Processing of Anaphoric Nouns in Extended Texts: The Role of Surface Information

Abstract

Four experiments were conducted to determine the role played by surface information in the interpretation of repeated noun anaphors. The experiments examined priming effects from repeated noun anaphors to probe words, where a complex conceptual relationship existed between anaphor and probe. The probe referred to the end-point of a process which had changed the state of the original referent of the noun anaphor (for example, a car was introduced early in the text, it was subsequently crushed into a package of metal, the word car occurred as an anaphoric expression, and the word PACKAGE was presented as the probe). Such effects on probe responses that were obtained were inhibitory in nature, and were interpreted as due to the focussing effect of the anaphor at the conceptual level of representation. There was also evidence that the surface level representation of the text played a role in mediating access to the conceptual level, since inhibition of probe responses was only obtained when the antecedent of the repeated noun anaphor appeared in that part of the surface form which expressed the change of state.