Causal connectives as indicators of source information: Evidence from the visual world paradigm

Wei, Yipu; Mak, Willem M.; Evers-Vermeul, Jacqueline; Sanders, Ted

doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2019.102866

Cited by 11 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Our results add to the findings of Wei et al (2019), who showed that subjective connectives immediately activate the awareness of a responsible thinking person. The pattern that emerges is one in which readers constantly keep track of the Subject of Consciousness, the 'mind' that is responsible for the content of the text, updating their mental model according to the (sometimes subtle) signals in the text as to where the responsibility for the content lies.…”

Section: (20)supporting

confidence: 88%

“…Dutch subjective connectives signal the presence of an SoC and cue the reader to open an SoC-space, just like an SoC-phrase does. Finally, in an experiment employing the visual world paradigm, Wei et al (2019) have recently shown how subjective connectives make people focus their attention on a responsible person who is the source of the information.…”

Section: Subjective Relationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the case of causal connectives, there is a vast amount of theoretical and corpus work showing that connectives vary in the amount of subjectivity that is expressed. Eye-tracking studies indicate that language users use this information immediately when processing a causal relation (Canestrelli et al 2013;Wei et al 2019). Objective and subjective connectives provide different processing instructions, causing readers to slow down when encountering a subjective connective.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Causality, subjectivity and mental spaces: Insights from on-line discourse processing

Kleijn

Mak

Sanders

2020

Cognitive Linguistics

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Research has shown that it requires less time to process information that is part of an objective causal relation describing states of affairs in the world (She was out of breath because she was running), than information that is part of a subjective relation (She must have been in a hurry because she was running) expressing a claim or conclusion and a supporting argument. Representing subjectivity seems to require extra cognitive operations.In Mental Spaces Theory (MST; Fauconnier, Gilles. 1994. Mental spaces: Aspects of meaning construction in natural language. Cambridge: MIT Press) the difference between these two relation types can be described in terms of an extra mental space in the discourse representation of subjective relations: representing the Subject of Consciousness (SoC). In processing terms, this might imply that the processing difference is not present if this SoC has already been established in the discourse. We tested this prediction in two eye tracking experiments. The results of Experiment 1 showed that signaling the subjectivity of the relation by introducing a subject of consciousness beforehand did not diminish the processing asymmetry compared to a neutral context. However, the relative complexity of subjective relations was diminished in the context of Free Indirect Speech (No! He was absolutely sure. There was no doubt about it. She was running so she was in hurry; Experiment 2).In terms of MST and the representation of subjectivity in general, this implies that not only creating a representation of a thinking subject, but also assigning a claim to this thinking subject requires extra processing effort.

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Section: (20)supporting

confidence: 88%

Section: Subjective Relationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Causality, subjectivity and mental spaces: Insights from on-line discourse processing

Kleijn

Mak

Sanders

2020

Cognitive Linguistics

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“…The role of modal verbs as expressions of subjectivity is supported by processing evidence. In a visual world paradigm experiment, Wei et al (2019) have shown the influence of modal verbs on people's visual attention and the interaction between the effect of modal verbs and that of connectives. Participants heard sentences describing either a subjective causal relation or an objective causal relation while they looked at an image depicting the situation described in the sentences and an image of the speaker, who was presented explicitly as the source of information.…”

Section: Modal Verbs As Subjectivity Markersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The longer processing times that surfaced at the connective region when the specific connective kejian served as an early cue of subjectivity, and at the later subject region when the connective was underspecified, indicate that the processing of subjective relations require more cognitive effort. The visual world paradigm eye-tracking study described in the Introduction (Wei et al, 2019) provides a possible interpretation as to what these cognitive efforts could be attributed to. In that study, subjective connectives in both Dutch and Chinese, in comparison with objective connectives, led to more attention to a speaker in the visual context, who was presented as a person responsible for making an argument or judgment.…”

Section: Effects Of Connectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Connectives and Stance Markers in the Processing of Subjective Causal Relations

Wei

Evers-Vermeul

Sanders

et al. 2021

Discourse Processes

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Interpreting subjectivity in causal relations takes effort: Subjective, claimargument relations are read slower than objective, cause-consequence relations. In an eye-tracking-while-reading experiment, we investigated whether connectives and stance markers can play a facilitative role. Sixty-five Chinese participants read sentences expressing a subjective causal relation, systematically varied in the use of stance markers (no, attitudinal, epistemic) in the first clause and connectives (neutral suoyi "so", subjective kejian "so") in the second clause. Results showed that processing subjectivity proceeds highly incrementally: The interplay of the subjectivity markers is visible as the sentence unfolds. Subjective connectives increased reading times, irrespective of the type of stance marker being used. Stance markers did, however, facilitate the processing of modal verbs in subjective relations. We conclude that processing subjectivity involves evaluating how the argument supports the claim and that connectives, modal verbs, and stance markers function as processing instructions that help readers achieve this evaluation.

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The effect of language structures in social event attribution among L2 English learner

Xu,

Meng

2024

Acta Psychologica

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Causal connectives as indicators of source information: Evidence from the visual world paradigm

Cited by 11 publications

References 29 publications

Causality, subjectivity and mental spaces: Insights from on-line discourse processing

Causality, subjectivity and mental spaces: Insights from on-line discourse processing

The Role of Connectives and Stance Markers in the Processing of Subjective Causal Relations

The effect of language structures in social event attribution among L2 English learner

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