Discourse Referents Research Articles

Intentional identity, mental files, and coordination: a DRT account of anaphora in attitude contexts

This paper proposes a semantics of anaphora in attitude contexts within the framework of Discourse Representation Theory (DRT). The paper first focuses on intentional identity, a special kind of cross-attitudinal anaphora. Based on the DRT semantics of attitude reports summarized by Kamp et al. (in: D. Gabbay and F. Guenthner (Eds.), Handbook of philosophical logic, 2011), the author proposes a semantics of intentional identity that implements the following two ideas: (1) indefinites and pronouns appearing in attitude contexts introduce metadiscourse referents, which represent one’s mental files and record appearances of discourse referents in attitude contexts; and (2) what underlies the relevant kind of anaphoric links between indefinites and pronouns across attitude contexts is the coordination relation between mental files, which is represented by using metadiscourse referents. Next, the paper expands the semantics to cover de re anaphora, in which an anaphoric pronoun in an attitude context takes as its antecedent an expression appearing outside any attitude context.

Informativity, information status and the accessibility of indefinite noun phrases

In discourse processing, speakers collaborate toward a shared mental model by introducing discourse referents and picking them up with the adequate linguistic forms. Discourse referents compete with each other with respect to their prominence and their accessibility for pronouns. This study focuses on transitive sentences with proper names as subjects and indefinite noun phrases as second arguments, typically direct objects. An ambiguous pronoun in the subsequent sentence may access either referent of the first sentence. Various factors have been shown to influence pronoun resolution, including informativity (how informative is the phrase in which the referent is introduced? E.g., the waiter vs. the waiter at the entrance) and information status (is the referent given or new in the context?). While both factors have been independently shown to increase referent accessibility, our visual-world eye-tracking experiment shows an original and quite unexpected effect: informativity and information status interact when it comes to the accessibility of indefinite noun phrases: a higher degree of informativity increases accessibility when a referent is brand-new, but surprisingly decreases accessibility when a referent is inferred. We discuss a potential explanation for this surprising pattern in terms of a mismatch between the denotational type of the indefinite and the type required by the modification. We conclude that indefinites strongly interact with additional semantic, contextual and communicative parameters in establishing their referents.

Semantics of the northern khanty salient article: definiteness, salience, and obviation

Uralic possessive agreement markers often function as determiners. This paper presents a case study of the Northern Khanty (Kazym dialect) 2sg Possessive that developed into a “salient article”. The Salient Article is definite as it requires informational uniqueness and familiarity, but its distribution is narrower than the distribution of previously described definite determiner types. It is most commonly used with topical Subjects and in noun phrases with demonstratives, but its use is not obligatory across the board in these cases and is not limited to them. Furthermore, the Salient Article is subject to a constraint that is similar to the proximate uniqueness constraint of languages with obviation systems like the Algonquian: there may be at most one noun phrase with a Salient Article per clause (with the exception of noun phrases with demonstratives). I consider and reject two possible syntactic accounts of such distribution and instead propose a tentative semantic analysis that derives all the observed facts: the Salient Article marks the most salient discourse referent in the given context. (I understand salience as a graded property that a referent has to the extent that the referent is being attended to by the addressee following Roberts and Barlew). This study thus supplies another argument for the hypothesis that salience is an important dimension to determiner semantics cross-linguistically.

Winged horses, rascals and discourse referents

Winged horses, rascals and discourse referents

On Realizing External Arguments: A Syntactic and Implicature Theory of the Disjointness Effect for Passives in Adult and Child Grammar

We present an account of why disjoint reference effects obtain in verbal but not in adjectival passives. Passives in child language are independently argued to always be adjectival, which allows us to use a natural experiment in child grammar that is not available in the adult grammar: predicting the lack of a disjoint reference effect in even those passives that prima facie seem verbal. We conduct our discussion against the background of the difference between adjectival and verbal passives in general. Our account is based on (grammatical) Implicature Theory. Since the initiator in the semantic representation of adjectival passives stays at a kind level, it cannot introduce a discourse referent, hence cannot trigger a disjointness implicature, unlike the initiator in verbal passives (Gehrke 2013, 2015). We show in two experiments that children’s passives do not exhibit disjoint reference, unlike adults’ verbal passives, even though children have no trouble computing disjointness implicatures elsewhere. Our contribution thus confirms with a novel kind of evidence the syntactic nature of young children’s difficulty with verbal passives. It offers a new perspective on the external argument difference between verbal and adjectival passives based on Reinhart’s (2016) Theta System, while also offering additional evidence for a grammatical, rather than general pragmatic, theory of implicatures.

Focus on demonstratives: Experiments in English and Turkish

This paper deals with an unexpected contrast between demonstrative descriptions and definite descriptions on their anaphoric uses. If two (or more) discourse referents are introduced in the preceding sentence, it is perfectly natural to refer to one of them in the following sentence using a definite description. Use of demonstrative descriptions in the same context, however, is degraded, with existing accounts of anaphoric demonstratives and definites providing no explanation for this contrast. We present experimental evidence from two languages, one with definite determiners (English) and one without (Turkish), and show that the acceptability of demonstratives depends independently both on (i) whether one or two NPs are introduced in the initial sentence, and (ii) whether the follow-up sentence introduces a new situation or not. We propose a focus-driven information structural approach to demonstratives to account for this pattern. Following Dayal & Jiang (2021) (building on Schwarz 2009) in assuming that definite and demonstrative expressions in anaphoric contexts are similar in including an anaphoric index argument, we argue that demonstratives essentially differ in evoking focus alternatives on the index argument.

Noun classifiers in Hong Kong Sign Language

Abstract As most other sign languages, Hong Kong Sign Language (HKSL) makes use of verbal classifiers for the purpose of spatial predication. However, a thorough study of the Asian SignBank shows that these same classifier handshapes occur in 76% of all HKSL nouns. In this paper, I argue that these classifier handshapes embedded in nouns are in fact noun classifiers. Under the framework of Distributed Morphology, classifier handshapes are underspecified roots in root compounds which can be assigned the nominal category when merged with a nominal functional head in syntax. The function of these classifiers is to identify, and categorize a discourse referent, and they are full-fledged classifiers according to standards set by the general linguistic literature on classifiers. In addition to verbal and noun classifiers, I also briefly show how HKSL uses mensural numeral classifiers to intervene between mass nouns and numerals within the NP. Taken together, this means that HKSL employs three different types of classifiers: verbal, noun, and numeral classifiers.

The Proof is in the Pudding

This paper presents FASTFOOD, a rule-based natural language generation (NLG) program for cooking recipes. We consider the representation of cooking recipes as discourse representation, because the meaning of each sentence needs to consider the context of the others. Our discourse representation system is based on states of affairs and transtions between states of affairs, and does not use discourse referents. Recipes are generated by using an automated theorem-proving procedure to select the ingredients and instructions, with ingredients corresponding to axioms and instructions to implications. FASTFOOD also contains a temporal optimization module which can rearrange the recipe to make it more time efficient for the user, e.g. the recipe specifies to chop the vegetables while the rice is boiling. The system is described in detail, including the decision to forgo discourse referents and how plausible representations of nouns and verbs emerge purely as a by-product of the practical requirements of efficiently representing recipe content. A comparison is then made with existing recipe generation systems, NLG systems more generally, and automated theorem provers.

Argument doubling with proper nouns in spoken Dutch

Abstract Argument doubling, also known as (contrastive) left-dislocation, is common in spoken Dutch, but it is unclear exactly what triggers it. Earlier proposals in the literature showed that the construction is not used for marking contrast, and suggested it is used for marking shifted topics instead. However, the results from a Spoken Dutch Corpus study on argument doubling with proper nouns demonstrate that topic-shift does not adequately characterize the construction’s function either. Further examination of our corpus data shows that at least for proper nouns, Dutch argument doubling mostly occurs when a new referent is introduced into the discourse, but that this referent does not necessarily become the topic of the discourse. We hypothesize that argument doubling is a way of giving speakers and/or hearers some extra time to establish and/or process the new discourse referent in the discourse, regardless of whether it will become a discourse-topic after its introduction.

Effect of evaluative expressions on two types of demonstrative pronouns in German

We propose a unified prominence-based account of the two paradigms of demonstrative pronouns in German: the die- and diese-paradigm. The two types of demonstrative pronouns have been shown to have similar referential preferences — avoiding the most prominent referent — but different language register and modality preferences — diese pronouns prefer formal language whereas die pronouns prefer informal language and the spoken modality. They also reveal different strengths in terms of referential shift and last-mentioned antecedent preference. We propose that the perspectival prominence-based account initially proposed by Hinterwimmer & Bosch (2016; 2017) for die pronouns can be extended to incorporate both demonstrative pronouns. Our extended proposal suggests that the perspectivally prominent discourse referent is the highest ranked element on the prominence scale only for die pronouns but not for diese pronouns, and that perspectival prominence can be modulated by evaluative expressions. For diese pronouns, on the other hand, the aboutness topic is the highest ranked discourse referent on the prominence scale and they are not influenced by evaluative expressions. We report two experiments to test our account. The experimental results largely support the predictions of the new unified account. 

Attention and Locality: On Clause-Boundedness and Its Exceptions in Multiple Sluicing

We provide an account of clause-boundedness in multiple sluicing that also captures its exceptions. Clause-boundedness arises whenever an embedded clause’s subject is not coreferential with a topical discourse referent in the embedding clause. Our account ties clause-boundedness to discourse factors. We discuss implementations that import sensitivity to information structure into the syntax, and compare our approach with recent work—in particular, Grano and Lasnik 2018 and “short source” accounts (most recently, Abels and Dayal 2017, 2021)—and demonstrate that these accounts both under- and overgenerate. The empirical coverage of our account argues against purely syntacticized agreement-based approaches to clause-boundedness.

List constructions in two signed languages

AbstractThis paper examines how signers make lists. One way is to use the fingers on the signer’s nondominant hand to enumerate items on a list. The signer points to these list-fingers with the dominant hand. Previous analyses considered lists to be nondominant, one-handed signs, and thus were called list buoys because the nondominant hand often remains in place during the production of the list. The pointing hand was largely ignored as a nonlinguistic gesture. We take a constructional approach based on Cognitive Grammar. In our approach, we analyze lists as a type of pointing construction consisting of two meaningful components: a pointing device (the pointing hand) used to direct attention; and a Place, also consisting of form and a meaning. Using data from Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) and Finland–Swedish Sign Language (FinSSL), we examine the semantic role of each component, showing how the nondominant list-fingers identify and track discourse referents, and how the pointing hand is used to create higher-order entities by grouping list-fingers. We also examine the integration of list constructions and their components with other conventional constructions.

Are preschool children sensitive to the function of accessibility markers? A visual world study with German-speaking three- to four-year-olds

Abstract Little is known about when children understand the function of anaphoric referring expressions to signal different degrees of accessibility of discourse referents. This visual world study investigates German-speaking three- to four-year-olds’ online processing and offline interpretation of repeated names and personal pronouns in a context where reference is made to highly accessible discourse referents. Repeated names are markers of low accessibility, whereas personal pronouns are preferentially used to refer to highly accessible referents. For online processing, results showed a significant effect of referring expression: children looked at the target picture more often after hearing a personal pronoun than after hearing repeated names. Offline results revealed no significant differences between the two conditions. We conclude that German-speaking preschool children are sensitive to the function of accessibility markers during online processing, and suggest that the difference between online and offline results may be due to the different task demands.

Scalar implicatures with discourse referents: a case study on plurality inferences

This paper explores the idea that scalar implicatures are computed with respect to discourse referents. Given the general consensus that a proper account of pronominal anaphora in natural language requires discourse referents separately from the truth-conditional meaning, it is naturally expected that the anaphoric information that discourse referents carry play a role in the computation of scalar implicatures, but the literature has so far mostly exclusively focused on the truth-conditional dimension of meaning. This paper offers a formal theory of scalar implicatures with discourse referents couched in dynamic semantics, and demonstrates its usefulness through a case study on the plurality inferences of plural nouns in English.

Equitable, sustainable and acceptable long-term care in Malawi? Unpacking the implied universalism of key terms in international ageing policy discourse

Indications of a care deficit for older adults in Africa and the need for long-term care that is acceptable for recipients and providers is well established, as are calls for its format to be ‘home-grown’. However, there is a discrepancy between the desire for evidenced African solutions, and the framing of both the problem and possible solutions derived from the Global North. This article draws on qualitative data from men and women needing and providing care in rural southern Malawi to challenge the implied universalism of the key terms of reference in the African long-term care discourse: ‘care’ and ‘family’.

Cognitive Status and Subject Reference in Spanish Written Discourse

Abstract Speakers make assumptions regarding the informativeness and saliency of referents in discourse and about their addressee’s cognitive status (memory and attention) regarding those referents. These assumptions, in turn, determine the forms (e.g., pronouns, NPs) speakers use when referring to entities. Gundel, Jeanette K., Nancy Hedberg & Ron Zacharski. 1993. Cognitive status and the form of referring expressions in discourse. Language 69(2). 274–307 proposed a set of implicationally related cognitive statuses in the Givenness Hierarchy that predict the forms speakers use to refer to entities in discourse. Greater levels of attention and memory predict the use of phonetically minimal referential forms and lesser levels predict more phonetically elaborate forms. Blackwell, Sarah E. & Margaret Lubbers Quesada. 2012. Third-person subjects in native speakers’ and L2 learners’ narratives: Testing (and revising) the Givenness Hierarchy for Spanish. In Kimberly Geeslin & Manuel Díaz-Campos (eds.), 14th Hispanic linguistics symposium, 142–164. Somerville: Cascadilla tested the predictive power of the Hierarchy for referring expressions in Spanish oral film-retell narratives. Results showed that speakers use the most minimal forms possible (e.g., null pronouns) even when the hierarchy predicts more elaborate forms. Assuming writers make fewer assumptions regarding readers’ level of attention and memory, the present study examines whether the revised Hierarchy proposed by Blackwell, Sarah E. & Margaret Lubbers Quesada. 2012. Third-person subjects in native speakers’ and L2 learners’ narratives: Testing (and revising) the Givenness Hierarchy for Spanish. In Kimberly Geeslin & Manuel Díaz-Campos (eds.), 14th Hispanic linguistics symposium, 142–164. Somerville: Cascadilla is valid for predicting referring forms in Spanish written film retell narrative discourse. The data corroborate that participants select subject forms as predicted, but also reveal an increased use of definite NPs, suggesting that the Hierarchy has a stronger predictive power for oral narratives where attention and memory play a greater role in referent identification.

Neurophysiological evidence for the first mention effect during pronominal reference resolution in German Sign Language

AbstractAnaphoric pronoun resolution in spoken language has been shown to be influenced by the first mention bias. While this bias has been well investigated in spoken languages, less is known about a similar bias in sign languages. In sign languages, pronominal pointing signs (index) are directed towards referential locations in the signing space typically associated with discourse referents. In German Sign Language (DGS), signers follow an ipsi-contralateral default pattern while tracking referents, i.e., the first referent is associated with the ipsilateral and the second referent with the contralateral area of the signing space. Hence, directing a pronoun to either the ipsi- or the contralateral side of the signing space refers to either the first or the second discourse referent. The present event-related potential study reanalyzes the data fromWienholz et al. (2018)and examines the first mention effect during pronoun resolution in ambiguous contexts in DGS. The original study presented participants with sentence sets containing two referents without overt localization in the first and a sentence-initial pronominalindexsign in the second sentence directed to either the ipsilateral or contralateral side of the signing space. Based on the direction of theindexsign, our analysis reveals an N400 for contralateralindexsigns suggesting increased processing costs triggered by a violation of the first mention effect. Thus, the current study provides first experimental evidence for a first mention effect in DGS and highlights the modality-independent nature of this effect.

Coreference Delays in Psychotic Discourse: Widening the Temporal Window.

Any form of coherent discourse depends on saying different things about the same entities at different times. Such recurrent references to the same entity need to predictably happen within certain temporal windows. We hypothesized that a failure of control over reference in speakers with schizophrenia (Sz) would become manifest through dynamic temporal measures. Conversational speech with a mean of 909.2 words (SD: 178.4) from 20 Chilean Spanish speakers with chronic Sz, 20 speakers at clinical high risk (CHR), and 20 controls were collected. Using directed speech graphs with referential noun phrases (NPs) as nodes, we studied deviances in the topology and temporal distribution of such NPs and of the entities they denote over narrative time. The Sz group had a larger density of NPs (number of NPs divided by total words) relative to both controls and CHR. This related to topological measures of distance between recurrent entities, which revealed that the Sz group produced more recurrences, as well as greater topological distances between them, relative to controls. A logistic regression using five topological measures showed that Sz and controls can be distinguished with 84.2% accuracy. This pattern indicates a widening of the temporal window in which entities are maintained in discourse and co-referenced in it. It substantiates and extends earlier evidence for deficits in the cognitive control over linguistic reference in psychotic discourse and informs both neurocognitive models of language in Sz and machine learning-based linguistic classifiers of psychotic speech.

LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATIVE MOVEMENT: DANCE, DISCOURSE REPRESENTATION, AND ILLOCUTIONS

This paper endeavors to open up the domain of narrative dance to formal semantico-pragmatic inquiry, taking case studies from Indian dance drama and classical Ballet. It thus posits narrative dance as a richly promising domain of research and analysis in its analogues to, and interfaces with, discourse based on language. The communicative intent of narrative dance – alongside its aesthetic-cultural semiosis – is typically directed at the audience’s (re)cognition of discourse referents and their actions in the dance space. It therefore lends itself to the scrutiny of Discourse Representation Theory or, more broadly, dynamic semantics, which are recognized frameworks for the formal linguistic analysis of narrative, and more rarely non-narrative, discourse. This intent in dance, however, differs from those of ordinary-language communications, in that it allows for creative play to convey shifting discourse-referent identities. Such creative play is brought into focus in the very different treatments of “stage” versus “individual”-level identities of the respective central characters within two case studies, viz., the (North-)Eastern Indian dance drama Chitrāngadā, on the one hand, and Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, on the other. While illocutions are conveyed through hand-gestures and (facial and corporeal) mime in these different traditions, they crucially play a complementary role in discourse representation as this latter pertains to narrative dance. The paper concludes by highlighting this mode of analysis as a means of achieving greater insight into viewers’ / connoisseurs’ responses to narrative and non-narrative dance subtypes as possible clues as to how meanings are construed out of these dance genres.

THE ROLE OF CLITIC DOUBLING IN THE INFORMATION STRUCTURE OF THE ALBANIAN LANGUAGE

This paper attempts to argue whether the repetition of the object or clitic doubling as a syntactic mechanism affects the encoding of the information structure in the Albanian language. In three previous studies by Kallulli (2000, 2008); Kapia (2010), it is reported that direct object clitic doubling is not an optional phenomenon in the Albanian language, that direct object clitic doubling systematically produces and encodes the information structure, and that clitic doubled objects are interpreted as topics. Thus, the object and the clitic have the status of topic in the sentence, as doubling occurs when the clitic refers to the already present discourse referent. That is, the NP is previously introduced in the discourse, thus becoming a specific referent available to be later selected via the doubling mechanism. In addition, according to them, when the object bears the topic feature, the direct object doubling is obligatory. Unlike Kallulli (2000, 2008) and Kapia (2010, 2012), Buchholz & Fiedler (1987) draw different conclusions, according to which the direct object clitic doubling in the Albanian language may be optional if the word order is canonical (SVO). This paper, on the other hand, aims at proving whether the object clitic doubling in our corpus marks the information structure by giving the feature [+ topic] or [-focus].