How Do Antecedent Semantics Influence Pronoun Interpretation? Evidence from Eye Movements

Autor/inn/en	Simovic, Tiana V.; Chambers, Craig G.
Titel	How Do Antecedent Semantics Influence Pronoun Interpretation? Evidence from Eye Movements
Quelle	In: Cognitive Science, 47 (2023) 2, (15 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0364-0213
DOI	10.1111/cogs.13251
Schlagwörter	Semantics; Form Classes (Languages); Eye Movements; Psycholinguistics; Language Processing; Recall (Psychology) + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Semantik; Analytischer Sprachbau; Augenbewegung; Psycholinguistik; Sprachverarbeitung; Abberufung
Abstract	Pronoun interpretation is often described as relying on a comprehender's mental model of discourse. For example, in some psycholinguistic accounts, interpreting pronouns involves a process of "retrieval," whereby a pronoun is resolved by accessing information from its linguistic antecedent. However, linguistic antecedents are neither necessary nor sufficient for interpreting a pronoun, and even when an antecedent has been introduced in earlier discourse, there is little evidence for the retrieval of linguistic "form." The current study extends our understanding of pronoun interpretation by examining whether the "semantics" of antecedent expressions are retrieved from representations of past discourse. Participants were instructed to move displayed objects in a Visual World eye-tracking task. In some cases, the semantics of the antecedent were no longer viable after an instruction was completed (e.g., "Move the house on the left to area 12," where the result was that a different house is now the leftmost one). In this case, retrieving antecedent semantics at the point of hearing a subsequent pronoun ("Now, move it…") should entail a processing penalty. Instead, the results showed that antecedent semantics have no direct effect on interpretation, raising additional questions about the role that retrieval might play in pronoun interpretation. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01