1. Differential effects of constraints in the processing of Russian cataphora Kazanina and Phillips 2010

2. Introduction

3. Anaphoric relations between pronouns and their antecedents Anaphoric expressions: pronouns (e.g., she, him, their) reflexives (e.g., herself, yourself ) Backwards anaphora (or cataphora) - a type of pronominal dependency in which a pronoun linearly precedes its antecedent. When she enters the classroom, Zoe sits down at the art table

4. Anaphoric relations between pronouns and their antecedents Online interpretation of backwards anaphora must proceed differently from the resolution of forwards anaphora How do grammatical constraints impact the search for antecedents for pronouns in backward anaphora cases?

5. John i thinks that Bill k resents him Constraints prevent the generation of grammatically inaccessible candidate antecedents Both candidates are initially considered, but one is subsequently filtered out Grammatically inaccessible antecedents are blocked from consideration at an initial stage, but may be reconsidered at a later stage.

6. Gender mismatched effect When she was at the party, the boy danced with the girl. When she was at the party, the girl danced with the boy. Comprehenders attempt to link a cataphoric pronoun (she) to a potential antecedent (the girl/boy) before they have confirmed that the expression is compatible with the pronoun in gender  slower reading time in case of gender mismatched effect

7. Russian-specific constraint on backwards anaphora In poka-sentences an agentive pronoun subject of an embedded clause cannot corefer with an agentive main clause subject. *Poka on i cˇital knigu, Ivan i s”el jabloko. (while he read book Ivan ate apple) Note(!) that the poka-constraint does not block coreference in sentences in which the embedded clause expresses a habitual or a generic event.

8. Russian-specific constraint on backwards anaphora

9. Predictions

10. No-constraint Russian speakers should actively construct a cataphoric dependency  possible mismatch effect While she was working two jobs to pay the bills, Kathryn/Russel was taking classes full time. After he read the book, Ivan/Jane ate the apple

11. Principle C Russian speakers should avoid predicting an antecedent in grammatically illicit positions. *He read a book while Ivan ate an apple.

12. Poka-constraint Predictions vary depending on the way in which the constraint is implemented online (if the referent of the subjective is agentive or not) While he read the book… Ivan ate an apple (*) Ivan remembered that he forgot to buy some bread ( )

13. Experiments

14. Materials and design

15. Experiment 1A 33 native Russian speakers Offline acceptability rating task (pen and paper questionnaire) Although Irina was never going to become a ballerina, the high praise from Ekaterina flattered her and was very pleasant. Can the pronoun in bold and the noun in bold refer to the same person? (assessed on a scale 1(impossible) to 5(absolutely natural)

16. Experiment 1A (Results)

17. Experiment 1B 48 native Russian speakers Self-paced reading experiment

18. Experiment 1B (Comprehension questions accuracy results)

19. Experiment 1B (Reading time results)

22. Experiment 2 24 native Russian speakers Pencil-and-paper questionnaire

23. Experiment 2 (Results)

24. Discussion/Summary

25. Points for discussion The existence of the gender mismatch effect implies that the parser is not hesitant in forming cataphoric dependencies. In order to be disrupted upon recognizing that a noun phrase in the input is gender incongruent, the parser must have initiated dependency formation prior to that moment. Lack of effect signifies that noun phrase was not considered a possible antecedent VS

26. Points for discussion Dependency formation may be initiated as soon as a cataphoric pronoun is encountered and before a candidate antecedent appears in the input. …Pronoun………………………………….Noun….. 123 dependency Prediction about number, gender, etc. confirmation rejection

27. Summary Principle C acts as a block to the generation of coreference dependencies (prevent grammatically inaccessible antecedents from ever being considered) The poka-constraint acts as a filter on dependencies that are initially considered (temporarily considered interpretations).

28. Summary Why the two constraints should impact parsing so differently? Principle C applies to syntactic configurations (parser makes an identification before receiving any bottom-up information) The poka-constraint invokes discourse representations (the thematic role of the subject should be confirmed before identification takes place)

29. Thank you for attention!