The interplay between syntax and pragmatics on pronoun resolution in Catalan

The aim of the present study is to disentangle the role of syntactic and pragmatic factors on pronominal subject anaphora resolution in a null subject language, Catalan. Through the manipulation of information structure, we assess how and to what extent the syntactic function (subject vs.object), th...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Rocafiguera Montanyà, Núria de, Bel, Aurora
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2025
País:España
Institución:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Repositorio:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
OAI Identifier:oai:recercat.cat:10230/72189
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10230/72189
http://dx.doi.org/10.16995/glossa.16989
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Anaphora resolution
Subject pronouns
Information structure
Subjecthood
Topicality
Null subject language
Null subject languages
id ES_461dfa7c2ff8ceb178cd879d2d9e4094
oai_identifier_str oai:recercat.cat:10230/72189
network_acronym_str ES
network_name_str España
repository_id_str
spelling The interplay between syntax and pragmatics on pronoun resolution in CatalanRocafiguera Montanyà, Núria deBel, AuroraAnaphora resolutionSubject pronounsInformation structureSubjecthoodTopicalityNull subject languageNull subject languagesThe aim of the present study is to disentangle the role of syntactic and pragmatic factors on pronominal subject anaphora resolution in a null subject language, Catalan. Through the manipulation of information structure, we assess how and to what extent the syntactic function (subject vs.object), the information status (focus vs.topic), and the sequential or hierarchic position of the antecedents (first vs.second position) in the main clause guide the interpretation of ambiguous null and overt subject pronouns in the subordinate clause. The results of a two-alternative forced-choice task reveal a different sensitivity of null and overt pronouns to syntactic and pragmatic cues, in line with multifactorial and form-specific approaches, and no overriding factor is identified. Null pronouns appear highly sensitive to both the syntactic function and the information status of their antecedent, preferring both subjects and topics and not showing a specialization when these syntactic and pragmatic features are misaligned. The interpretation of overt pronouns, on the other hand, is mainly guided by the syntactic function and hierarchical position of the antecedent, preferring coreference with objects and second-mentioned, hierarchically lower positions. Different from null pronouns, overt pronouns appear less sensitive to the information status of their antecedent-showing that they can be interpreted as pragmatically 'inert'.This research was supported by a predoctoral grant (2018FI_B_00959) from the Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca (AGAUR) as well as the FFI2016-75082-P project awarded by the Spanish Ministry of Innovation and Science and the Spanish Ministry of Universities.Open Library of Humanities2026202620252026info:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionapplication/pdfapplication/pdfhttps://hdl.handle.net/10230/72189http://dx.doi.org/10.16995/glossa.16989reponame:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunyainstname:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)InglésGlossa: a Journal of General Linguistics. 2025;10(1):1-37info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/1PE/FFI2016-75082-PGlossa: a journal of general linguistics is a peer-reviewed open access journal published by the Open Library of Humanities. © 2025 The Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:recercat.cat:10230/721892026-05-29T05:05:01Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv The interplay between syntax and pragmatics on pronoun resolution in Catalan
title The interplay between syntax and pragmatics on pronoun resolution in Catalan
spellingShingle The interplay between syntax and pragmatics on pronoun resolution in Catalan
Rocafiguera Montanyà, Núria de
Anaphora resolution
Subject pronouns
Information structure
Subjecthood
Topicality
Null subject language
Null subject languages
title_short The interplay between syntax and pragmatics on pronoun resolution in Catalan
title_full The interplay between syntax and pragmatics on pronoun resolution in Catalan
title_fullStr The interplay between syntax and pragmatics on pronoun resolution in Catalan
title_full_unstemmed The interplay between syntax and pragmatics on pronoun resolution in Catalan
title_sort The interplay between syntax and pragmatics on pronoun resolution in Catalan
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Rocafiguera Montanyà, Núria de
Bel, Aurora
author Rocafiguera Montanyà, Núria de
author_facet Rocafiguera Montanyà, Núria de
Bel, Aurora
author_role author
author2 Bel, Aurora
author2_role author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Anaphora resolution
Subject pronouns
Information structure
Subjecthood
Topicality
Null subject language
Null subject languages
topic Anaphora resolution
Subject pronouns
Information structure
Subjecthood
Topicality
Null subject language
Null subject languages
description The aim of the present study is to disentangle the role of syntactic and pragmatic factors on pronominal subject anaphora resolution in a null subject language, Catalan. Through the manipulation of information structure, we assess how and to what extent the syntactic function (subject vs.object), the information status (focus vs.topic), and the sequential or hierarchic position of the antecedents (first vs.second position) in the main clause guide the interpretation of ambiguous null and overt subject pronouns in the subordinate clause. The results of a two-alternative forced-choice task reveal a different sensitivity of null and overt pronouns to syntactic and pragmatic cues, in line with multifactorial and form-specific approaches, and no overriding factor is identified. Null pronouns appear highly sensitive to both the syntactic function and the information status of their antecedent, preferring both subjects and topics and not showing a specialization when these syntactic and pragmatic features are misaligned. The interpretation of overt pronouns, on the other hand, is mainly guided by the syntactic function and hierarchical position of the antecedent, preferring coreference with objects and second-mentioned, hierarchically lower positions. Different from null pronouns, overt pronouns appear less sensitive to the information status of their antecedent-showing that they can be interpreted as pragmatically 'inert'.
publishDate 2025
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2025
2026
2026
2026
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
format article
status_str publishedVersion
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv https://hdl.handle.net/10230/72189
http://dx.doi.org/10.16995/glossa.16989
url https://hdl.handle.net/10230/72189
http://dx.doi.org/10.16995/glossa.16989
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv Glossa: a Journal of General Linguistics. 2025;10(1):1-37
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/1PE/FFI2016-75082-P
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
application/pdf
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Open Library of Humanities
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Open Library of Humanities
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
instname:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
instname_str Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
reponame_str Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
collection Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
_version_ 1869407207082164224
score 15,81155

Similares en LA Referencia