{"pk":23987,"title":"Encoding discourse structure information during language comprehension: Evidence from web-based visual world paradigm experiments","subtitle":null,"abstract":"This study explores the way discourse structure information is used during encoding of linguistic representations, using the distinction between main and subordinate information as a case study. We use the two contrasting constructions: (a) “The singers\\textsubscript{MAIN} who admired the violinists\\textsubscript{MAIN} invited their mentors to the party”; (b) “The singers\\textsubscript{MAIN}, who admired the violinists\\textsubscript{SUBORDINATE}, invited their mentors to the party.” While both contain discourse-main information, (b) includes discourse-subordinate information in the clause ``who admired \\textit{the violinists}.” Importantly, \\textit{the singers} and \\textit{the violinists} are both plausible antecedents for \\textit{their}, but the overlap in discourse-information between the two NPs differs: (a) overlap ({MAIN, MAIN}); (b) no overlap ({MAIN, SUBORDINATE}). Through two web-based eye-tracking experiments using a visual world paradigm, we find that this overlap leads to competition between the two NPs, evidenced by eye-gaze differences, (a) < (b). We also find that this effect manifests early, even before retrieval, i.e., before pronoun resolution.","language":"eng","license":{"name":"","short_name":"","text":null,"url":""},"keywords":[{"word":"Linguistics; Psychology; Discourse; Language understanding; Eye tracking"}],"section":"Papers with Poster Presentation","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3m93r04n","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Sanghee","middle_name":"J.","last_name":"Kim","name_suffix":"","institution":"University of Chicago","department":""},{"first_name":"Ming","middle_name":"","last_name":"Xiang","name_suffix":"","institution":"University of Chicago","department":""}],"date_submitted":null,"date_accepted":null,"date_published":"2024-01-01T13:00:00-05:00","render_galley":null,"galleys":[{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cognitivesciencesociety/article/23987/galley/13581/download/"},{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cognitivesciencesociety/article/23987/galley/21133/download/"}]}