整体语境和局部语境对代词理解的影响

The Role of Global and Local Contexts in Pronoun Comprehension

通过眼动实验，考察了语篇理解中整体语境和局部语境对代词理解的影响。实验一是预备实验，发现名词与动词词组之间关系的典型性不同，整合的速度也不一样。实验二发现，代词的理解不是一次完成的，代词理解的初期受整体语境的语义偏向影响，而不受局部语境的影响。在第二阶段主要受到局部语境的影响。代词的理解过程比较符合Cook（2004）所提出的两阶段模型。

In discourse comprehension， the global and local contexts may influence the processing of words. Kintsch (1988) and Garrod et al. (2000) proposed two-stage models. They assumed that the local context influenced the processing of words at an early stage， whereas the global context played its role at the later stage of integration. Cook (2004) assumed that in the first stage of processing， a link could occur between the focal concept and the local or global contexts， depending on which one was reactivated more quickly. In the second stage， the link formed in the first stage was verified. Hess et al. (1995) suggested that the global and not the local context influenced the processing of words.When a pronoun appears in a discourse in which there are more than two antecedents， its comprehension may be influenced by the local and global contexts. Some studies (Garvey et al.， 1974; Grober et al.， 1978; Hirst et al.， 1980; Miao Xiaochun et al.， 1995， 1996a， 1996b) demonstrated that both the local and global contexts influenced pronoun comprehension. This paper explored the effects of the local and global contexts on pronoun comprehension and their relationship.Forty-six paid subjects participated in the study (18 and 24 in experiments 1 and 2， respectively). Twenty-four complex sentences were compiled， each of which contained a noun and a verbal phrase. The relationship between the noun and verbal phrases was typical or atypical. Twenty-four corresponding discourses， in which the 24 complex sentences were embedded， were then compiled， and the nouns were replaced by pronouns. Each discourse had a phrase as the local context. The global and local contexts were consistent or inconsistent with the verbal phrases. The materials were presented visually to the subjects， and they were requested to read the materials. Eye movements were recorded using a video-based eye tracker.A typicality effect was obtained in experiment 1. The results of the reading time for the interest areas suggested that the nouns wereintegrated with their typical actions more quickly than those they were integrated with their atypical actions. In experiment 2， the results of the first-run dwell time for the interest areas suggested that the global and not the local contexts produced major effects. The results of the second-run dwell time for the interest areas suggested that both the global and local contexts produced marginal major effects.The results suggested that the global contexts and not the local contexts influenced pronoun comprehension at the early stage， while the local contexts influenced it at the later stage.