Representations and processes in the interpretation of pronouns: new evidence from Spanish and French
By Alan Garnham, Jane Oakhill, Marie-France Ehrlich, Manuel Carreiras. 1995
Abstract Three experiments, in Spanish and French, examined the interpretation of pronouns which, on the basis of their form, were either referentially determinate or referentially indeterminate. Because Spanish and French nouns referring to objects have arbitrary grammatical genders, we were able to compare cases in which referential determinacy might be semantically based with those where it could only be morphologically based. This comparison establishes the type of representation-superficial or content-based-used to interpret the pronouns. Contrary to a view based on a linguistic classification of anaphoric expressions, we found clear evidence for the role of a superficial representation in the interpretation of pronouns. However, the extent of its involvement appeared to diminish rapidly, though we found evidence that it was under strategic control.
Subfields: Natural Language Processing
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In Natural Language Processing
- Yang Trista Cao
- Hal Daumé Iii
- Joseph P. Magliano
- Yoav Goldberg
- Daniel Klein
- Mohit Bansal
- Yejin Choi
- Christopher D. Manning
Citations in the corpus
- Toward Gender-Inclusive Coreference Resolution (2019, background): “For instance, Garnham et al. [1995] and Carreiras et al. [1996] use reading speed tests for gender-ambiguous contexts, and observe faster reading when the reference was “obvious” in Spanish.”
- Verb Aspect and Situation Models (2000, background): “Surface level information can facilitate the resolution of anaphors (Garnham et al., 1995; Sanford et al., 1988).”
- Toward Gender-Inclusive Coreference Resolution: An Analysis of Gender and Bias Throughout the Machine Learning Lifecycle* (2021, background): “For instance, Garnham et al. (1995) and Carreiras et al. (1996) use reading speed tests for gender-ambiguous contexts, and observe faster reading when the reference was “obvious” in Spanish.”