Options
Between anaphora and deixis... the resolution of the demonstrative noun phrase "that N"
Auteur(s)
Date de parution
2012-11-1
In
Language and Cognitive Processes
Vol.
9
No
27
De la page
1385
A la page
1404
Résumé
Three experiments examined the hypothesis that the demonstrative noun phrase (NP) that N, as an anadeictic expression, preferentially refers to the less salient referent in a discourse representation when used anaphorically, whereas the anaphoric pronoun he or she preferentially refers to the highly-focused referent. The findings, from a sentence completion task and two reading time experiments that used gender to create ambiguous and unambiguous coreference, reveal that the demonstrative NP specifically orients processing toward a less salient referent when there is no gender cue discriminating between different possible referents. The findings show the importance of taking into account the discourse function of the anaphor itself and its influence on the process of searching for the referent.
Identifiants
Type de publication
journal article
