A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
Ambiguous pronoun resolution - Contrasting the first-mention and subject-preference accounts
Authors: Jarvikivi J, van Gompel RPG, Hyona J, Bertram R
Publisher: BLACKWELL PUBLISHERS
Publication year: 2005
Journal: Psychological Science
Journal name in source: PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE
Journal acronym: PSYCHOL SCI
Volume: 16
Issue: 4
First page : 260
Last page: 264
Number of pages: 5
ISSN: 0956-7976
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0956-7976.2005.01525.x
Abstract
A visual-world eye-tracking experiment investigated the influence of order of mention and grammatical role on resolution of ambiguous pronouns in Finnish. According to the first-mention account, general cognitive structure-building processes make the first-mentioned noun phrase the preferred antecedent of an ambiguous pronoun. According to the subject-preference account, the preferred antecedent is the grammatical subject of the preceding clause or sentence. Participants listened to sentences in either subject-verb-object or object-verb-subject order; each was followed by a sentence containing an ambiguous pronoun that referred to either the subject or the object. Participants' eye movements were monitored while they looked at pictures representing the two possible antecedents of each pronoun. Analyses of the fixations on the pictures showed that listeners used both order-of-mention and grammatical-role information to resolve ambiguous pronouns.
A visual-world eye-tracking experiment investigated the influence of order of mention and grammatical role on resolution of ambiguous pronouns in Finnish. According to the first-mention account, general cognitive structure-building processes make the first-mentioned noun phrase the preferred antecedent of an ambiguous pronoun. According to the subject-preference account, the preferred antecedent is the grammatical subject of the preceding clause or sentence. Participants listened to sentences in either subject-verb-object or object-verb-subject order; each was followed by a sentence containing an ambiguous pronoun that referred to either the subject or the object. Participants' eye movements were monitored while they looked at pictures representing the two possible antecedents of each pronoun. Analyses of the fixations on the pictures showed that listeners used both order-of-mention and grammatical-role information to resolve ambiguous pronouns.
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