Edited by Rita Finkbeiner, Jörg Meibauer and Petra B. Schumacher
Context is a core notion of linguistic theory. However, while there are numerous attempts at explaining single aspects of the notion of context, these attempts are rather diverse and do not easily converge to a unified theory of context. The present multi-faceted collection of papers reconsiders… read more
This book combines theoretical and experimental aspects of the establishment of dependency. It provides an account of dependency relations by focusing on the representation and interpretation of referentially dependent elements, particularly regular reflexives, logophors, and pronouns. First, the… read more
Reference to an implicit argument in a bridging context is made by definite determiner phrases (DPs) (a book... the author), and it is assumed that demonstrative DPs are not felicitous in such contexts (a book... #that author). However, the literature reports bridging contexts with demonstrative… read more
Previous studies have identified that conceptual categories corresponding to nouns exhibit semantic domain effects: (1) classification into biological ones reflects a non-additive consideration of their defining dimensions whereas classification into artefactual and, presumably, social nouns is… read more
There is an on-going debate about how the language system handles expressions that may refer to different word senses. Some theories propose derivational operations triggered by a type-mismatch; others assume underspecified lexical representations that engage in sense selection. Previous studies… read more
We provide a survey of different aspects of definiteness by means of comprehension data collected via event-related brain potential recordings. We present a processing account including differences between definites and indefinites, as well as the contribution of lexical feature specifications,… read more
Context represents a broad range of aspects, comprising for example the conversational setting (including speaker and hearer), mutual knowledge, inter- and intratextual information. Crucially, research targeting the temporal dynamics of language processing in discourse suggests that these different… read more
This paper reports electrophysiological correlates of enriched composition, i.e. when certain aspects of the interpretation of an utterance must be constructed on the basis of information outside the syntactic and lexical representations associated with the utterance itself. It investigates the… read more
This paper investigates the integration of definite determiner phrases (DPs) as a function of their contextual salience, which is reflected in the degree of dependency on prior information. DPs depend on previously established discourse referents or introduce a new, independent discourse referent.… read more
This paper investigates the establishment of referential dependencies during the interpretation of pronominal entities and presents evidence from event-related brain potentials (ERPs) for discrete underlying processes. Regardless of their internal structure, reflexives and pronouns are semantically… read more
