The predictability of implicit causes: testing frequency and topicality explanations
The predictability of implicit causes: testing frequency and topicality explanations
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DOI：
10.1080/0163853x.2021.1974690
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发表时间：
2021-09-24
影响因子：
2.2
通讯作者：
Arnold, Jennifer E.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Guan, Shuang;Arnold, Jennifer E.
在涉及隐含因果关系的话语中，事件的隐含原因是参照可预测的，也就是说，它很可能被重提。然而，目前还不清楚参照可预测性是如何计算的。我们检验了两种可能的解释：(1)频率解释表明，人们通过对自然语言中最频繁的指称模式的经验了解到隐含原因是可预测的；(2)话题性解释询问隐含原因是否倾向于在语篇中发挥话题性作用，这本身可能导致人们对语篇可及性的感知。我们通过两个文本分析表明，隐含原因经常被提及，但只有当我们考虑一组狭隘的话语环境时，这将需要理解者追踪偶然频率。我们没有发现支持话题性解释的证据：在两个实验中，内隐因果关系影响可预测性，但不影响话题性，在自然言语语料库中，隐性原因往往不占据话题性位置。
In discourses involving implicit causality, the implicit cause of the event is referentially predictable, that is, it is likely to be rementioned. However, it is unclear how referential predictability is calculated. We test two possible explanations: (1) The frequency account suggests that people learn that implicit causes are predictable through experience with the most frequent patterns of reference in natural language, and (2) the topicality account asks whether implicit causes tend to play topical roles in the discourse, which itself may lead to the perception of discourse accessibility. With two text analyses we show that implicit causes are frequently rementioned, but only if we consider a narrow set of discourse circumstances, which would require comprehenders to track contingent frequencies. We found no evidence for the topicality account: in two experiments, implicit causality affected predictability but not topicality, and in a corpus of natural speech, implicit causes tended to not occupy topical positions.