Building complex reference objects from dual sets

There has been considerable psycholinguistic investigation into the conditions that allow separately introduced individuals to be joined into a plural set and represented as a complex reference object (e.g., Eschenbach et al., 1989, Garrod and Sanford, 1982, Koh and Clifton, 2002, Koh et al., 2008, Moxey et al., 2004 and Sanford and Lockhart, 1990). The current paper reports three eye-tracking experiments that investigate the less-well understood question of what conditions allow pointers to be assigned to the individuals within a previously undifferentiated set, turning it into a complex reference object. The experiments made use of a methodology used in Patson and Ferreira (2009) to distinguish between complex reference objects and undifferentiated sets. Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrated that assigning different properties to the members of an undifferentiated dual set via a conjoined modifier or a comparative modifier transformed it into a complex reference object. Experiment 3 indicated that assigning a property to only one member of an undifferentiated dual set introduced pointers to both members. These results demonstrate that pointers can be established to referents within a plural set without picking them out via anaphors; they set boundaries on the kinds of implicit contrasts between referents that establish pointers; and they illustrate that extremely subtle properties of the semantic and referential context can affect early parsing decisions.

Research highlights
► We report three eye-tracking experiments.
► When can pointers be assigned to individuals within an undifferentiated set.
► Anaphors are not required to establish pointers.
► Pointers established via explicit and implicit contrasting information.
► Subtle properties of semantic and referential context affect early parsing decisions.