Information Structure Affects the Resolution of the Subject Pronouns Er and Der in Spoken German Discourse
Two visual-world eye-tracking experiments were designed to investigate the resolution of ambiguous German pronouns, the personal pronoun (er) and the d-pronoun (der) in spoken discourse. Specifically, the influence of the order of mention and the information status of the antecedent candidates on th...
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| Language: | English |
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Presses universitaires de Caen
2013-07-01
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| Series: | Discours |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/discours/8756 |
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| author | Miriam Ellert |
| author_facet | Miriam Ellert |
| author_sort | Miriam Ellert |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Two visual-world eye-tracking experiments were designed to investigate the resolution of ambiguous German pronouns, the personal pronoun (er) and the d-pronoun (der) in spoken discourse. Specifically, the influence of the order of mention and the information status of the antecedent candidates on the resolution preferences following canonical and non-canonical antecedent structures was explored. The results suggest that the two pronominal forms have different coreference functions when they follow canonical topic-comment antecedent structures, in that personal pronouns prefer first-mentioned topical antecedents and d-pronouns second-mentioned non-topical antecedents. However, after non-canonically marked topic-focus antecedent structures, the pronouns had overlapping functions, namely an overall preference towards the second-mentioned focused entity. The findings suggest that pronoun resolution is affected by the information status of the antecedent candidates and that resolution preferences change across antecedent word orders. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-847b038b6dce41e399562a596530a50d |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1963-1723 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2013-07-01 |
| publisher | Presses universitaires de Caen |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Discours |
| spelling | doaj-art-847b038b6dce41e399562a596530a50d2025-01-30T09:52:45ZengPresses universitaires de CaenDiscours1963-17232013-07-011210.4000/discours.8756Information Structure Affects the Resolution of the Subject Pronouns Er and Der in Spoken German DiscourseMiriam EllertTwo visual-world eye-tracking experiments were designed to investigate the resolution of ambiguous German pronouns, the personal pronoun (er) and the d-pronoun (der) in spoken discourse. Specifically, the influence of the order of mention and the information status of the antecedent candidates on the resolution preferences following canonical and non-canonical antecedent structures was explored. The results suggest that the two pronominal forms have different coreference functions when they follow canonical topic-comment antecedent structures, in that personal pronouns prefer first-mentioned topical antecedents and d-pronouns second-mentioned non-topical antecedents. However, after non-canonically marked topic-focus antecedent structures, the pronouns had overlapping functions, namely an overall preference towards the second-mentioned focused entity. The findings suggest that pronoun resolution is affected by the information status of the antecedent candidates and that resolution preferences change across antecedent word orders.https://journals.openedition.org/discours/8756information structurepronoun resolution in Germantopic-focusdiscourse processingvisual world eye-tracking |
| spellingShingle | Miriam Ellert Information Structure Affects the Resolution of the Subject Pronouns Er and Der in Spoken German Discourse Discours information structure pronoun resolution in German topic-focus discourse processing visual world eye-tracking |
| title | Information Structure Affects the Resolution of the Subject Pronouns Er and Der in Spoken German Discourse |
| title_full | Information Structure Affects the Resolution of the Subject Pronouns Er and Der in Spoken German Discourse |
| title_fullStr | Information Structure Affects the Resolution of the Subject Pronouns Er and Der in Spoken German Discourse |
| title_full_unstemmed | Information Structure Affects the Resolution of the Subject Pronouns Er and Der in Spoken German Discourse |
| title_short | Information Structure Affects the Resolution of the Subject Pronouns Er and Der in Spoken German Discourse |
| title_sort | information structure affects the resolution of the subject pronouns er and der in spoken german discourse |
| topic | information structure pronoun resolution in German topic-focus discourse processing visual world eye-tracking |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/discours/8756 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT miriamellert informationstructureaffectstheresolutionofthesubjectpronounserandderinspokengermandiscourse |