Fernandes Eunice G, Luegi Paula, Correa Soares Eduardo, de la Fuente Israel, Hemforth Barbara
Laboratory of Formal Linguistics, Paris Diderot University.
Center of Linguistics, University of Lisbon.
J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 2018 Dec;44(12):1986-2008. doi: 10.1037/xlm0000569. Epub 2018 Apr 26.
Previous research accounting for pronoun resolution as a problem of probabilistic inference has not explored the phenomenon of adaptation, whereby the processor constantly tracks and adapts, rationally, to changes in a statistical environment. We investigate whether Brazilian (BP) and European Portuguese (EP) speakers adapt to variations in the probability of occurrence of ambiguous overt and null pronouns, in two experiments assessing resolution toward subject and object referents. For each variety (BP, EP), participants were faced with either the same number of null and overt pronouns (equal distribution), or with an environment with fewer overt (than null) pronouns (unequal distribution). We find that the preference for interpreting overt pronouns as referring back to an object referent (object-biased interpretation) is higher when there are fewer overt pronouns (i.e., in the unequal, relative to the equal distribution condition). This is especially the case for BP, a variety with higher prior frequency and smaller object-biased interpretation of overt pronouns, suggesting that participants adapted incrementally and integrated prior statistical knowledge with the knowledge obtained in the experiment. We hypothesize that comprehenders adapted rationally, with the goal of maintaining, across variations in pronoun probability, the likelihood of subject and object referents. Our findings unify insights from research in pronoun resolution and in adaptation, and add to previous studies in both topics: They provide evidence for the influence of pronoun probability in pronoun resolution, and for an adaptation process whereby the language processor not only tracks statistical information, but uses it to make interpretational inferences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).
先前将代词消解视为概率推理问题的研究尚未探讨适应性现象，即处理器会持续且合理地跟踪并适应统计环境中的变化。我们通过两项评估对主语和宾语所指消解情况的实验，研究巴西葡萄牙语（BP）和欧洲葡萄牙语（EP）使用者是否会适应歧义性显性和隐性代词出现概率的变化。对于每种变体（BP、EP），参与者面对的要么是显性和隐性代词数量相同的情况（均等分布），要么是显性代词数量少于隐性代词数量的情况（不均等分布）。我们发现，当显性代词数量较少时（即与均等分布条件相比，处于不均等分布时），将显性代词解释为指代宾语所指的偏好（宾语偏向性解释）更高。对于BP这种变体而言尤其如此，它具有较高的先验频率，且对显性代词的宾语偏向性解释较小，这表明参与者逐步进行了适应，并将先前的统计知识与实验中获得的知识相结合。我们假设理解者进行了合理的适应，目的是在代词概率变化的情况下，保持主语和宾语所指的可能性。我们的研究结果统一了代词消解研究和适应性研究的见解，并为这两个主题的先前研究增添了内容：它们为代词概率在代词消解中的影响提供了证据，也为一种适应过程提供了证据，即语言处理器不仅跟踪统计信息，还利用它进行解释性推理。（PsycINFO数据库记录（c）2018美国心理学会，保留所有权利）
