Aspects of anaphor resolution as markers of reading comprehension: the role of antecedent variability

Carsten Elbro; Jane Oakhill; Hakima Megherbi; Alix Seigneuric

doi:10.1007/s11145-016-9702-4

Aspects of anaphor resolution as markers of reading comprehension: the role of antecedent variability

Carsten Elbro, Jane Oakhill, Hakima Megherbi, Alix Seigneuric

Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics

5 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This study explored pronominal resolution as a measure of reading comprehension beyond single sentences. Specifically, it was hypothesized that the ability to specify the referents of pronouns like this and these that have variable antecedents would be a good probe of the quality of the reader’s mental model. This idea was tested in a study of 123 French eight-year-olds. After controlling for word decoding, vocabulary and syntactic knowledge, various aspects of pronominal comprehension were found to contribute independent variance to reading comprehension: (1) pronominal knowledge as measured in a pronoun selection task, (2) referent specification of pronouns that refer to protagonists. In addition, (3) referent specification of pronouns (French y and en) with variable antecedents added further independent variance. The results support the idea that the ability to specify referents accounts for unique variance in reading comprehension and may tap the quality of the reader’s mental model of preceding text.

Original language	Danish
Journal	Reading and Writing
Volume	30
Issue number	4
Pages (from-to)	813-827
ISSN	0922-4777
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-016-9702-4
Publication status	Published - 1 Apr 2017

Keywords

Faculty of Humanities

Access to Document

10.1007/s11145-016-9702-4

http://rdcu.be/mx9yLicence: Unspecified

Cite this

@article{ba8ac5aa9d094319aede33b5c5b993ab,

title = "Aspects of anaphor resolution as markers of reading comprehension: the role of antecedent variability",

abstract = "This study explored pronominal resolution as a measure of reading comprehension beyond single sentences. Specifically, it was hypothesized that the ability to specify the referents of pronouns like this and these that have variable antecedents would be a good probe of the quality of the reader{\textquoteright}s mental model. This idea was tested in a study of 123 French eight-year-olds. After controlling for word decoding, vocabulary and syntactic knowledge, various aspects of pronominal comprehension were found to contribute independent variance to reading comprehension: (1) pronominal knowledge as measured in a pronoun selection task, (2) referent specification of pronouns that refer to protagonists. In addition, (3) referent specification of pronouns (French y and en) with variable antecedents added further independent variance. The results support the idea that the ability to specify referents accounts for unique variance in reading comprehension and may tap the quality of the reader{\textquoteright}s mental model of preceding text.",

keywords = "Det Humanistiske Fakultet, L{\ae}seforst{\aa}else, Pronominer, mental model",

author = "Carsten Elbro and Jane Oakhill and Hakima Megherbi and Alix Seigneuric",

year = "2017",

month = apr,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1007/s11145-016-9702-4",

language = "Dansk",

volume = "30",

pages = "813--827",

journal = "Reading and Writing",

issn = "0922-4777",

publisher = "Springer",

number = "4",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Aspects of anaphor resolution as markers of reading comprehension: the role of antecedent variability

AU - Elbro, Carsten

AU - Oakhill, Jane

AU - Megherbi, Hakima

AU - Seigneuric, Alix

PY - 2017/4/1

Y1 - 2017/4/1

N2 - This study explored pronominal resolution as a measure of reading comprehension beyond single sentences. Specifically, it was hypothesized that the ability to specify the referents of pronouns like this and these that have variable antecedents would be a good probe of the quality of the reader’s mental model. This idea was tested in a study of 123 French eight-year-olds. After controlling for word decoding, vocabulary and syntactic knowledge, various aspects of pronominal comprehension were found to contribute independent variance to reading comprehension: (1) pronominal knowledge as measured in a pronoun selection task, (2) referent specification of pronouns that refer to protagonists. In addition, (3) referent specification of pronouns (French y and en) with variable antecedents added further independent variance. The results support the idea that the ability to specify referents accounts for unique variance in reading comprehension and may tap the quality of the reader’s mental model of preceding text.

AB - This study explored pronominal resolution as a measure of reading comprehension beyond single sentences. Specifically, it was hypothesized that the ability to specify the referents of pronouns like this and these that have variable antecedents would be a good probe of the quality of the reader’s mental model. This idea was tested in a study of 123 French eight-year-olds. After controlling for word decoding, vocabulary and syntactic knowledge, various aspects of pronominal comprehension were found to contribute independent variance to reading comprehension: (1) pronominal knowledge as measured in a pronoun selection task, (2) referent specification of pronouns that refer to protagonists. In addition, (3) referent specification of pronouns (French y and en) with variable antecedents added further independent variance. The results support the idea that the ability to specify referents accounts for unique variance in reading comprehension and may tap the quality of the reader’s mental model of preceding text.

KW - Det Humanistiske Fakultet

KW - Læseforståelse

KW - Pronominer

KW - mental model

U2 - 10.1007/s11145-016-9702-4

DO - 10.1007/s11145-016-9702-4

M3 - Tidsskriftartikel

SN - 0922-4777

VL - 30

SP - 813

EP - 827

JO - Reading and Writing

JF - Reading and Writing

IS - 4

ER -