Anaphoric reference in descriptions of surprising events

Abstract

The choice of anaphoric reference is a complex process regulated by a combination of linguistic and cognitive constraints. This paper experimentally addresses the impact of world knowledge on the types of references speakers produce, focusing on the predictability of event progressions. In order to avoid confounding event predictability and the predictability of words in their descriptions, we created an artificial virtual world and trained participants to recognize typical event progressions within. Speakers then described novel scenes, which either conformed to their expectations or violated them, in a free production experiment. The data reveal that surprising event progressions lead to a more frequent production of definite noun phrases, in contrast to reduced linguistic expressions (pronouns and zero anaphors). We further introduce a Bayesian inference model, which offers an explanation of why a definite noun phrase and not a pronoun is used for the description of surprising events. We conclude that speakers choose more informative descriptions to talk about surprising events because this strategy allows them to avoids misunderstanding with higher likelihood.