ABSTRACT

In formulating a referring expression, speakers may choose between an explicit expression (such as a proper name or a noun phrase) or a reduced form such as a pronoun. We investigated whether speakers are influenced by their conversation partners to produce full noun phrases instead of pronouns and whether this differs depending on whether their partner was a native or a nonnative English speaker. Participants took turns describing and matching cartoons with a (confederate) partner, who used either full noun phrases or pronouns when referring to discourse entities. We found that participants were more explicit or less explicit in their own referring expressions depending on their partner’s behavior on the turn before and adapted to the same extent with native and nonnative partners. We conclude that speakers adapt their production of referring expressions based on what their partners say but do not make strategic adjustments based on who their partner is.

摘要

在表达指称表达时，说话者可以在显式表达（例如专有名称或名词短语）或缩略形式（例如代词）之间进行选择。我们调查了说话者是否受其会话伴侣的影响而产生完整的名词短语而不是代词，并且这取决于他们的伴侣是母语还是非母语的英语而有所不同。参与者轮流与（同伴）伙伴描述和匹配动画片，后者在指代话语实体时使用完整名词短语或代词。我们发现，参与者在自己的指称表达方式中表现得更明确或更不明确，这取决于他们的伴侣在转弯之前的行为，并且与本地和非本地伴侣的适应程度相同。