Local anaphor licensing in an SOV language: implications for retrieval strategies

Area of Science:

• Psycholinguistics
• Computational Linguistics
• Cognitive Science

Background:

• Local antecedent retrieval for anaphors is governed by morphological and syntactic constraints.
• Previous research suggests syntactic cues may be prioritized over morphological cues in antecedent retrieval.
• Potential confounds in prior studies, like anaphor position, might obscure morphological interference.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether pre-verbal anaphors in Hindi are subject to morphological interference.
• To determine if anaphor position influences the visibility of morphological interference.
• To test theories of cue selection in anaphor resolution.

Main Methods:

• Computational simulations using the ACT-R parser.
• A self-paced reading study in Hindi, an SOV language.
• Examining the processing of unlicensed reciprocals with and without feature-matching distractors.

Main Results:

• Computational models predicted facilitation of unlicensed reciprocals with distractors if morphological cues were used.
• The self-paced reading study found no evidence that distractors eased processing of unlicensed reciprocals.
• A distractor increased processing difficulty following the reciprocal.

Conclusions:

• The results do not support the hypothesis that morphological cues are prioritized in local antecedent retrieval.
• Anaphor position does not appear to resolve the discrepancy between syntactic and morphological cue usage.
• Further research is needed to fully understand cue selection mechanisms in anaphor resolution.