PSY 369: Psycholinguistics Language Comprehension: Discourse

Discourse Psycholinguistics Traditional Psycholinguistics Determining what happens when we understand sentences Broader View How we resolve/understand sentences against the current discourse representation Sentence comprehension is a process that anchors the interpretation of the sentence to the representation of the prior text

Processing Discourse What is discourse? Units of analysis larger than a sentence Applies to both spoken and written forms Ways we process (i.e., comprehend and remember) units of language larger than a sentence lectures personal narratives expository discourse

Bill and Ted traveled through time and space. Bill asked, “Dude, did you find him?” “Yeah, Bach was in the music store, but I haven’t found Abe yet. Dude, you should hear him play, he rocks!” “Excellent! Man, we’ve got to get these dudes back to school before we get there.”

To whom does “him” refer to? Bill and Ted traveled through time and space. Bill asked, “Dude, did you find him?” “Yeah, Bach was in the music store, but I haven’t found Abe yet. Dude, you should hear him play, he rocks!” “Excellent! Man, we’ve got to get these dudes back to school before we get there.”

To whom does “him” refer?Bach Bill and Ted traveled through time and space. Bill asked, “Dude, did you find him?” “Yeah, Bach was in the music store, but I haven’t found Abe yet. Dude, you should hear him play, he rocks!” “Excellent! Man, we’ve got to get these dudes back to school before we get there.”

To whom does this “him” refer? Bill and Ted traveled through time and space. Bill asked, “Dude, did you find him?” “Yeah, Bach was in the music store, but I haven’t found Abe yet. Dude, you should hear him play, he rocks!” “Excellent! Man, we’ve got to get these dudes back to school before we get there.”

To whom does this “him” refer?Bach again Bill and Ted traveled through time and space. Bill asked, “Dude, did you find him?” “Yeah, Bach was in the music store, but I haven’t found Abe yet. Dude, you should hear him play, he rocks!” “Excellent! Man, we’ve got to get these dudes back to school before we get there.”

To whom does this “him” refer?Bach again Bill and Ted traveled through time and space. Bill asked, “Dude, did you find him?” “Yeah, Bach was in the music store, but I haven’t found Abe yet. Dude, you should hear him play, he rocks!” “Excellent! Man, we’ve got to get these dudes back to school before we get there.” Why not Abe?

Huh!? Bill and Ted traveled through time and space. Bill asked, “Dude, did you find him?” “Yeah, Bach was in the music store, but I haven’t found Abe yet. Dude, you should hear him play, he rocks!” “Excellent! Man, we’ve got to get these dudes back to school before we get there.”

Huh!? Bill and Ted traveled through time and space. Bill asked, “Dude, did you find him?” “Yeah, Bach was in the music store, but I haven’t found Abe yet. Dude, you should hear him play, he rocks!” “Excellent! Man, we’ve got to get these dudes back to school before we get there.” Oh yeah, they’re time travelers.

Characteristics of Discourse Local Structure (microstructure): The relationship between individual sentences Global Structure (macrostructure): The relationship between the sentences and our knowledge of the world

Characteristics of Discourse Local Structure: Coherence: Does the passage make sense Logical consistency and semantic continuity Cohesion: Does the discourse “stick together” Interpretation of one sentence depends on other sentences

Characteristics of Discourse Coherence: does it make sense? Incoherence When the meanings of individual sentences do not hang together Given/new distinction Readers expect speakers to cues as to what information is old (already known by the listener) and what is new (not known)

Developing coherence Haviland and Clark (1974) Process of understanding a sentence in discourse context involves 3 stages: identifying the given and new info in the current sentence finding an antecedent in memory for the given information attaching the new information to this spot in memory

Developing coherence Haviland and Clark (1974) Herb unpacked some beer. The beer was warm.

Developing coherence Haviland and Clark (1974) Herb unpacked some beer. The beer was warm. Definite article “the” signals that “the beer” is given information

Developing coherence Haviland and Clark (1974) Herb unpacked some beer. The beer was warm. Definite article “the” signals that “the beer” is given information Connect the new information “was warm” to the appropriate discourse concept

Developing coherence Haviland and Clark (1974) Herb unpacked some beer. The beer was warm. Definite article “the” signals that “the beer” is given information Connect the new information “was warm” to the appropriate discourse concept “some beer” This process is called Direct Matching

Developing coherence Herb unpacked some picnic supplies. The beer was warm. Definite article “the” signals that “the beer” is given information So connect the new information “was warm” to the appropriate discourse concept Need a bridging inference to connect “the warm beer” to “some picnic supplies” Haviland and Clark (1974)

“some beer” Direct Matching Bridging Inference “the beer” “some picnic supplies”“the beer” World knowledge Developing coherence

“Murray poured water on the fire.” “The fire went out.” Singer, Halldorson, Lear, & Andrusiak (1992) “Murray drank a glass of water.” “He watched the fire go out.” T/F “water extinguishes fire” Faster Requires inference No Required inference Suggests that the inference was made Developing coherence

Characteristics of Discourse Cohesion: Interpretation of one sentence depends on other sentences Referential Cohesion “Dude, you should hear him play…” Substitution Cohesion “We’ve got to get these dudes back to …” And many more See pg 155 of textbook for table of other categories of cohesion The relationship between the referring expression and the antecedent create referential cohesion of discourse

Types of Referential Cohesion Anaphoric Reference Using an expression to refer back to something previously mentioned in discourse “…Bach was in the music store …” “Dude, you should hear him play, he rocks.” Cataphoric Reference Using an expression to refer forward to something that is coming up in discourse Dude, did you find him?” “Yeah, Bach was in the music store...”

Reading Span Test Smaller reading spans = smaller working memory capacity Comprehending Anaphoric References Daneman and Carpenter (1980) Sitting with Richie, Archie, Walter and the rest of my gang in the Grill yesterday, I began to feel uneasy. Robbie had put a dime in the juke box. It was blaring one of the latest “Rock and Roll” favorites. I was studying, in horror, the reactions of my friends to the music. I was especially perturbed by the expression on my best friend’s face. Wayne looked intense and was pounding the table furiously to the beat. Now, I like most of the things other teenage boys like. I like girls with soft blonde hair, girls with dark curly hair, in fact all girls. I like milkshakes, football games and beach parties. I like denim jeans, fancy T-shirs and sneakers. It is not that I dislike rock music but I think it is supposed to be fun and not taken too seriously. And here he was, “all shook up” and serious over the crazy music. Comprehension task Reading a passage and answer questions about the referents of pronouns Question: Who was “all shook up” and serious over the music?

Reading Span Test Smaller reading spans = smaller working memory capacity Comprehending Anaphoric References Daneman and Carpenter (1980) Sitting with Richie, Archie, Walter and the rest of my gang in the Grill yesterday, I began to feel uneasy. Robbie had put a dime in the juke box. It was blaring one of the latest “Rock and Roll” favorites. I was studying, in horror, the reactions of my friends to the music. I was especially perturbed by the expression on my best friend’s face. Wayne looked intense and was pounding the table furiously to the beat. Now, I like most of the things other teenage boys like. I like girls with soft blonde hair, girls with dark curly hair, in fact all girls. I like milkshakes, football games and beach parties. I like denim jeans, fancy T-shirs and sneakers. It is not that I dislike rock music but I think it is supposed to be fun and not taken too seriously. And here he was, “all shook up” and serious over the crazy music. Comprehension task Reading a passage and answer questions about the referents of pronouns Question: Who was “all shook up” and serious over the music?

Reading Span Test Smaller reading spans = smaller working memory capacity Comprehending Anaphoric References Daneman and Carpenter (1980) Sitting with Richie, Archie, Walter and the rest of my gang in the Grill yesterday, I began to feel uneasy. Robbie had put a dime in the juke box. It was blaring one of the latest “Rock and Roll” favorites. I was studying, in horror, the reactions of my friends to the music. I was especially perturbed by the expression on my best friend’s face. Wayne looked intense and was pounding the table furiously to the beat. Now, I like most of the things other teenage boys like. I like girls with soft blonde hair, girls with dark curly hair, in fact all girls. I like milkshakes, football games and beach parties. I like denim jeans, fancy T-shirs and sneakers. It is not that I dislike rock music but I think it is supposed to be fun and not taken too seriously. And here he was, “all shook up” and serious over the crazy music. Comprehension task Reading a passage and answer questions about the referents of pronouns Question: Who was “all shook up” and serious over the music?

Manipulated how many sentences intervened between the pronoun and the antecedent Comprehending Anaphoric References Daneman and Carpenter (1980)