Discourse and prosody in non-native speakers' reference resolution

像“他”和“她”这样的代词是英语中最常用的词之一。然而，无论是字典还是语法书都不能满足英语作为第二语言的学习者，他们试图理解它们的全部含义和用法。代词经常出现在包含一个以上可能所指的语境中。本族语者积累了语言中模式的知识，这些模式以某种方式改变了解释偏好。其中一种模式涉及所描述事件的性质：例如，当最后一个动作未完成时，代词更有可能指该动作的执行者。另一种模式涉及韵律，即句子的哪些部分受到强调。本研究旨在探讨日语和韩语的英语学习者对代词的理解，特别是对代词的理解是否受到事件结构和韵律的影响。早期的证据表明，即使学习者掌握了高级的英语语法知识，他们在语言理解过程中产生期望的能力也会降低，从而导致代词的解释与母语者不同。五个实验将研究母语者与学习者如何用代词继续书写和口语故事，以及他们的眼睛注视如何在几分之一秒内揭示他们认为故事中的哪个人最有可能被提到。全世界使用英语作为第二语言的人比以英语为母语的人要多。了解他们的语言理解的性质有可能改善成功沟通的策略，语言教学技巧，以及我们对人类思维如何运作的一般理解。

Pronouns like 'he' and 'she' are among the most frequently used words in English. Yet neither a dictionary nor a grammar book will satisfy a learner of English as a second language who is trying to understand their full meaning and use. Pronouns often occur in contexts that contain more than one possible referent. Native speakers accumulate knowledge of patterns in the language that shift the interpretive preference one way or another. One such pattern involves the nature of the event being described: for example, a pronoun is more likely to refer to the doer of the last-mentioned action when that action is incomplete. Another pattern involves prosody, that is, what parts of a sentence receive emphasis. Native speakers deftly integrate such information to unconsciously anticipate how a conversation is going to continue, building expectations about who will be referred to next even before a name or pronoun is heard.This project investigates how Japanese- and Korean-speaking learners of English interpret pronouns, asking specifically whether their interpretation is affected by patterns of event structure and prosody. Early evidence indicates that even when learners have advanced knowledge of English grammar, they may have a reduced ability to generate expectations during language comprehension, resulting in interpretation of pronouns different from that of native speakers. Five experiments will examine how native speakers versus learners continue written and spoken stories with pronouns, and how their eye fixations reveal, in a fraction of a second, which person in a story they think is most likely to be referred to next. There are more second language users of English worldwide than there are native speakers as a first language. Understanding the nature of their language comprehension has the potential to improve strategies for successful communication, language teaching techniques, and our general understanding of how the human mind functions.