The Role of Discourse Prominence in Antecedent Search: The Case of Genitive Noun Phrases
The research investigated how readers comprehended reflexive pronoun anaphors (e.g., himself or herself) that occurred in the same sentence with an antecedent that was modified by a genitive noun phrase (NP). Prior research suggested that during the search for an antecedent, readers consider only th...
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Presses universitaires de Caen
2016-09-01
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| Series: | Discours |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/discours/9202 |
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| author | Shelia M. Kennison |
| author_facet | Shelia M. Kennison |
| author_sort | Shelia M. Kennison |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The research investigated how readers comprehended reflexive pronoun anaphors (e.g., himself or herself) that occurred in the same sentence with an antecedent that was modified by a genitive noun phrase (NP). Prior research suggested that during the search for an antecedent, readers consider only those preceding discourse entities that are prominent in the discourse; thus, genitive NPs would not be considered because they lack discourse prominence (Badecker & Straub, 2002). Two reading experiments tested this claim. In Experiment 1, genitive NPs were noun descriptions that were strongly stereotyped for gender (e.g., “The executive’s/secretary’s father cut himself…”). In Experiment 2, genitive NPs were gender-specific proper names (e.g., “John’s/Mary’s father cut himself…”), similar to those used in the prior research. The results indicated that genitive NPs that were strongly stereotyped for gender influenced sentence processing time, but genitive NPs that were gender-specific proper names did not; thus, genitive NPs are not uniformly excluded from consideration during the resolution of reflexive pronouns. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-2b23ff9224cd45368db9c7d0ce6f77ef |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1963-1723 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2016-09-01 |
| publisher | Presses universitaires de Caen |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Discours |
| spelling | doaj-art-2b23ff9224cd45368db9c7d0ce6f77ef2025-01-30T09:52:58ZengPresses universitaires de CaenDiscours1963-17232016-09-011810.4000/discours.9202The Role of Discourse Prominence in Antecedent Search: The Case of Genitive Noun PhrasesShelia M. KennisonThe research investigated how readers comprehended reflexive pronoun anaphors (e.g., himself or herself) that occurred in the same sentence with an antecedent that was modified by a genitive noun phrase (NP). Prior research suggested that during the search for an antecedent, readers consider only those preceding discourse entities that are prominent in the discourse; thus, genitive NPs would not be considered because they lack discourse prominence (Badecker & Straub, 2002). Two reading experiments tested this claim. In Experiment 1, genitive NPs were noun descriptions that were strongly stereotyped for gender (e.g., “The executive’s/secretary’s father cut himself…”). In Experiment 2, genitive NPs were gender-specific proper names (e.g., “John’s/Mary’s father cut himself…”), similar to those used in the prior research. The results indicated that genitive NPs that were strongly stereotyped for gender influenced sentence processing time, but genitive NPs that were gender-specific proper names did not; thus, genitive NPs are not uniformly excluded from consideration during the resolution of reflexive pronouns.https://journals.openedition.org/discours/9202comprehensiondiscourse prominenceanaphorsgenitive noun phrases |
| spellingShingle | Shelia M. Kennison The Role of Discourse Prominence in Antecedent Search: The Case of Genitive Noun Phrases Discours comprehension discourse prominence anaphors genitive noun phrases |
| title | The Role of Discourse Prominence in Antecedent Search: The Case of Genitive Noun Phrases |
| title_full | The Role of Discourse Prominence in Antecedent Search: The Case of Genitive Noun Phrases |
| title_fullStr | The Role of Discourse Prominence in Antecedent Search: The Case of Genitive Noun Phrases |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Role of Discourse Prominence in Antecedent Search: The Case of Genitive Noun Phrases |
| title_short | The Role of Discourse Prominence in Antecedent Search: The Case of Genitive Noun Phrases |
| title_sort | role of discourse prominence in antecedent search the case of genitive noun phrases |
| topic | comprehension discourse prominence anaphors genitive noun phrases |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/discours/9202 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT sheliamkennison theroleofdiscourseprominenceinantecedentsearchthecaseofgenitivenounphrases AT sheliamkennison roleofdiscourseprominenceinantecedentsearchthecaseofgenitivenounphrases |