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Discourse Anaphora and Anaphor Resolution Colloquium

DAARC 2009: Anaphora Processing and Applications pp 91–106Cite as

Definiteness Marking Shows Late Effects during Discourse Processing: Evidence from ERPs

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 5847))

Abstract

This paper investigates the processing of indefinite and definite noun phrases in discourse. It presents data from an Event-Related brain Potential (ERP) study that contrasted definite and indefinite noun phrases following three distinct context sentences. The data suggest that coherence considerations influence early processing stages, while morphological definiteness features only affect later stages during reference resolution. In addition, the processing of a definite determiner (prior to encountering the subsequent noun) exerts processing demands, supporting the functional contribution of definiteness marking. Supplementary data from a plausibility questionnaire and two completion studies are also presented. The findings are discussed with respect to a neurocognitive model of reference resolution.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of English and Linguistics, University of Mainz, Jakob-Welder-Weg 18, 55099, Mainz, Germany

    Petra B. Schumacher

Authors
  1. Petra B. Schumacher
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. AU-KBC Research Centre, MIT Campus of Anna University, Chromepet, Pin 600044, Chennai, India

    Sobha Lalitha Devi

  2. Faculdade de Ciências de Lisboa , , Departamento de Informática, Cidade Universitária, 1749-016, Lisboa, Portugal

    António Branco

  3. Chair of Computational Linguistics and Language Engineering, School of Humanities, Languages and Social Studies, University of Wolverhampton, WV1 1SB, Wolverhampton, United Kingdom

    Ruslan Mitkov

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© 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Schumacher, P.B. (2009). Definiteness Marking Shows Late Effects during Discourse Processing: Evidence from ERPs. In: Lalitha Devi, S., Branco, A., Mitkov, R. (eds) Anaphora Processing and Applications. DAARC 2009. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 5847. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-04975-0_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-04975-0_8

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-04974-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-04975-0

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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