Universität zu Köln

Fuchs, Melanie ORCID: 0000-0002-0781-6163 (2024). Interpretation and shift functions of demonstrative pronouns. PhD thesis, Universität zu Köln.

PDF Dissertation_Fuchs.pdf Download (1MB)

Abstract

This thesis focuses on two discourse functions of German demonstrative pronouns: the backward function and the forward function. The backward function refers to the anaphoric use in which a pronoun picks up a referent from a previous discourse, whereby demonstratives typically refer to less prominent referents. The forward function refers to the idea that particular referential forms impact the prominence structure of subsequent discourse in discrete ways: it has been argued that demonstratives draw attention to a previously less prominent referent and enhance its prominence status in the subsequent discourse. Since German uses different types of demonstrative pronouns this thesis investigates the different functional contributions of "der" and "dieser". The results from a sentence continuation task show that both demonstrative pronouns are interpreted as referring to the less prominent proto-patient from the previous clause (backward function). However, in two event-related potential (ERP) experiments, "dieser" evoked a more pronounced negative deflection (N400). Since the N400 has been related to predictive processing, this finding could indicate that "dieser" is more strongly associated with the less predicted (i.e. the less prominent) referent. In addition, the results from the text continuation analysis show that participants mention the previously less prominent referent (i.e. the proto-patient) more often in their continuations when they interpret an ambiguous pronoun as referring to the proto-patient from the previous clause (forward function). The participants also use more reduced referential forms such as pronouns for that character in their continuations, which reflects its enhanced prominence status. "Dieser" also evoked pronounced late positive deflections in the ERP experiments, which are associated with mental model updating. Mental model updating is necessary when the prominence status of a referent changes, as indicated by "dieser".

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD thesis)
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Fuchs, Melanie mfuchs10@uni-koeln.de orcid.org/0000-0002-0781-6163 UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-735556
Date:	2024
Language:	English
Faculty:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities
Divisions:	Collaborative Research Centers > CRC 1252: Prominence in Language > TP C07
Subjects:	Language, Linguistics Germanic
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language Demonstrative pronouns UNSPECIFIED Reference UNSPECIFIED Discourse structure UNSPECIFIED Prominence UNSPECIFIED Text continuation UNSPECIFIED Story annotation UNSPECIFIED Event-related potentials UNSPECIFIED Pronoun interpretation UNSPECIFIED Pronoun processing UNSPECIFIED
Date of oral exam:	28 January 2021
Referee:	Name Academic Title Schumacher, Petra B. Prof. Dr.
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/73555