Psycholinguistic Investigations of Discourse-Based Referential Contrast

多年来，句子处理中的大量工作一直专注于上下文信息是否会影响早期句法分析决策的问题。到目前为止，有相当多的证据表明，至少有一些来自话语语境的信息确实有这样的效果。然而，这些影响是如何发生的，它们来自哪里，这个问题在很大程度上仍然被忽视。语篇语境效应的可能机制从语言表达类触发特定语篇表征的非常直接的机制，到评估替代语言表达的可能的语篇功能的微妙的推理机制。句子处理方面的研究表明，其中一个可能的读音涉及名词修饰的歧义的解决受到语篇模型的可用性的影响，在这个语篇模型中，修饰短语用于区分两个可能的指称。一个中心问题是，这种带有修饰语的语篇效果是反映了修饰的一般性、常规化的性质，还是更恰当地被描述为关于典型用法的微妙预期系统。作者提出了一系列的研究来考察这一假设，即中性(即非对比)语境中存在典型的缺省表达，并且使用更有标记或更有信息性的表达在语篇中标志着对比功能，从而产生即时的加工结果。我们将收集来自诱发生产任务的数据，并将其直接与眼动实验的在线理解结果进行比较，该实验允许对受试者的眼动进行监控，以响应口语语言刺激。本文认为，以前使用修饰NP观察到的语篇效果并不局限于修饰的表达，而是扩展到其他涉及偏离默认表达的情况(例如，分类文献中确定的基本级和从属级表达的区别)。验证这一假设的实验将通过生产实验和眼球监控实验进行，以及在更传统方法的基础上进行，例如对暂时歧义句子的阅读时间研究。

A great deal of work in sentence processing over the years has been preoccupied with the question of whether contextual information can influence early parsing decisions. There is by now considerable evidence that suggests that at least some kinds of information from the discourse context do have such effects. However, the question of how these effects occur and where they come from has remained largely ignored. The possible mechanisms for discourse context effects range from very direct ones where classes of linguistic expressions trigger certain discourse representations, to ones involving subtle inferential mechanisms that evaluate the likely discourse functions of alternative linguistic expressions.The studies in this project focus on the discourse properties of modified definite noun phrases. Work in sentence processing has shown that the resolution of ambiguities in which one of the possible readings involves noun modification is affected by the availability of a discourse model in which the modificational phrase serves to distinguish between two possible referents.A central question is whether such discourse effects found with modifiers reflect a general, conventionalized property of modification, or whether they are more aptly characterized as a subtle system of expectations regarding typical usages. A series of studies is proposed to investigate the hypothesis that a typical default expression exists for neutral (i.e. non-contrastive) contexts, and that the use of a more marked or informative expression signals a contrastive function in the discourse that has immediate processing consequences. Data from elicited production tasks will be collected and directly compared with on-line comprehension results from eye movement experiments that allow for the monitoring of subjects' eye movements to a visual array in response to spoken linguistic stimuli.It is suggested here that the discourse effects previously observed with modified NPs are not limited to modified expressions, but extend to other cases involving deviation from a default expression (e.g. the distinction between basic-level and subordinate level expressions as identified in the categorization literature). Experiments testing this hypothesis will be conducted both by means of production and eye monitoring experiments, as well as by building on work in more traditional methodologies such as reading time studies of temporarily ambiguous sentences.