Referential Predictability and Topicality Diverge in Implicit Causality
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2019
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Swarthmore College. Dept. of Linguistics
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en
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Abstract
Intuitively, two important discourse properties of referents, referential predictability and
topicality, seem to be related; given that a referent is topical, we expect it to be re-mentioned
in the following discourse, On the contrary, the relationship between predictability and topicality
is highly debated in current theories on pronoun comprehension and pronoun production,
Some studies suggest that discourse topics are predictable, even in part defined by
being predictable (Arnold, 2010; Giv6n, 1983; Prince, 1981), Other research assumes that
predictability and topicality are distinct and have separate influences on pronoun interpretation
and production (Fukumura & Van Gompel, 2010; Rohde & Kehler, 2014), Much of
this work is done involving implicit causality, a phenomenon of pronoun interpretation and
re-mention biases towards the referent causally implicated in the event (Garvey & Caramazza,
1974; Kehler et at, , 2008), The current study uses implicit causality stories to
investigate the relatedness of referential predictability and topicality, We ask three main
questions, How is topic status identified in implicit causality contexts? Do contextual factors
known to affect judgments of predictability also affect judgments of topicality? Do
participants judge the referent chosen as topical to also be predictable? We find that referential
predictability and topicality are influenced by different factors; topicality is mostly
determined by subjecthood, while predictablity is affected by subjecthood and contextual
factors, Overall, topicality and predictability judgments do not pattern together, which
suggests that they are distinct properties, at least for the implicit causality context.