Linguistics and English Language

Meaning and grammar seminar

Speaker: Petra Hendriks (Center for Language and Cognition Groningen (CLCG), University of Groningen)

Title: Pronoun interpretation between grammar and discourse

Abstract: A well-known delay in children’s acquisition of pronouns is the Delay of Principle B Effect. This term refers to the situation that children until age 6 learning a language such as English or Dutch allow object pronouns to refer to the local subject referent, thus seeming to violate Principle B of Binding Theory. Several studies have shown that the Delay of Principle B Effect is influenced by discourse prominence and may largely disappear in particular discourse contexts (e.g., Conroy et al., 2009; Spenader et al., 2009). In this talk I will present eyetracking data showing that Dutch adults’ online processing is influenced by discourse prominence in the same way as Dutch children’s (van Rij et al., 2016), and discuss the implications of this for accounts of the Delay of Principle B Effect. In addition, I will present data from a parallel study with German adults (carried out in collaboration with Esther Ruigendijk and her group), and consider whether the absence of discourse prominence effects in German adults’ processing may explain why there is no Delay of Principle B Effect in German.

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Seminars are organised by the meaning and grammar research group.

Meaning and grammar research group

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Mar 15 2022 -

Meaning and grammar seminar

2022-03-15: Pronoun interpretation between grammar and discourse

Room S38, Psychology Building, 7 George Square, Edinburgh, EH8 9JZ