Data from: The positive side of a negative reference: the delay between linguistic processing and common ground

Interlocutors converge on names to refer to entities. For example, a speaker might refer to a novel looking object as the jellyfish and, once identified, the listener will too. The hypothesized mechanism behind such referential precedents is a subject of debate. The common ground view claims that listeners register the object as well as the identity of the speaker who coined the label. The linguistic view claims that, once established, precedents are treated by listeners like any other linguistic unit, i.e. without needing to keep track of the speaker. To test predictions from each account, we used visual-world eyetracking, which allows observations in real time, during a standard referential communication task. Participants had to select objects based on instructions from two speakers. In the critical condition, listeners sought an object with a negative reference such as not the jellyfish. We aimed to determine the extent to which listeners rely on the linguistic input, common ground or both. We found that initial interpretations were based on linguistic processing only and that common ground considerations do emerge but only after 1000 ms. Our findings support the idea that—at least temporally—linguistic processing can be isolated from common ground.

对话参与者会就指代实体的名称达成共识。例如，说话者可将一个外形新奇的陌生物体称为“水母”，在该物体被识别后，听者也会沿用这一称呼。这类指称先例背后的潜在机制一直存在学术争议。共同语境（common ground）观点认为，听者不仅会记录所指代物体的信息，还会记住创制该标签的说话者身份；而语言观则主张，一旦指称先例被确立，听者会将其视作任意其他语言单位进行处理，即无需追踪说话者的身份。为验证两种理论框架的预测结果，我们在标准指称交际任务中采用了实时可视眼动追踪（visual-world eyetracking）技术，该技术可实现对参与者行为的实时观测。实验参与者需根据两名说话者的指令选择对应物体。在关键实验条件下，听者需要依据带有否定性指称的指令（如“不是那个水母”）来寻找目标物体。本研究旨在探究听者在多大程度上依赖语言输入、共同语境，或是两者兼具。研究结果显示，听者的初始解读仅基于语言加工过程，而共同语境相关的考量仅在1000毫秒后才会显现。本研究结果支持“至少在时间维度上，语言加工可与共同语境相分离”这一学术观点。