Does referential expectation guide both linguistic and social constraints on pronoun comprehension?

Abstract

Current models suggest that pronoun comprehension is guided by expectations about who or what will be mentioned (Arnold, 1998; Kehler & Rohde, 2013; Hartshorne et al., 2015; Brocher et al., 2018), which we call referential predictability. Yet there is disagreement about whether these expectations explain all types of discourse biases, and in particular some scholars suggest that the subject bias is unrelated to referential predictability (Kehler & Rohde, 2013; Fukumura & van Gompel, 2015). Moreover, the role of expectation has not been broadly tested against the numerous constraints known to affect pronoun comprehension, and no study has tested whether expectation is related to social constraints like gaze and pointing. In eight experiments we systematically test how both pronoun comprehension and prediction judgments are influenced by four constraints: (1) the subject bias in joint-action predicates like Ana went hiking with Liz; (2) both the goal and subject biases in transfer predicates (Ana threw the ball to Liz or Ana got the ball from Liz); (3) pointing while gazing, and (4) gazing. We replicate and extend the known effects of these constraints on pronoun comprehension. Critically, we find that most of these constraints also affect prediction judgments, but the subject bias is inconsistent across verb types. Results support models in which referential expectation affects pronoun comprehension.