Sat, 05 Jul 2008 05:33:58 BST CiteULike: briordan's library [816 articles] http://www.citeulike.org/user/briordan/article/2286583 CiteULike.org en-gb Copyright © 2004-2008 citeulike.org http://www.citeulike.org/user/briordan/article/2286583 <i>Language and Cognitive Processes, Vol. 23, No. 2. (2008), pp. 1-14.</i><br /><br />Research has shown that the comprehension of definite referring expressions (e.g., <i>the triangle</i>) tends to be faster for <b>given</b> (previously mentioned) referents, compared with new referents. This has been attributed to the presence of given information in the consciousness of discourse participants (e.g., Chafe, 1994) suggesting that given is always more accessible. By contrast, we find a bias toward new referents during the on-line comprehension of the direct object in heavy-NP-shifted word orders, e.g., <i>Put on the star the</i>. … This order tends to be used for new direct objects; canonical unshifted orders are more common with given direct objects. Thus, word order provides probabilistic information about the givenness or newness of the direct object. Results from eyetracking and gating experiments show that the traditional given bias only occurs with unshifted orders; with heavy-NP-shifted orders, comprehenders expect the object to be new, and comprehension for new referents is facilitated. Put in last position something previously unmentioned: Word order effects on referential expectancy and reference comprehension Jennifer Arnold Shin-Yi Lao doi:10.1080/01690960701536805 Language and Cognitive Processes, Vol. 23, No. 2. (2008), pp. 1-14. 2008-01-25T01:45:42-00:00 2008 Language and Cognitive Processes 23 2 1 14 Psychology Press eye-movements visual-world-paradigm