When do we use “they” to refer to two individuals? Scenario mapping as a basis for equivalence

Abstract

When two individual characters are introduced in discourse, it is often, but not always, possible to make anaphoric reference to them as a complex reference object via a plural pronoun. According to the Equivalence hypothesis, the circumstances under which such reference is possible depend on the equivalence of the characters. Various factors have been suggested as contributing towards equivalence. In this paper we present two sentence-completion experiments which show that the roles played by the characters within a scenario are key in determining character equivalence. We conclude that scenario-mapping theory may provide a basis for equivalence.