Effects of discourse coherence on referring
expressions (and vice versa):
Looking beyond pronouns
Elsi Kaiser
University of Southern
California
This talk will focus on the
relation between reference resolution and coherence relations. Existing work
has shown that pronoun interpretation is guided by the coherence relations
between sentences (e.g., as a result, and then), Kehler et al. 2008. Compare,
for example, ÒPhil insulted Stan and then/next he snapped at MaryÓ (bias to interpret
ÔheÕ as Phil), and ÒPhil insulted Stan and as a result he snapped at MaryÓ
(more consideration of Stan as the antecedent of ÔheÕ). However, it is not
known whether coherence-sensitivity extends to other referring expressions
beyond pronouns. In this talk, I will discuss experiments on German, which uses
both personal pronouns and demonstrative pronouns for humans. How do anaphoric
demonstratives—whose referential properties have been argued to be
complementary to pronouns (e.g., Bosch et al. 2003)—fit into
coherence-based views?
On the basis of sentence-completion data, I suggest that (i) pronoun interpretation is influenced by coherence even when other anaphoric forms are available; and that (ii) the previously-observed object-preference of demonstratives can influence comprehendersÕ expectations about coherence (trigger result-relations), cf. Rohde et al. 2008 on English pronouns. More generally, these results shed light on the extent/nature of coherence-sensitivity in reference resolution: They reveal differences between referential forms and suggest that although coherence does not modulate the antecedent choice of anaphoric demonstratives to the same extent that it influences pronoun interpretation, demonstratives can nevertheless interact with coherence-related processing by guiding comprehendersÕ expectations of coherence relations. If time permits, I will also discuss a production experiment investigating the effects of coherence relations on the production of different referring expressions in German.