In The semantics of gradability, vagueness, and scale structure: experimental perspectives, 2018

   PDF

2017

1. The scope of nominal quantifiers in comparatives

   Rick Nouwen and Jakub Dotlačil

   Semantics and Pragmatics, 2017

   PDF
2. Nothing to add

   Rick Nouwen

   2017

   Contribution to an online Festschrift for Jan van Eijck

   PDF
3. Pragmatic effects of more than and at least in incremental interpretation

   Stavroula Alexandropoulou, Jakub Dotlačil, and Rick Nouwen

   In Semantics and Linguistic Theory (SALT) 27, 2017

   Website

2016

1. ‘At least’ ignorance inferences come at a processing cost: Support from eye movements

   Stavroula Alexandropoulou, Jakub Dotlačil, and Rick Nouwen

   In Semantics and Linguistic Theory (SALT) 26, 2016

   Website
2. Dynamic Semantics

   Rick Nouwen, Adrian Brasoveanu, Jan Eijck, and Albert Visser

   In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2016

   Website
3. The comparative and degree pluralities

   Jakub Dotlačil and Rick Nouwen

   Natural Language Semantics, 2016

   Website
4. Pragmatic inferences with numeral modifiers: Novel experimental data

   Stavroula Alexandropoulou, Jakub Dotlačil, Yaron McNabb, and Rick Nouwen

   In Semantics and Linguistic Theory (SALT) 25, 2016

   Website
5. The likelihood of upper-bound construals among numeral modifiers

   Yaron McNabb, Stavroula Alexandropoulou, Dominique Blok, Sofia Bimpikou, and Rick Nouwen

   In Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 20, 2016

   Website

2015

1. Two types of exclamatives

   Rick Nouwen and Anna Chernilovskaya

   Linguistic Variation, 2015

   PDF
2. Presuppositions of superlatives with neg-raisers

   Rick Nouwen

   Snippets, 2015

   PDF
3. Modified numerals: the epistemic effect

   Rick Nouwen

   In Epistemic Indefinites, 2015

   Website
4. Plurality

   Rick Nouwen

   In The Cambridge Handbook of Formal Semantics, 2015

   PDF

2014

1. A note on the projection of appositives

   Rick Nouwen

   In Formal Approaches to Semantics and Pragmatics: Japanese and Beyond, 2014

   PDF

2013

1. Best nogal aardige middenmoters: de semantiek van graadadverbia van het middenbereik

   Rick Nouwen

   Nederlandse Taalkunde, 2013

   Website

2011

1. On wh-exclamatives and noteworthiness

   Anna Chernilovskaya and Rick Nouwen

   In Logic, Language and Meaning, 2011

   DOI
2. Absolutely relative or relatively absolute

   Naomi Kamoen, Bregje Holleman, Rick Nouwen, Ted Sanders, and Huub Bergh

   Journal of Pragmatics, 2011

   DOI
3. Degree modifiers and monotonicity

   Rick Nouwen

   In Vagueness and Language Use, 2011

   PDF
4. Introduction to Vagueness in Communication

   Rick Nouwen, Robert Rooij, Uli Sauerland, and Hans-Christian Schmitz

   In Vagueness in Communication, 2011

   Website

2010

1. Two puzzles of requirements

   Rick Nouwen

   In Logic, Language and Meaning: 17th Amsterdam Colloquium, 2010

   Website
2. Two kinds of modified numerals

   Rick Nouwen

   Semantics and Pragmatics, 2010

   DOI
3. What’s in a Quantifier?

   Rick Nouwen

   In The Linguistic Enterprise, 2010

   PDF

2008

1. Two kinds of modified numerals

   Rick Nouwen

   In Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 13, 2008
2. Upperbounded no more: the exhaustive interpretation of non-strict comparison

   Rick Nouwen

   Natural Language Semantics, 2008

   PDF
3. Directionality in Numeral Quantifiers: the Case of up to

   Rick Nouwen

   In Semantics and Linguistic Theory (SALT) 18, 2008

   PDF
4. Review of MacLaury, Paramei & Dedrick (eds), Anthropology of Color: Interdisciplinary multilevel modeling

   Rick Nouwen

   The LINGUIST List, 2008

2007

1. At least et al.: the semantics of scalar modifiers

   Bart Geurts and Rick Nouwen

   Language, 2007

   Website
2. On appositives and dynamic binding

   Rick Nouwen

   Research on Language and Computation, 2007

   Website
3. On Dependent Discourse and Dynamic Semantics

   Rick Nouwen

   Journal of Philosophical Logic, 2007

   Website

2006

1. Remarks on the polar orientation of almost

   Rick Nouwen

   In Linguistics in the Netherlands, 2006

   PDF

2005

1. Monotone Amazement

   Rick Nouwen

   In Proceedings of the Fifteenth Amsterdam Colloquium, 2005
2. Review of Bert Bultinck, Numerous Meanings, the meaning of English cardinals and the legacy of Paul Grice

   Rick Nouwen

   The LINGUIST List, 2005
3. Review of (Noveck and Sperber eds.) Experimental Pragmatics

   Rick Nouwen

   The LINGUIST List, 2005

2004

1. On Dependency and Quantification in Dynamic Semantics

   Rick Nouwen

   In New Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence: Joint Proceedings of the 17th and 18th Annual Conference of the Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence, 2004

2003

1. Complement Anaphora and Interpretation

   Rick Nouwen

   Journal of Semantics, 2003

   Website