Universität zu Köln

Patterson, Clare ORCID: 0000-0002-0790-4892 and Schumacher, Petra B. (2021). Interpretation preferences in contexts with three antecedents: examining the role of prominence in German pronouns. Appl. Psycholinguist., 42 (6). S. 1427 - 1462. NEW YORK: CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS. ISSN 1469-1817

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Abstract

This paper focuses on the relational notion of prominence, in which entities of equal type are ranked according to certain prominence-lending features. In German two demonstrative forms, der and dieser, can function like personal pronouns in English. It has been proposed that processing der involves computing a prominence hierarchy of the prior referents, and excluding the referent with the highest prominence rank. The demonstrative dieser has not been extensively tested. In the current study, personal and demonstrative pronominal forms were investigated following ditransitive contexts, where three potential antecedents are available, in two rating experiments. The personal pronoun showed flexibility in that it received equally high ratings for all three antecedents in canonical configurations. The ratings for dieser followed a graded sensitivity to thematic role prominence, with lowest scores when referring to prominent antecedents (agents) and the highest scores for the least prominent antecedents (patients), with scores for the medium prominence candidate (recipients) differing from both. Der followed a similar but not identical pattern, with a less marked difference between lower prominence candidates. Positional information also has a strong influence on demonstratives. In sum, final interpretation is sensitive to fine-grained differences in prominence hierarchies.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Patterson, Clare UNSPECIFIED orcid.org/0000-0002-0790-4892 UNSPECIFIED Schumacher, Petra B. UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-566673
DOI:	10.1017/S0142716421000291
Journal or Publication Title:	Appl. Psycholinguist.
Volume:	42
Number:	6
Page Range:	S. 1427 - 1462
Date:	2021
Publisher:	CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS
Place of Publication:	NEW YORK
ISSN:	1469-1817
Language:	English
Faculty:	Unspecified
Divisions:	Unspecified
Subjects:	no entry
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language THEMATIC ROLES; WORD-ORDER; RESOLUTION; DISCOURSE; FOCUS; FORM; DEMONSTRATIVES; INFORMATION; MARKEDNESS; OPTIMALITY Multiple languages Linguistics; Psychology, Experimental Multiple languages
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/56667