Number mismatch effect and processing cataphora in a pro-drop language

ǂthe ǂcase of Slovenian

Matic Pavlič (Author), Arthur Stepanov (Author)

Abstract

Cataphora (also known as backward anaphora) is a type of pronominals that prcede their antecedents elinearly. Previous research on processing cataphora has explored the idea that cataphoric pronouns trigger a forward-looking active search for an antecedent to establish a coreference relation similar to a filler-gap dependency between a fronted wh-phrase and its base-generated syntactic position (Cowart & Cairns 1987). Van Gompel & Liversedge (2003) have shown that in an active search, the parser establishes a cataphoric coreference before considering pronominal phi-features. This results in a gender mismatch effect: sentences with incongruent incoming NP antecedents were more difficult to read than their congruent counterparts, as evidenced by slower reading times and eye movement regressions. In this paper, we report the results of a self-paced reading experiment in which the active search hypothesis is further tested by examining online cataphora resolution with respect to the number feature in Slovenian, a pro-drop language with a rich nominal and verbal morphology.

Keywords

cataphora;feature mismatch effect;forward-looking active search;self-paced reading;Slovenian;psycholinguistics;

Data

Language:	English
Year of publishing:	2023
Typology:	1.08 - Published Scientific Conference Contribution
Organization:	UNG - University of Nova Gorica
UDC:	81'23
COBISS:	181114115
Views:	383
Downloads:	7
Average score:	0 (0 votes)
Metadata:

Other data

Pages:	Str. 293-314
DOI:	10.5281/zenodo.10123649
ID:	22380813