Cowles, H Wind and Garnham, Alan (2005) Antecedent focus and conceptual distance effects in category noun-phrase anaphora. Language and Cognitive Processes, 20 (6). pp. 725-750. ISSN 0169-0965

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Abstract

Previous work has shown that category noun-phrase anaphors (e.g. bird) are read faster when they refer to typical antecedents (e.g. robin) compared to atypical ones (e.g. goose) (Garrod & Sanford, 1977). However, when the antecedent is in a syntactic cleft, there is an inverse effect of typicality (Almor, 1999). We further examined this inverse effect in two self-paced reading time studies. The results of Experiment 1 extend the inverse typicality effect to a more general effect of conceptual distance by showing faster reading times to an anaphor (e.g. vehicle) when its antecedent is clefted and more conceptually distant in a category hierarchy (e.g. hatchback) than when it is closer (e.g. car). Experiment 2 examines whether it is cleft or focus status that causes inverse conceptual distance effects and finds that inverse effects are not confined to cleft constructions, but are also present when the antecedent is in grammatical subject position.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Senior author. Cowles was Garnham's research fellow.
Schools and Departments:	School of Psychology > Psychology
Depositing User:	Alan Garnham
Date Deposited:	06 Feb 2012 15:44
Last Modified:	15 Mar 2012 09:32
URI:	http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/14187

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