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Proceedings of the 2004 Texas Linguistics Society Conference: Issues at the Semantics-Pragmatics Interface edited by Pascal Denis, Eric McCready, Alexis Palmer, and Brian Reese ISBN 1-57473-417-2 library binding v+159 pages publication date: 2006 published by Cascadilla Proceedings Project, Somerville, MA, USA Table of contents Abstract Micah B. Goldwater and Jeffrey T. Runner Coreferential Interpretations of Reflexives in Picture Noun Phrases: An Experimental Approach 28-34 (complete pdf) The research presented in this paper tests the claim experimentally that reflexives in picture NPs such as a picture of himself can be interpreted as both bound variable and coreferential anaphora. Participants listened to sentences describing the scene in front of them and were asked to indicate whether the sentence accurately described the scene by pressing a "yes" or "no" button. The experimental sentences contained picture NP reflexives and the scenes supported either a bound variable interpretation or a coreferential interpretation, or both, or neither. Their "yes"/"no" responses and response latencies were recorded. The results suggest that listeners do interpret picture NP reflexives both as bound variables and as coreferential anaphora, supporting the view of Binding Theory advocated by researchers such as Pollard and Sag (1992), Reinhart and Reuland (1993), and Grodzinsky and Reinhart (1993), who argue for dividing English reflexives into two classes: true structural reflexives and BT-exempt, or logophoric, reflexives. |