Resolution of the Antecedent of a Plural Pronoun: Ontological Categories and Predicate Symmetry

Abstract

Two questionnaire studies and two reading time experiments explored how readers determine the reference of the plural pronoun they. The questionnaire studies showed that readers were more willing to take an ontologically homogeneous (all humans) collection of entities as the antecedent of they than an ontologically heterogeneous collection and that they were more willing to take the entities that fill the thematic roles of a “symmetric” verb like sing with as the antecedent of they than the entities that fill the role of a “nonsymmetric” verb like hit. The questionnaire studies also showed a preference for taking the maximally inclusive group as the referent of they. The reading time experiments showed that these effects occur online so that reading is slowed when a temporary ambiguity is resolved in a way that conflicts with the preferences as described. A theoretical framework was described in which two stages of processing, described by an “equivalence” and a “closure” principle, respectively, take place.