Contemori Carla, Dussias Paola E
Department of Languages and Linguistics, University of Texas, El Paso, TX, USA.
Department of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese, Pennsylvania State University, Pennsylvania, PA, USA.
Lang Cogn Neurosci. 2016;31(10):1257-1272. doi: 10.1080/23273798.2016.1220604. Epub 2016 Aug 19.
One central question in research on spoken language communication concerns how speakers decide how explicit to make a referential expression. In the present paper, we address the debate between a discourse-based approach and a listener-based approach to the choice of referring expressions by testing second language (L2) learners of English on the production of English referential expressions, and comparing their performance to a group of monolingual speakers of English. In two experiments, we found that when native speakers of English use full noun phrases, the L2 speakers tend to choose a pronoun, even when the use of a pronoun leads to ambiguity. Our results show that the pattern observed is not the result of cross-linguistic interference from the L1. Furthermore, a clear dissociation is found between calculating the discourse information and taking the listener's perspective into account, supporting a listener's based approach to the choice of referring expressions.
口语交流研究中的一个核心问题是，说话者如何决定指代表达要明确到何种程度。在本文中，我们通过测试英语第二语言（L2）学习者生成英语指代表达的情况，并将他们的表现与一组以英语为母语的人进行比较，来探讨在指代表达选择上基于话语的方法和基于听众的方法之间的争论。在两个实验中，我们发现，当以英语为母语的人使用完整的名词短语时，即使使用代词会导致歧义，L2学习者也倾向于选择代词。我们的结果表明，观察到的模式不是第一语言（L1）的跨语言干扰造成的。此外，在计算话语信息和考虑听众视角之间发现了明显的分离，这支持了基于听众的指代表达选择方法。
