Psycholinguistic Investigations of Discourse-Based Referential Contrast

多年来，句子处理领域的大量工作都集中在上下文信息是否会影响早期句法分析决策的问题上。到目前为止，有相当多的证据表明，至少某些类型的信息，从话语背景确实有这样的效果。 然而，这些影响如何发生以及它们来自何处的问题在很大程度上仍然被忽视。 语篇语境效应的可能机制包括语言表达类型触发特定语篇表征的直接机制，以及评估替代语言表达可能的语篇功能的微妙推理机制。 句子加工的研究表明，当一个可能的阅读涉及名词修饰时，歧义的解决受到话语模式的影响，在话语模式中，修饰短语用于区分两个可能的指称。一个中心问题是，修饰语的这种话语效果是否反映了修饰的一般的、约定的属性，或者，它们是否更恰当地被描述为一个关于典型用法的微妙的期望系统。 一系列的研究提出了调查的假设，即一个典型的默认表达式存在的中性（即非对比）的情况下，使用一个更显着的或信息的表达信号的对比功能的话语，有直接的处理后果。 本研究收集了诱发产出任务的数据，并将其与眼动实验的在线理解结果进行了直接比较。眼动实验允许监测受试者对口头语言刺激的视觉阵列的眼动。本研究表明，先前观察到的修饰NP的话语效应不仅限于修饰表达，但是扩展到涉及偏离默认表达的其它情况（例如，在分类文献中标识的基本级别和从属级别表达之间的区别）。 测试这一假设的实验将通过生产和眼动监测实验，以及建立在更传统的方法，如暂时模糊的句子的阅读时间研究的工作。

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.