Incremental discourse processing

How coherence relations influence the resolution of pronouns

Willem M. Mak | Utrecht University

Ted J.M. Sanders | Utrecht University

The importance of the discourse level for the study of language and linguistics can hardly be overestimated. The study of text and discourse has become an increasingly important area over the last decades, both in linguistics and in psychology. In this paper we report on experiments which add to our understanding of a crucial process in discourse interpretation: the way in which the integration of clauses takes place. It shows that the position at which the integration takes place depends on the particular coherence relation that holds between sentences. The results once again emphasize the special status of causal relations in discourse processing and representation.

Published online: 13 January 2010
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.150.07mak

Cited by

Cited by 8 other publications

Koornneef, Arnout W. & Ted J. M. Sanders

2013. Establishing coherence relations in discourse: The influence of implicit causality and connectives on pronoun resolution. Language and Cognitive Processes 28:8 ► pp. 1169 ff.

Kuehnast, Milena & Eva Meier

2019. Implicit causality of action verbs at the interface between conceptual structure and discourse coherence relations. Questions and Answers in Linguistics 5:1 ► pp. 11 ff.

Mak, Willem M. & Ted J. M. Sanders

2013. The role of causality in discourse processing: Effects of expectation and coherence relations. Language and Cognitive Processes 28:9 ► pp. 1414 ff.

Mak, Willem M., Elena Tribushinina & Elizaveta Andreiushina

2013. Semantics of Connectives Guides Referential Expectations in Discourse: An Eye-Tracking Study of Dutch and Russian. Discourse Processes 50:8 ► pp. 557 ff.

Mulder, Gerben & Ted J. M. Sanders

2012. Causal Coherence Relations and Levels of Discourse Representation. Discourse Processes 49:6 ► pp. 501 ff.

Xu, Xiaodong, Meizhu Pan, Haoyun Dai, Hui Zhang & Yiyi Lu

2019. How referential uncertainty is modulated by conjunctions: ERP evidence from advanced Chinese–English L2 learners and English L1 speakers. Second Language Research 35:2 ► pp. 195 ff.

Zufferey, Sandrine & Pascal M. Gygax

2016. The Role of Perspective Shifts for Processing and Translating Discourse Relations. Discourse Processes 53:7 ► pp. 532 ff.

Zufferey, Sandrine, Willem Mak, Liesbeth Degand & Ted Sanders

2015. Advanced learners’ comprehension of discourse connectives: The role of L1 transfer across on-line and off-line tasks. Second Language Research 31:3 ► pp. 389 ff.

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