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

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.

Generalised Crossover

Crossover (CO) is a constraint on anaphoric dependencies, according to which, quantifier scope can feed pronominal anaphora unless the anaphoric expression precedes the quantifier. We demonstrate that effects reminiscent of CO arise with presupposition as well, and propose to generalise CO as follows: Projective content (quantifier scope, presupposition projection, etc.) feeds semantic dependencies (pronominal anaphora, presupposition satisfaction), unless the semantically dependent expression precedes the trigger of the projective content. We call this generalisation, Generalised Crossover (GCO). Although we cannot offer a full explanation for GCO in this paper, we will discuss its implications for recent theories of CO.

Do you know who that is? Representational detail affects discourse focus and anaphor resolution

Establishing referential relations among text elements is critical to establishing discourse coherence. Although resolution of coreference between anaphors and their antecedents is central to many theories of text processing, most address the semantic features of antecedent entities in a minimal way (e.g., via morphological features such as gender and number). However, research shows that semantically rich entities are represented in a different manner than semantically empty ones (e.g., Bill Clinton versus Bill Smith), and that such differences have processing consequences in a variety of cognitive tasks. In two experiments, we investigated how the semantic features of discourse referents affected coreferential processing. Our results indicate that increasing the semantic detail associated with the characters in our experimental sentences increased their psychological prominence in the discourse representation. In Experiment 1, semantic detail increased the relative availability of antecedent entities in memory when they were uniquely identifiable by an anaphoric expression. In Experiment 2, semantic detail also affected the online resolution and integration of anaphor – antecedent relations: semantically rich antecedents that were not otherwise focused in the discourse reliably elicited the repeated-name penalty, an effect known to reflect discourse prominence. In addition, semantic detail seemed to permit recovery from lingering effects of the repeated-name penalty. Our results are consistent with recent evidence that the quality of discourse information affects the construction of a coherent representation, even when it is incidental to structural and referential relations in a text. Models of text processing must incorporate a role for this kind of representational information.

Resolving abstract anaphors in Spanish discourse: Underspecification and mereological structures

Anaphoric underspecification involves multiple potential candidate antecedents for an anaphoric expression. In abstract object anaphora, where linguistic antecedents are clauses, sentences and larger fragments of discourse, the source of referential underspecification is commonly found at the propositional level. Thus, underspecified abstract anaphors have multiple antecedents of a higher-order nature (i.e., propositions and events). Following previous research on anaphoric underspecification with nominal antecedents, I propose a hypothetical three-step process toward the resolution of underspecified abstract object anaphors by hearers in discourse: (i) creation of a complex abstract object with a mereological structure that includes all potential interpretations for an anaphor, (ii) recognition of the thematic connection among propositions intended by the speaker in the form of a specific rhetorical relation, and 3) resolution of the abstract anaphor. Potential antecedents for any underspecified abstract anaphor may include atomic propositions and complex abstract referents that result from a merged interpretation of several propositions that are thematically connected. Provided that it is available, I claim that such a merged interpretation, which is part of the mereological structure, is the preferred interpretation as it is generally interpreted as part of a general purpose by the speaker, in addition to contributing to the thematic coherence of discourse.

Exame da conceituação de 'anáfora' e das suas relações com as noções de dado/novo

Resumo: Neste trabalho é examinada a definição de anáfora com base na característica de "presença do antecedente na 'consciousness'"; são observados exemplos onde não é possível explicar a interpretação da anáfora com base neste princípio, uma vez que nem sempre os elementos anafóricos possuem o status 'dado' (de acordo com a definição deste termo apresentada em Liberato (1980)). É observado também, em alguns casos, o relacionamento das anáforas com conceitos que fazem parte de um esquema evocado, e que são trazidos a um nível mais superficial da memória juntamente com o referente do item léxico explícito no texto. É examinado o papel da predicação nos casos onde existem concorrentes viáveis a antecedente, mostrando-se o seu funcionamento como um filtro de ambigüidades.Abstract: This paper examines the definition of anaphora in terms os the characteristics of "the presence of the antecedent in 'consciousness'". It is observed that in certain cases it is not possible to explain the interpretation of the anaphora on the basis of this principle, since sometimes the anaphoric expression do not have the status 'given' (according to the definition of this term presented in Liberato (1980)). The anaphoric relationship with concepts that are part of an evoked schema, which are brought to a more superifcial level of memory, together with the referent of the explicit word, is also discussed. Predication is examined in examples where there are viable competitors to function as antecedent, in which cases it works as a filter for ambiguity.

Tracking referents in discourse

This reading study registered eye movements to investigate the influence of different discourse constructional factors on anaphor resolution in written discourse. More specifically, the study focused on the influence of the possible interplay of proximity between a possible referent and the anaphor and amount of elaboration on the time course of the different processes involved in anaphor resolution. Results at the anaphoric expression and the area immediately following the anaphoric expression reveal an effect of elaboration, but only in total reading times and second pass reading times. No effects were found at the reinstated referent. These results indicate that the difference in saliency between two possible referents almost directly influences anaphor resolution. We discuss these findings in relation to the time course of different processes in anaphor resolution such as bonding and resolution, in combination with a reading strategy that readers are satisfied with a superficial interpretation.

From Slovene into English: Identifying Definiteness

The paper addresses some typical instances of the translator’s failure to recognize definite reference in Slovene, which, in turn, results in an inappropriate determiner selection in English. It is argued that errors of this kind are ascribable not solely to the fact that the Slovene determiner system lacks an overt non-selective determiner parallel to the definite article, but to the relatively scarce use of overt determiners in general. Since definiteness is typically signalled by an anaphoric relation, some factors are explored that may help identify textual co-reference despite the absence of explicit anaphoric markers. Besides the translator’s inability to recognize the given phrase as anaphoric, two other major causes of inappropriate determiner selection are discussed: the misconception that the absence of an anaphoric relation entails indefiniteness and the translator’s misinterpreting an anaphoric expression as an ascriptive, non-referential entity. The second part of the paper focuses on the difference in use between the selective demonstrative pronoun and the non-selective definite article.

Word Order, Grammatical Function, and Referential Form: On the Patterns of Anaphoric Reference in Finnish

Research on reference resolution has shown that there exists a connection between the form of a referring expression and the accessibility/salience of its referent. More specifically, the most salient referents – i.e. those currently at the center of attention and most prominent at that point in the discourse – are referred to with the most reduced referring expressions. This raises the question: What kinds of factors influence a referent’s salience, i.e. make it a good candidate to be referred to with a reduced anaphoric expression? This paper focuses on two factors which have been claimed to influence referent salience: (1) grammatical/syntactic role and (2) word order. These issues are addressed from the perspective of Finnish, a highly inflected, flexible word order language which has canonical SVO order and two kinds of third person anaphors: the gender-neutral pronoun <em>hän</em> ‘s/he’ and the demonstrative <em>tämä</em> ‘this.’ In this paper, I present the results of three psycholinguistic experiments investigating the referential properties of these two anaphors, and show that <em>hän</em> and <em>tämä</em> differ in their referential properties and are sensitive to different kinds of factors. The results indicate that instead of trying to define the referential properties of these forms according to a unified notion of salience, we should investigate how different factors may be relevant for different referential expressions. The implications that these findings have for our view of how referential systems work are also discussed.

On Accessibility and Coreference

Anaphors and the grammatical roles of their antecedents are examined in Finnish language data in order to establish a correlation between two universal hierarchies: the Keenan & Comrie (1977) NP Accessibility Hierarchy and the hierarchy of accessibility of referential expressions (Accessibility Marking Scale) (Ariel 1985, 1988, 1990). A more or less clear correlation pattern between the type of anaphoric NPs and the grammatical roles of their antecedents arises in Finnish intuition data (Section 2), and this pattern is corroborated by the data from prose text counts (Section 3). Even though a one-to-one mapping between the two hierarchies remains an idealization, it is clear that grammatical relations do bear on the type of anaphoric expression employed.