Identifying referents for anaphoric nouns and pronouns in spoken English
Three experiments were performed in order to test the claim that the difference between the effectiveness of pronouns and repeated nouns in identifying the referent for the listener is affected by (1) the communicative norms shared by the speaker and the listener (2) the distance between the antecedent and the anaphor (3) the status of the antecedent. The results of these experiments seem to provide evidential support for this claim. In Experiment 1, the subjects were presented with sentences in which (1) no intervening sentences separated the antecedent and the anaphor (2) the antecedent was either surface subject or surface object (3) the anaphoric form was either the pronoun or the repeated noun. The results of this experiment showed that when the antecedent is subject, the pronoun was faster than the noun whereas when the antecedent is object, the pronoun and the noun were alike. Experiment 2 differed from experiment 1 in that (1) the antecedent was surface subject only (2) the referent is uniquely identified by the referring expression (e.g. Mrs. Thatcher ... She/Mrs. Thatcher). The results of this second experiment were the same as those of the first (antecedent subject). These results suggest that the
Omer, Majzoub Rahamtalla
Linguistics
Identifying referents for anaphoric nouns and pronouns in spoken English. Three experiments were performed in order to test the claim that the difference between the effectiveness of pronouns and repeated nouns in identifying the referent for the listener is affected by (1) the communicative norms shared by the speaker and the listener (2) the distance between the antecedent and the anaphor (3) the status of the antecedent. The results of these experiments seem to provide evidential support for this claim. In Experiment 1, the subjects were presented with sentences in which (1) no intervening sentences separated the antecedent and the anaphor (2) the antecedent was either surface subject or surface object (3) the anaphoric form was either the pronoun or the repeated noun. The results of this experiment showed that when the antecedent is subject, the pronoun was faster than the noun whereas when the antecedent is object, the pronoun and the noun were alike. Experiment 2 differed from experiment 1 in that (1) the antecedent was surface subject only (2) the referent is uniquely identified by the referring expression (e.g. Mrs. Thatcher ... She/Mrs. Thatcher). The results of this second experiment were the same as those of the first (antecedent subject). These results suggest that the
identifying referent anaphoric noun pronouns spoken_english perform order_test claim difference effectiveness pronoun repeat noun identify referent listener affect communicative norm share speaker listener distance antecedent anaphor status antecedent seem provide evidential support_claim subject present sentence intervening sentence separate antecedent anaphor antecedent either surface subject surface object anaphoric form either pronoun repeat noun show antecedent subject pronoun faster noun whereas antecedent object pronoun noun alike differ antecedent surface subject referent uniquely identify refer_expression she second first antecedent subject suggest