Activation and search instructions
Table 3.1. Topic continuity hierarchy Most continuousaccessible least surprising
zero anaphor unstressedclitic pronouns
stressedindependent pronouns unmodified definite NPs
restrictively modified definite NPs referential indefinite NPs
Least continuousaccessible most surprising If this is combined with Gernsbacher 1989, 1990 and Chang’s 1980 work, a likely pattern
emerges. Zero pronouns show little ability to enhance activation of the referent or suppress activation of a nonreferent Corbett and Chang 1983. Pronouns do not increase the activation of their referent,
but do suppress the activation of nonreferents by the end of the sentence. Names immediately increase the activation of their referent and suppress the activation of all other participants Gernsbacher
1990. Just looking at Gernsbacher’s activation data we can conclude that speakers can vary the level of activation of participants by the choice of referential forms. His data consisted primarily of isolated
sentences with little or no discourse context. It is unclear at this stage what effect a surrounding con- text would have on actual activation levels, but it is clear that the choice of form resulted in a change
of activation. By sentence end a participant which was referred to by name had the highest level of ac- tivation. If the participant was referred to only by a pronoun it will have the second highest activation
level. When one participant is referenced by a pronoun any participant who was not referenced will have a lower activation level than the participant which was referenced. Finally, when a participant
was referenced by a name, any participant which was not referenced is strongly suppressed, giving them the lowest activation. This is summarized in table 3.2.
Table 3.2. Effects on activation of participants by different referential devices Referential device
Effect on the referenced participant
Effect on all other participants name
maximum enhancement maximum suppression
common noun medium enhancement
medium suppression pronoun
little enhancement medium and slower suppression
zero no enhancement
little suppression