scholarly journals Pronominal anaphora resolution in Polish: investigating online sentence interpretation using eye-tracking.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agata Wolna ◽  
Zofia Wodniecka ◽  
Joanna Durlik
Keyword(s):  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Ambiguous Sentence ◽  
Anaphora Resolution ◽  
Overt Pronouns ◽  
Polish Language ◽  
Interpretation Process ◽  
Sentence Interpretation ◽  
Null Pronoun ◽  
Syntactic Cues

The mechanism of anaphora resolution is subject to large cross-linguistic differences. The most likely reason for this is the different sensitivity of pronouns to pragmatic and syntactic cues of reference. In the current study, we explored the mechanism of anaphora resolution in Polish. First, in an ambiguous sentence-interpretation task, we explored the natural biases that occur during the interpretation of null or overt pronouns. More specifically, we investigated whether Polish speakers prefer to relate overt pronouns to antecedents which are in the syntactic position of a subject or an object. Subsequently, we tested the consequences of violation of this bias when tracing the online sentence-interpretation process using eye-tracking. Our results show that Polish speakers have a strong preference for interpreting null pronouns as referring to antecedents in a subject position and for interpreting overt pronouns as referring to antecedents in an object position. However, in online sentence interpretation, only overt pronouns showed sensitivity to violation of the speaker’s natural preferences for a pronoun-antecedent match. We found the null pronoun resolution to be more flexible than that of overt pronouns. Our results indicate that it is much easier for Polish speakers to shift the reference of a null pronoun than an overt one whenever a pronoun is forced to refer to a less-preferred antecedent. We propose that this is because the interpretation of null and overt pronouns is sensitive to the different cues which determine their reference. Overall, in the Polish language, interpretation of a null pronoun seems to be more sensitive to pragmatic cues of reference than syntactic cues of reference, while resolution of overt pronouns relies strongly on syntax-based cues.

scholarly journals Pronominal anaphora resolution in Polish: Investigating online sentence interpretation using eye-tracking

PLoS ONE ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. e0262459
Author(s):  
Agata Wolna ◽  
Joanna Durlik ◽  
Zofia Wodniecka
Keyword(s):  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Anaphora Resolution ◽  
Pronoun Resolution ◽  
Null Pronouns ◽  
Overt Pronouns ◽  
Overt Pronoun ◽  
Interpretation Process ◽  
Pronominal Anaphora ◽  
Sentence Interpretation ◽  
Null Pronoun

The mechanism of anaphora resolution is subject to large cross-linguistic differences. The most likely reason for this is the different sensitivity of pronouns to the range of factors that determine their reference. In the current study, we explored the mechanism of anaphora resolution in Polish. First, we explored preferences in the interpretation of null and overt pronouns in ambiguous sentences. More specifically, we investigated whether Polish speakers prefer to relate overt pronouns to subject or object antecedents. Subsequently, we tested the consequences of violating this bias when tracing the online sentence-interpretation process using eye-tracking. Our results show that Polish speakers have a strong preference for interpreting null pronouns as referring to subject antecedents and interpreting overt pronouns as referring to object antecedents. However, in online sentence interpretation, only overt pronouns showed sensitivity to a violation of the speaker’s preference for a pronoun-antecedent match. This suggests that null pronoun resolution is more flexible than overt pronoun resolution. Our results indicate that it is much easier for Polish speakers to shift the reference of a null pronoun than an overt one whenever a pronoun is forced to refer to a less-preferred antecedent. These results are supported by naturalness ratings, which showed that null pronouns are considered equally natural regardless of their reference, while overt pronouns referring to subject antecedents are rated as considerably less natural than those referring to object antecedents. To explain this effect, we propose that the interpretation of null and overt pronouns is sensitive to different factors which determine their reference.

Anaphoric devices in written and spoken narrative discourse

2010 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 236-259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aurora Bel ◽  
Joan Perera ◽  
Naymé Salas
Keyword(s):  
Age Groups ◽  
Narrative Discourse ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Narrative Texts ◽  
Discourse Function ◽  
Subject Pronouns ◽  
Overt Pronouns ◽  
Written Texts ◽  
Pronominal Anaphora ◽  
Selection Of

In this study, we focus on pronominal anaphora and we investigate the referential properties of null and overt subject pronouns in Catalan, in the semi-spontaneous production of narrative spoken and written texts by three groups of speakers/writers (9–10, 12–13, and 15–16 year olds). We aimed at determining (1) pronoun preferences for a specific type of antecedent; (2) their specialization in a certain discourse function; and (3) whether the pattern is affected by text modality (spoken vs. written texts). We analyzed 30 spoken and 30 written narrative texts, produced by the same 30 subjects, divided into the age groups mentioned above. Results seem fairly consistent across age groups and modalities, showing that null pronouns tend to select antecedents in subject position and are well specialized in maintaining reference, while overt pronouns offer a less clear pattern both in their selection of antecedents and in the discourse function they perform. Our findings partially support those of previous research on other null-subject languages, in particular, the Position of Antecedent Hypothesis (PAH) formulated by Carminati (2002) for Italian.

Polish–English bilingual children overuse referential markers: MLU inflation in Polish-language narratives

2020 ◽  
pp. 014272372093376
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Otwinowska ◽  
Marcin Opacki ◽  
Karolina Mieszkowska ◽  
Marta Białecka-Pikul ◽  
Zofia Wodniecka ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Overt Pronouns ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Cohesive Devices ◽  
Dp Structure ◽  
Polish Language ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Mean Length Of Utterance ◽  
Cross Language

Polish and English differ in the surface realization of the underlying Determiner Phrase (DP): Polish lacks an article system, whereas English makes use of articles for both grammatical and pragmatic reasons. This difference has an impact on how referentiality is rendered in both languages. In this article, the authors investigate the use of referential markers by Polish–English bilingual children and Polish monolingual children. Using the LITMUS-MAIN picture stories, the authors collected speech samples of Polish–English bilinguals raised in the UK ( n = 92, mean age 5;7) and compared them with matched Polish monolinguals ( n = 92, mean age 5;7). The analyses revealed that the bilinguals’ mean length of utterance (MLU) in Polish was significantly higher than that of the monolinguals because the bilinguals produced significantly more referential markers (especially pronouns) which inflated their MLU. The authors posit that the non-standard referentiality used by the bilinguals in Polish is caused by cross-language transfer at the syntax–pragmatics interface. When producing narratives in Polish, Polish–English bilinguals overuse referential markers as cohesive devices in their stories, which is not ungrammatical, but pragmatically odd in Polish. Bilinguals tend to do this because they are immersed in English-language input, rich in overt pronouns. Thus, in the process of realizing the surface features of the Polish DP they partly rely on an underlying English DP structure.

The time course of long-distance anaphor processing in Korean

2015 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chung-hye Han ◽  
Dennis Ryan Storoshenko ◽  
Betty Hei Man Leung ◽  
Kyeong-min Kim
Keyword(s):  
Time Course ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Null Pronouns ◽  
Anaphor Resolution ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Null Pronoun ◽  
Matrix Verb ◽  
Matrix Subject

While early studies on the Korean long distance anaphor caki describe it to be subject-oriented in that it can only take subject antecedents, similarly to long distance anaphors in many other languages, more recent studies observe that it can take non-subject antecedents as well, especially in the context of certain verbs. This paper presents a visual-world eye-tracking study that tested whether the antecedent potential of caki in an embedded subject position is a function of the matrix subject, the matrix verb, or both, and whether the subject and the verb effects constrain the interpretation of caki in the same way as null pronouns, a commonly used pronominal form in Korean. These questions were addressed through an investigation of how the subject effect and the verb effect were manifested in processing these pronouns. We found that when caki, but not null pronouns, was first processed, there were more fixations to the images representing the matrix subject than the images representing the matrix object regardless of the matrix verb. We further found that the proportions of fixations to the images in both caki and null trials changed after the processing of some sentential verbs. These findings demonstrate that while null pronoun interpretation is a function of the verb effect only, caki-interpretation is a function of both the subject and the verb effect, supporting a multiple-constraints approach to anaphor resolution.

scholarly journals Asymmetries between interpretation and production in Catalan pronouns

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-34
Author(s):  
Laia Mayol
Keyword(s):  
Division Of Labor ◽  
Interpretation Bias ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Grammatical Function ◽  
Null Subject ◽  
Null Pronouns ◽  
Overt Pronouns ◽  
Syntactic Position

The literature on Romance null-subject languages has often postulated a division of labor between Null and Overt pronouns: Nulls prefer to retrieve an antecedent in subject position, whereas Overts prefer an antecedent in a lower syntactic position (Carminati, 2002). However, recent research on English pronouns (Rohde and Kehler, 2014) has shown grammatical function alone cannot explain pronoun interpretation. According to these models, pronoun interpretation and production are sensitive to different sets of factors and, instead of being mirror images of each other, are related probabilistically in a Bayesian fashion. This paper tests this model with Catalan data from two discourse-completion experiments to study the grammatical and pragmatic factors that affect the interpretation and production of Null and Overt pronouns. Our main result is that both Null and Overt pronouns present asymmetries regarding their interpretation and production: (1) the production of Null pronouns is affected mainly by grammatical factors (they are subject-biased), but their interpretation is also influenced by pragmatic factors (in particular, rhetorical relations), and (2) while Overt pronouns have a strong interpretation bias towards the object, the data indicates that they are not the preferred form to refer to the object.

scholarly journals SHIFTING INTERPRETATION OF JOHN KERRY’S SPEECH ABOUT SYRIA CONFLICT REPORTED BY KOMPAS TV

Paramasastra ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheellviana Dewi ◽  
Dian Rivia Himmawati
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
The United States ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Source Language ◽  
Complex Syntax ◽  
Documentary Video ◽  
Interpretation Process

The issue of John Kerry’s speech about Syria conflict reported by Kompas TV takes interpretation process. Interpretation used in transforming source language (John Kerry/English) to target language (Kompas TV/Indonesian). The aim of this study is revealing shifting interpretation inserted by Kompas TV while reporting John Kerry’s speech about Syria conflict. Documentary video from Kompas TV and the United States official channel on YouTube is the data which consist of three videos. Qualitative data approach is applied to this study because the analysis gives explanation to strength the findings. The result of the analysis shows that Kompas TV used complex syntax, making long passage into a sentence, de-verbalization, and compression to get John Kerry’s idea. All of John Kerry’s utterances are simplified into the simple one. Hence, Kompas TV shifts the interpretation through complex syntax process which  is inserted in semantic macrostructures, syntactic of subject position, self-define of terrorist, and disclaimer to reject racism.

Null pronoun variation in Mexican-descent children's narrative discourse

1997 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 349-371 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Bayley ◽  
Lucinda Pease-Alvarez
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Mexican Descent ◽  
Narrative Discourse ◽  
Tense And Aspect ◽  
Subject Pronouns ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Overt Pronouns ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Subject Pronoun ◽  
Null Pronoun

ABSTRACTIn Spanish, subject pronouns may be realized phonetically or as null. Previous research on a wide range of dialects has established a rich patterning of constraints on this variation, with switch reference as the first order linguistic constraint. Recently, however, Paredes Silva (1993), in a study of written Brazilian Portuguese, suggested a more fine-grained analysis of null subject pronoun variation based on a model of discourse connectedness. This study tests Paredes Silva's model on the oral and written Spanish narratives of northern California Mexican-descent preadolescents. Results of multivariate analysis indicate that discourse connectedness provides a more fine-grained account of pronoun variation in the Spanish of these children than switch reference. The study also considers the effect of morphological ambiguity. We suggest that tense and aspect features provide a better explanation for the higher incidence of overt pronouns with imperfect, conditional, and subjunctive verb forms than the functional compensation hypothesis. Finally, we examine pronoun variation across immigrant generations. The results indicate that children with the greatest depth of ties to the United States are less likely to use overt pronouns than children born in Mexico.

scholarly journals Interpretação Preferencial do Pronome Nulo em Falantes Bilíngues do Espanhol L2- Português Brasileiro L1 / Preferential Interpretation of the Null Pronoun in Spanish Bilingual Speakers L2- Brazilian Portuguese L1

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (57) ◽  
pp. 675-696
Author(s):  
Letícia Rafaele Da Silva Claudino ◽  
Rita de Cássia Freire de Melo
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Linguistic Processing ◽  
Advanced Level ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
Interface Hypothesis ◽  
Null Pronoun ◽  
The University ◽  
Anaphoric Expression

Resumo: Esta pesquisa analisou o processamento anafórico de pronomes nulos (caracterizado como pro), investigando como esse tipo de expressão anafórica é interpretada por falantes bilíngues espanhol L2- português brasileiro L1, e se as gramáticas, aqui entendidas como conhecimentos internalizados sobre determinadas línguas, nos termos de Chomsky (1981), interferem umas nas outras na interpretação preferencial nas frases ambíguas.  Tem-se como objetivo investigar a interpretação preferencial do pronome nulo na língua espanhola, analisando a preferência em frases ambíguas. Este estudo justifica-se por haver necessidade de dirimir controvérsias na literatura acerca das retomadas anafóricas, sobretudo em frases ambíguas, nas quais possivelmente há interferência dos mecanismos linguísticos da língua materna, utilizada pelo aprendiz. Muitos pesquisadores tentam compreender o funcionamento do processamento linguístico de uso da língua nos bilíngues, os quais falam duas línguas com competência igual ou similar a de um nativo (GONÇALVES, 2010). Ancoramos nossa hipótese nos princípios de Carminati (2005), que apontam que o pronome nulo em frases ambíguas estabelece preferencialmente a correferência com o antecedente em posição de sujeito, e também na a Hipótese da Interface de Sorace (2011), referente a influência da L1 na interpretação da correferência, já que os bilíngues estão sujeitos a utilizar os mesmos mecanismos de sua gramática L1 na L2 em situações de ambiguidade. A metodologia aplicada foi um teste off-line no Google forms, composto por perguntas sobre a preferência da retomada em frases ambíguas, associadas a frases distratoras, no qual participaram 08 voluntários bilíngues em nível avançado, estudantes do 9º período do curso de Letras – Português/Espanhol da Universidade de Pernambuco.  Os resultados encontrados corroboram com a Hipótese da Posição do Antecedente de acordo com Carminati (2005) e com a Hipótese de Interface de Sorace (2011). Palavras-chave: Bilinguismo. Correferência anafórica. Interpretação preferencial. Pronome nulo. Abstract: This research analyzed the anaphoric processing of null pronouns (characterized as pro), investigating how this type of anaphoric expression is interpreted by bilingual Spanish L2-Portuguese L1 speakers, and if the grammars, here understood as internalized knowledge about certain languages, in terms by Chomsky (1981), interfere with each other in the preferential interpretation of ambiguous sentences. The objective is to investigate the preferential interpretation of the null pronoun in Spanish, analyzing the preference in ambiguous sentences. This study is justified by the need to resolve controversies in the literature about anaphoric retakes, especially in ambiguous sentences, in which there is possibly interference from the linguistic mechanisms of the mother tongue, used by the learner. Many researchers try to understand the functioning of linguistic processing of language use in bilinguals, who speak two languages with equal or similar competence to a native (GONÇALVES, 2010). We anchor our hypothesis in the principles of Carminati (2005), which point out that the null pronoun in ambiguous sentences preferentially establishes the correlation with the antecedent in subject position, and also in the Interface Hypothesis of Sorace (2011), regarding the influence of L1 in the interpretation of the coreference, since bilinguals are subject to using the same mechanisms of their L1 grammar in L2 in situations of ambiguity. The methodology applied was an offline test on Google forms, consisting of questions about the preference of retaking ambiguous phrases, associated with distracting phrases, in which 08 bilingual volunteers at advanced level participated, students of the 9th period of the Language course - Portuguese /Spanish from the University of Pernambuco. The results found corroborate the Antecedents Position Hypothesis according to Carminati (2005) and the Interface Hypothesis of Sorace (2011).Keywords: Bilingualism. Anaphoric Coreference. Preferred interpretation. Null pronoun.

Remarks on research of anaphora resolution in situations of language contact: Cross-linguistic influence and the PAS

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Bryan Romano
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Spanish Speakers ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Anaphora Resolution ◽  
Overt Pronouns ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Linguistic Structures ◽  
Theoretical Issues

Purpose: This article proposes a new definition of cross-linguistic influence on anaphora resolution in situations of language contact appealing to the Position of Antecedent Strategy. Design: To this effect it examines existing evidence for and definitions of cross-linguistic influence across Spanish, Italian, Greek, and English, four languages research has concentrated on most intensively. Data and analysis: Methodological and theoretical issues are brought to the fore and the evidence of cross-linguistic influence re-evaluated in light of recent investigations of L1 processing of Spanish, Italian, and Greek anaphora. Findings/conclusions: The re-evaluation points to the conclusion that null pronouns are interpreted and processed in similar ways by native speakers, L2 speakers, and L1 attriters, even if speakers have contact with or are very proficient in languages such as English or Swedish where null anaphora is unavailable. Overt pronouns in Italian are more similar to Greek than Spanish and cross-linguistic influence affects only overt anaphora. Originality: If cross-linguistic influence is conceived in terms of the Position of Antecedent Strategy, then apparently contradictory cases such as the over-production of overt forms by Spanish speakers of Italian and the balanced co-reference of Spanish overt forms to topic and non-topic antecedents can be accounted for. Significance/implications: Cross-linguistic influence takes place from the language with less towards the language with more categorical biases. Recommendations for future research with the populations studied, data analysis and collection, and linguistic structures examined are made.

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