Frederiksen Anne Therese, Mayberry Rachel I
University of California, Irvine, Department of Language Science, Social Science Plaza B, Irvine 92697-5100, USA.
University of California, San Diego, Department of Linguistics, 9500 Gilman Drive, MC 0108, La Jolla, CA 92093-0108, USA.
Lang Cogn Neurosci. 2022;37(1):80-102. doi: 10.1080/23273798.2021.1968013. Epub 2021 Sep 28.
Spoken language research has investigated how pronouns are influenced by grammar and semantics/pragmatics. In contrast, sign language research has focused on unambiguous pronominal reference arising from spatial co-reference. However, understanding signed pronouns contributes to cross-linguistically valid models of pronoun production and comprehension. In two sentence-continuation experiments, the present study investigated how linguistic use of space (modality-specific), antecedent grammatical role and verb implicit causality bias (modality-independent) affect American Sign Language (ASL) pronouns. Production of pronouns was determined by antecedent grammatical role, and overt pronouns were marginally more frequent for referents articulated in specific areas of signing space compared to neutral space. Signers interpreted pronouns using spatial information and, notably, verb bias, despite spatial co-reference supposedly removing the ambiguity that verb bias resolves. These findings demonstrate that ASL pronouns are subject to modality-independent factors, despite their use of space, and lend support to models of pronominal reference positing a production/comprehension asymmetry.
口语研究探讨了代词如何受到语法以及语义/语用的影响。相比之下，手语研究聚焦于由空间共指产生的明确代词指代。然而，理解手语代词有助于构建跨语言有效的代词生成与理解模型。在两项句子续写实验中，本研究调查了空间的语言运用（特定模态）、先行词的语法角色以及动词隐含因果偏向（非模态相关）如何影响美国手语（ASL）代词。代词的生成由先行词的语法角色决定，与中性空间相比，在特定手语空间区域表达的指称对象使用显性代词的频率略高。手语使用者利用空间信息，尤其是动词偏向来解释代词，尽管空间共指本应消除动词偏向所解决的歧义。这些发现表明，美国手语代词尽管使用了空间，但仍受非模态相关因素的影响，并支持了代词指代模型中存在生成/理解不对称的观点。
