Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Semantic and Structural Constraints on the Resolution of Ambiguous Personal Pronouns - A Psycholinguistic Study

  • Conference paper
Anaphora Processing and Applications (DAARC 2011)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 7099))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

We present a series of on- and off-line experiments to investigate the influence of semantic and structural constraints on the resolution of subject pronouns in German, thereby revealing inconsistencies of previous studies. On the basis of factors like (in-)animacy, the presence/absence of different types of connectors and clausal structure (coordination versus subordination) we show in which way structural and semantic information interact in inter- and intra-sentential anaphor resolution.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Ahrenholz, B.: Verweise mit Demonstrativa Im Gesprochenen Deutsch. In: Grammatik, Zweitspracherwerb und Deutsch als Fremdsprache. Walter De Gruyter, Berlin (2007)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  2. Ariel, M.: Accessing NP antecedents. Routledge, London (1990)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Asher, N., Lascarides, A.: Logics of Conversation. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Asher, N., Vieu, L.: Subordinating and coordinating discourse relations. Lingua 115, 591–610 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Baayen, R.H., Davidson, D.J., Bates, D.M.: Mixed-effects modeling with crossed random effects for subjects and items. J. Memory and Language 59, 390–412 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Barr, D.J.: Analyzing ‘visual world’ eyetracking data using multilevel logistic regression. J. Memory and Language 59, 457–474 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Bates, D.M., Sarkar,D.: lme4: Linear mixed-effects models using S4 classes, version 0.999375-27 (2007), http://www.r-project.org

  8. Bittner, D.: Influence of animacy and grammatical role on production and comprehension of intersentential pronouns in German L1-acquisition1. Paper Presented at the Conference on Intersentential Pronominal Reference in Child and Adult Language (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Bosch, P., Umbach, C.: Reference determination for demonstrative pronouns. Paper Presented at the Conference on Intersentential Pronominal Reference in Child and Adult Language (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Bouma, G., Hopp, H.: Coreference Preferences for Personal Pronouns in German. Paper Presented at the Conference on Intersentential Pronominal Reference in Child and Adult Language (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Carroll, M., Rodeutscher, A., Lambert, M., Van Stutterheim, C.: Subordination in narratives and macrostructural planning: A comparative point of view. In: Fabricius-Hansen, C., Ramm, W. (eds.) ‘Subordination’ Versus ‘Coordination’ in Sentence and Text, pp. 161–184. John Benjamins (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Clifton Jr., C., Traxler, M.J., Mohamed, M.T., Williams, R.S., Morris, R.K., Rayner, K.: The use of thematic role information in parsing: Syntactic processing autonomy revisited. J. Memory and Language 49, 317–334 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Cooper, R.M.: The control of eye fixation by the meaning of spoken language: A new methodology for the real-time investigation of speech perception, memory and language processing. Cognitive Psychology 6, 84–107 (1974)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Crawley, R., Stevenson, R., Kleinman, D.: The use of heuristic strategies in the interpretation of pronouns. J. Psycholinguistic Research 4, 245–264 (1990)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Frederiksen, J.: Understanding anaphora: Rules used by readers in assigning pronominal referents. Discourse Processes 4, 323–347 (1981)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Fukumura, K., Van Gompel, R.P.G.: The effects of animacy in the choice of referring expressions. In: Language and Cognitive Processes, October 13 (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Gernsbacher, M.A.: Mechanisms that improve referential access. Cognition 32, 99–156 (1989)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Grober, E.H., Beardsley, W., Caramazza, A.: Parallel function strategy in pronoun assignment. Cognition 6, 117–133 (1978)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Gundel, J.K., Hedberg, N., Zacharski, R.: Cognitive status and the form of referring expressions in discourse. Language and Cognitive Processes 69, 274–307 (1993)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Hemforth, B., Konieczny, L., Scheepers, C., Colonna, S., Schimke, S., Pynte, J.: Language specific preferences in anaphor resolution: Exposure or Gricean maxims? In: Proceedings of the 32nd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, Portland, USA (August 2010)

    Google Scholar 

  21. Igoa, J.M.: The relationship between conceptualization and formulation processes in sentence production: some evidence from Spanish. In: Carreiras, M., Garca-Albea, J.E., Sebastin-Galls, N. (eds.) Language Processing in Spanish, pp. 305–351. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah (1996)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Kehler, A.: Coherence, Reference, and the Theory of Grammar. CSLI Publications, Standford (2002)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  23. Lambrecht, K.: Information Structure and Sentence Form: Topic, Focus, and the Mental Representations of Discourse Referents, Cambridge UK (1994)

    Google Scholar 

  24. Levinson, S.C.: Pragmatic reduction of the binding conditions revisited. J. Linguistics 27, 107–161 (1991)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Mak, W.M., Vonk, W., Schriefers, H.: The influence of animacy on relative clause processing. J. Memory and Language 47, 50–68 (2002)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Miltsakaki, E.: The syntax-discourse interface: Effects of the main-subordinate distinction on attention structure. University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  27. Polanyi, L.: A formal model of the structure of discourse. J. Pragmatics 12, 601–638 (1988)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Prat-Sala, M., Branigan, H.P.: Discourse Constraints on Syntactic Processing in Language Production: A Cross-linguistic Study in English and Spanish. J. Memory and Language 42, 168–182 (2000)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Tanenhaus, M.K., Spivey-Knowlton, M.J., Eberhard, K.M., Sedivy, J.C.: Integration of visual and linguistic information in spoken language comprehension. Science 268(5217), 1632–1634 (1995)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Traxler, M.J., Morris, R.K., Seely, R.E.: Processing subject and object relative clauses: Evidence from eye movements. J. Memory and Language 47, 69–90 (2002)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Trueswell, J., Tanenhaus, M.K., Garnsey, S.: Semantic influences on parsing: Use of thematic role information in syntactic ambiguity resolution. J. Memory and Language 33, 285–318 (1994)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Van Nice, K.Y., Dietrich, R.: Task-sensitivity of animacy effects: Evidence from German picture descriptions. Linguistics 41(5), 825–849 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Wilson, F.: Processing at the syntax-discourse interface in second language acquisition. University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh (2009)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Courant Research Centre “Text Structures”, University of Göttingen, Germany

    Miriam Ellert & Anke Holler

Authors
  1. Miriam Ellert
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Anke Holler
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, Complexo Interdisciplinar da Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Prof. Gama Pinto, 2, 1649-003, Lisboa, Portugal

    Iris Hendrickx

  2. K. B. Chandrasekhar Research Centre, Anna University, MIT Campus of Anna University, Chromepet, 600044, Chennai, India

    Sobha Lalitha Devi

  3. Faculdade de Ciências, Departamento de Informática, Cidade Universitária, Universidade de Lisboa, 1749-016, Lisboa, Portugal

    António Branco

  4. School of Humanities, Languages and Social Studies, Research Group in Computational Linguistics, University of Wolverhampton, WV1 1SB, Wolverhampton, UK

    Ruslan Mitkov

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Ellert, M., Holler, A. (2011). Semantic and Structural Constraints on the Resolution of Ambiguous Personal Pronouns - A Psycholinguistic Study. In: Hendrickx, I., Lalitha Devi, S., Branco, A., Mitkov, R. (eds) Anaphora Processing and Applications. DAARC 2011. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 7099. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-25917-3_14

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-25917-3_14

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-25916-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-25917-3

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation