ERIC Number: ED647620
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2022
Pages: 104
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: 979-8-8417-4173-2
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
The Effect of Multi-Structure Contexts on Pronoun Comprehension
Elyce Dominique Johnson
ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The current study tests the hypothesis that language comprehension is, in part, influenced by language exposure, and the biases that people develop are related to the frequency of exposure to different linguistic input, like, for instance, pronoun coreference. As comprehenders filter the linguistic input they encounter, we ask, what is the impact of encountering different kinds of input on the representations that comprehenders form? We test this question by examining comprehenders' ambiguous pronoun comprehension. Using an adaptation paradigm (Johnson and Arnold, 2022), we manipulated the kind of pronoun coreference structure (nonsubject or subject) to which participants were exposed, and critically, we manipulated the distribution. In experiment 1a, participants were exposed to a distribution that was uniform (100% subject or nonsubject exposure) and in experiments 1b (75% subject or nonsubject and 25% opposite referential exposure items), 2a (75% subject or nonsubject and 25% one referent items), and 2b (75% subject or nonsubject and 25% uninformative items), participants were exposed to a distribution that was mixed. We tested if the amount of exposure (100% vs. 75%) affected pronoun comprehension and whether the other 25% of items in the distribution would compete with the most frequent structures and affect learning. Results demonstrated that comprehenders learned the most frequent pattern across all distribution types. We did not find any competition effects. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]
Descriptors: Linguistic Theory, Form Classes (Languages), Language Processing, Ambiguity (Semantics), Learning Experience, Language Usage, Linguistic Input, Hypothesis Testing, Context Effect, Learning Processes
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Publication Type: Dissertations/Theses - Doctoral Dissertations
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: National Science Foundation (NSF)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: 1917840
Author Affiliations: N/A