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Examining the Role of Subjecthood and Pronominalization in Reference Resolution in L1 and L2 Processing: An Eye-tracking Study
Wang, Tingting
Wang, Tingting
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Abstract
Referential expressions such as pronouns are frequently used in conversations, and native speakers seem to understand who these expressions refer to effortlessly. Although the process of pronoun resolution seems to be easy, interpretations of pronouns are dependent on various sources of information from the discourse including morphosyntax (e.g., gender and number), syntactic structures (e.g., subject/object), information encoded in the verbs (e.g., implicit causality), and the information structure (e.g., topic, focus). Especially when the pronoun is ambiguous, its interpretation is decided by the salience of possible antecedents, with salient antecedents being likely to be referred to by pronouns in reduced forms (e.g., lexical/null). Studies on pronoun resolution by native speakers have reported two important discourse-level cues that contribute to referential salience: subjecthood and pronominalization (Kaiser, 2011). Meanwhile, studies on second language (L2) pronoun resolution have reported mixed results regarding learners’ ability of utilizing discourse-level cues: some studies found native-like use of discourse cues by learners in simple contexts where only one of the antecedents was made salient (Contemori et al., 2019, Ex1, Contemori et al., 2020; Santoro, 2020), while others found difficulty in using discourse cues by learners in contexts where multiple cues were present in affecting referential salience (Contemori et al., 2019; ; Cheng & Almor, 2017; Roberts et al., 2018). Moreover, some of the studies suggest that learners’ difficulty might be related to cross-linguistic influence (Contemori et al., 2019; Roberts et al., 2018). Recently, studies on L1 pronoun resolution have shown that the ability of using discourse-level cues in pronoun resolution vary among native speakers with different language and cognitive abilities. This raises an interesting question as with whether there will also be variability in L2 pronoun resolution related to individual’s language and cognitive abilities. The present dissertation addresses these issues by examining how the two salience-related discourse cues: subjecthood and pronominalization, affect pronoun resolution by English native speakers and Chinese-speaking L2 learners. Following Kaiser (2011, Ex1), we create three different conditions where antecedent’s salience is systematically manipulated. In addition, we also investigate the role of individual differences in ways the two discourse cues are used in pronoun processing, both in natives and learners. Furthermore, we examined the same group of Chinese-speaking English learners in both their L2 (English) and L1 (Chinese). By comparing the patterns within learners between their L1 and L2, we hope to examine the possible L1 influence. We conducted a picture verification task with eye-tracking in English for both English native speakers and L2 learners (Experiment 1); a Chinese version of the picture verification task for Chinese native speakers (Experiment 3). We also administered an offline English antecedent choice task for both English native speakers and L2 learners (Experiment 2) and a Chinese version of the task for Chinese native speakers (Experiment 4). Besides, we collected participants’ performance in the working memory and vocabulary tasks as measures of cognitive and language abilities. Overall, our L2 learners can successfully utilize the two discourse-level in resolving pronouns by showing native-like patterns in the picture verification task (picture verification results & eye-movements), and in the offline antecedent choice task. We also found that the use of the two discourse-level cues, especially in the context when the two cues diverge from each other, is modulated by the working memory ability of both English natives speakers and L2 learners but in different ways. Lastly, when comparing the picture verification results and eye-movements in the picture verification task 1) between English native speakers and L2 learners, and 2) between L2 learners’ performance in their L1 (Chinese) and L2 (English), we found non-nativelike patterns by L2 learners specifically during online processing, which was reflected in their eye-movements. This suggests that L2 learners are able to successfully integrate discourse cues in the interpretation of ambiguous pronouns, but they may still show influence from the L1 during online processing.
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Date
2022-08-31
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University of Kansas
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Keywords
Linguistics, Chinese, English, eye-tracking, pronoun, second language acquisiton, second language processsing