scholarly journals The Roles of Implicit Causality and Discourse Context in Pronoun Resolution

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emiel van den Hoven ◽  
Evelyn C. Ferstl
Keyword(s):  
Pronoun Resolution ◽  
Discourse Context ◽  
Implicit Causality

scholarly journals The Interplay of Implicit Causality, Structural Heuristics, and Anaphor Type in Ambiguous Pronoun Resolution

2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 525-550 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juhani Järvikivi ◽  
Roger P. G. van Gompel ◽  
Jukka Hyönä
Keyword(s):  
Pronoun Resolution ◽  
Implicit Causality

Discourse context modulates the effect of implicit causality on rementions

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 561-594 ◽  
Author(s):  
EMIEL VAN DEN HOVEN ◽  
EVELYN C. FERSTL
Keyword(s):  
Relevant Information ◽  
Semantic Structure ◽  
Discourse Context ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Lack Of Information ◽  
The World ◽  
Implicit Causality ◽  
Causal Coherence ◽  
Coherence Relation ◽  
Story Completion

abstractCertain verbs tend to elicit explanations about either their subject or their object. The tendency for one of the verb’s arguments to be rementioned in explanations is known as the implicit causality bias. In this paper we investigate the conditions underlying implicit causality remention biases by means of sentence and story completion studies. On one account of implicit causality, remention biases are the product of a combination of a particular lexico-semantic structure with a causal coherence relation. According to a competing account, the biases arise from a perceived lack of information in the discourse, and thus depend on knowledge about the world and the discourse context. To distinguish between the two accounts, it first needs to be established that information that potentially competes with implicit causality, such as relevant information from the discourse context, can reliably influence remention biases. We provide evidence that a violation of implicit assumptions underlying the standard use of implicit causality verbs leads to different inferences, and an alteration of the remention bias. We thereby lay the groundwork for future studies to distinguish between the two accounts.

The effect of implicit causality and consequentiality on nonnative pronoun resolution

2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
WEI CHENG ◽  
AMIT ALMOR
Keyword(s):  
English Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Nonnative Speakers ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
Sentence Completion ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Pronoun Resolution ◽  
Implicit Causality ◽  
Psychological Verbs

ABSTRACTWe report two sentence-completion experiments investigating how nonnative speakers use universal semantic and discourse information, which are implicit causality and consequentiality biases associated with psychological verbs, to resolve pronouns. The results indicate that intermediate-advanced and advanced Chinese-speaking English learners show weaker implicit causality and consequentiality biases than native English speakers in pronoun resolution. Instead, nonnative speakers exhibit a general subject or first-mention bias. These findings suggest that nonnative speakers do not use semantic and discourse information in comprehension as effectively as native speakers.

Are Implicit Causality Pronoun Resolution Biases Consistent Across Languages and Cultures?

2013 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 179-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua K. Hartshorne ◽  
Yasutada Sudo ◽  
Miki Uruwashi
Keyword(s):  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Main Clause ◽  
Cultural Variation ◽  
Pronoun Resolution ◽  
Implicit Causality

The referent of a nonreflexive pronoun depends on context, but the nature of these contextual restrictions is controversial. For instance, in causal dependent clauses, the preferred referent of a pronoun varies systematically with the verb in the main clause (Sally frightens Mary because she … vs. Sally loves Mary because she …). Several theories claim that verbs with similar meanings across languages should show similar pronoun resolution effects, but these claims run contrary to recent analyses on which much of linguistic and nonlinguistic cognition is susceptible to cross-cultural variation, and in fact there is little data in the literature to decide the question one way or another. Analysis of data in eight languages representing four historically unrelated language families reveals consistent pronoun resolution biases for emotion verbs, suggesting that the information upon which implicit causality pronoun resolution biases are derived is stable across languages and cultures.

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