Differential effects of constraints in the processing

of Russian cataphora

Kazanina and Phillips 2010

Introduction

Anaphoric relations between pronouns and their antecedentsAnaphoric expressions:•pronouns (e.g., she, him, their) •reflexives (e.g., herself, yourself )

Backwards anaphora (or cataphora) - a type of pronominal dependency in which a pronoun linearly precedes its antecedent.

•When she enters the classroom, Zoe sits down at the art table

Anaphoric relations between pronouns and their antecedents

•Online interpretation of backwards anaphora must proceed differently from

the resolution of forwards anaphora

•How do grammatical constraints impact the search for antecedents for pronouns

in backward anaphora cases?

Johni thinks that Billk resents him

•Constraints prevent the generation of grammatically inaccessible candidate antecedents

•Both candidates are initially considered, but one is subsequently filtered out

•Grammatically inaccessible antecedents are blocked from consideration at an initial stage, but may be reconsidered at a later stage.

Gender mismatched effect

When she was at the party, the boy danced with the girl. When she was at the party, the girl danced with the boy.

• Comprehenders attempt to link a cataphoric pronoun (she) to a potential antecedent (the girl/boy) before they have confirmed that the expression is compatible with the pronoun in gender slower reading time in case of gender mismatched effect

Russian-specific constraint on backwards anaphora• In poka-sentences an agentive pronoun subject

of an embedded clause cannot corefer with an agentive main clause subject.

*Poka oni cˇital knigu, Ivani s”el jabloko. (while he read book Ivan ate apple)

• Note(!) that the poka-constraint does not block coreference in sentences in which the embedded clause expresses a habitual or a generic event.

Russian-specific constraint on backwards anaphora

Predictions

No-constraint

•Russian speakers should actively construct a cataphoric dependency possible mismatch effect

While she was working two jobs to pay the bills, Kathryn/Russel was taking classes full time.

After he read the book, Ivan/Jane ate the apple

Principle C

•Russian speakers should avoid predicting an antecedent in grammatically illicit positions.

•*He read a book while Ivan ate an apple.

Poka-constraint

•Predictions vary depending on the way in which the constraint is implemented online (if the referent of the subjective is agentive or not)

While he read the book…• Ivan ate an apple (*)• Ivan remembered that he forgot to buy

some bread ( )

Experiments

Materials and design

Experiment 1A•33 native Russian speakers•Offline acceptability rating task (pen and

paper questionnaire)

Although Irina was never going to become a ballerina, the high praise from Ekaterina

flattered her and was very pleasant. Can the pronoun in bold and the noun in

bold refer to the same person? (assessed on a scale 1(impossible) to 5(absolutely natural)

Experiment 1A (Results)

Experiment 1B

•48 native Russian speakers•Self-paced reading experiment

Experiment 1B (Comprehension questions accuracy results)

Experiment 1B (Reading time results)

Experiment 1B (Reading time results)

Experiment 1B (Reading time results)

Experiment 2

•24 native Russian speakers•Pencil-and-paper questionnaire

Experiment 2 (Results)

Discussion/Summary

Points for discussion

•The existence of the gender mismatch effect implies that the parser is not hesitant in forming cataphoric dependencies.

In order to be disrupted upon recognizing that a noun phrase in the input is gender incongruent, the parser must have initiated dependency formation prior to that moment.

Lack of effect signifies that noun phrase was not considered a possible antecedent

VS

Points for discussion

•Dependency formation may be initiated as soon as a cataphoric pronoun is encountered and before a candidate antecedent appears in the input.

…Pronoun………………………………….Noun…

..

1 2 3

dependency

Prediction about number, gender, etc.

confirmation

rejection

Summary

•Principle C acts as a block to the generation of coreference dependencies (prevent grammatically inaccessible antecedents from ever being considered)

•The poka-constraint acts as a filter on dependencies that are initially considered (temporarily considered interpretations).

Summary

Why the two constraints should impact parsing so differently?

•Principle C applies to syntactic configurations

•(parser makes an identification before receiving any bottom-up information)

•The poka-constraint invokes discourse representations (the thematic role of the subject should be confirmed before identification takes place)

Thank you for attention!