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Article published In:
Review of Cognitive Linguistics
Vol. 15:1 (2017) ► pp.34–57

On the online effects of subjectivity encoded in causal connectives

| Beijing International Studies University
| Utrecht University
| Utrecht University
| Utrecht University

Causal relations between sentences differ in terms of subjectivity: they can be objective (based on facts) or subjective (based on reasoning). Subjective relations lead to longer reading times than objective relations. Causal connectives differ in the degree to which they encode this subjectivity. The Chinese connectives kejian ‘so’ and yin’er ‘so’ specify a high and low degree of subjectivity, respectively, whereas suoyi ‘so’ is underspecified for subjectivity. In an eye-tracking experiment we compare the effect of the specificity of these connectives in subjective and objective relations. In objective relations, the specificity of the connective has no effect on reading times. In subjective relations, reading times are shorter in sentences with the specified connective kejian than in sentences with the underspecified connective suoyi. These results suggest that readers prefer to interpret a relation as objective. Computing subjective relations requires extra processing time, which is diminished when the connective encodes the subjectivity.

Keywords: causal connectives, subjectivity, discourse processing, eye-tracking
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Causal coherence relations and subjectivity
    • 1.2Causal connectives and subjectivity in discourse processing
  • 2.Current study: Connective selection and hypotheses
    • 2.1Kejian, suoyi, and yin’er
    • 2.2Hypotheses
  • 3.Method
    • 3.1Participants
    • 3.2Materials and design
      • Preparing test items
      • The selection of test items
      • Creating the stimuli
    • 3.3Procedure
    • 3.4Critical regions and measures
  • 4.Analysis and results
    • 4.1First-pass reading
    • 4.2Total fixation duration
  • 5.Discussion
  • Notes
  • References


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Published online: 4 September 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/rcl.15.1.02li
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