Discourse behavior of possessives reflects the importance of interpersonal relationships

Jesse Storbeck,Elsi Kaiser

doi:10.3765/elm.1.4876

Abstract

Nominal possessive constructions (e.g. Sam's car) present a challenge for theories of discourse since, unlike simpler nominal phrases (e.g. a car), they explicitly refer to two entities, not just one. Research on the discourse prominence of these two referents has been limited in scope and produced contradictory findings. We use a sentence continuation experiment to investigate the prominence of possessions as a function of their animacy. We find that possessed animates (e.g. her butler) are especially prominent. Their privileged status in discourse may relate to non-linguistic theories on the importance of interpersonal relationships.

Highlights

A widely held view about discourse-level representation and processing is that referents in a given discourse vary in prominence and that the prominence of referents changes over time as the discourse unfolds (e.g. Ariel, 1988; van den Broek et al, 1996)
Since most previous work investigating the discourse prominence of referents has focused on nominal phrases containing a single referent, the lack of research on possessives brings up two main questions
The present study investigates how nominal possessive constructions are encoded in discourse and how different semantic possession relations affect the discourse-level representations for the referents involved in possessives

Summary

Introduction

A widely held view about discourse-level representation and processing is that referents in a given discourse vary in prominence (alternatively, ‘salience’) and that the prominence of referents changes over time as the discourse unfolds (e.g. Ariel, 1988; van den Broek et al, 1996). Our third hypothesis is the Interaction Hypothesis, whereby possessed animates are especially prominent in discourse—in excess of any additive effects of animacy and possession—due to the domain-general cognitive significance of interpersonal relationships.

Results

Conclusion