Pronoun interpretation in the second language: Effects of computational complexity
Pronoun interpretation in the second language: Effects of computational complexity
Children acquiring their native language (L1) have been reported to have greater
difficulty in interpreting pronouns than reflexives. In addition, they are less accurate when pronouns refer to referential antecedents than to quantified antecedents, and when they hear full pronouns as opposed to reduced pronouns. We hypothesize that similar difficulties of interpretation will occur for (non-advanced) second language (L2) learners, due to an elevated computational burden, as argued for L1 acquisition by Reinhart (2006, 2011). We report on an experiment with adult learners of English (L1s French and Spanish), using a truth-value judgment task. Participants interpreted reduced and full pronouns bound by referential and quantified antecedents in aurally presented test sentences. The learners’ performance is affected by type of pronoun and antecedent. When a referential antecedent is combined with a full pronoun, learners’ accuracy is significantly lower. These results are in line with Reinhart’s analysis of reference set computation in processing pronouns.
pronoun interpretation , referential antecedents, quantified antecedents, reduced pronouns, computational complexity, Binding Principle B
Slabakova, Roumyana
1bda11ce-ce3d-4146-8ae3-4a486b6f5bde
White, Lydia
f3653456-a258-4136-b3e7-165e448942d2
Guzzo, Natalia Brambatti
71c53756-6726-4b18-a94f-869460f371c4
21 July 2017
Slabakova, Roumyana
1bda11ce-ce3d-4146-8ae3-4a486b6f5bde
White, Lydia
f3653456-a258-4136-b3e7-165e448942d2
Guzzo, Natalia Brambatti
71c53756-6726-4b18-a94f-869460f371c4
Slabakova, Roumyana, White, Lydia and Guzzo, Natalia Brambatti
(2017)
Pronoun interpretation in the second language: Effects of computational complexity.
Frontiers in Psychology, 8, [1236].
(doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01236).
Abstract
Children acquiring their native language (L1) have been reported to have greater
difficulty in interpreting pronouns than reflexives. In addition, they are less accurate when pronouns refer to referential antecedents than to quantified antecedents, and when they hear full pronouns as opposed to reduced pronouns. We hypothesize that similar difficulties of interpretation will occur for (non-advanced) second language (L2) learners, due to an elevated computational burden, as argued for L1 acquisition by Reinhart (2006, 2011). We report on an experiment with adult learners of English (L1s French and Spanish), using a truth-value judgment task. Participants interpreted reduced and full pronouns bound by referential and quantified antecedents in aurally presented test sentences. The learners’ performance is affected by type of pronoun and antecedent. When a referential antecedent is combined with a full pronoun, learners’ accuracy is significantly lower. These results are in line with Reinhart’s analysis of reference set computation in processing pronouns.
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fpsyg-08-01236
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Accepted/In Press date: 6 July 2017
e-pub ahead of print date: 21 July 2017
Published date: 21 July 2017
Additional Information:
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01236
Keywords:
pronoun interpretation , referential antecedents, quantified antecedents, reduced pronouns, computational complexity, Binding Principle B
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Local EPrints ID: 412791
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/412791
ISSN: 1664-1078
PURE UUID: bd111e92-eb15-4dd3-8590-5d06b97b1552
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Date deposited: 01 Aug 2017 16:31
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 04:16
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Author:
Lydia White
Author:
Natalia Brambatti Guzzo
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