REPRESENTATIONS AND PROCESSES IN THE INTERPRETATION OF PRONOUNS - NEWEVIDENCE FROM SPANISH AND FRENCH

Three experiments, in Spanish and French, examined the interpretation of pronouns which, on the basis of their form, were either referential ly determinate or referentially indeterminate. Because Spanish and Fre nch nouns referring to objects have arbitrary grammatical genders, we were able to compare cases in which referential determinacy might be s emantically based with those where it could only be morphologically ba sed. This comparison establishes the type of representation-superficia l or content-based-used to interpret the pronouns. Contrary to a view based on a linguistic classification of anaphoric expressions, we foun d clear evidence for the role of a superficial representation in the i nterpretation of pronouns. However, the extent of its involvement appe ared to diminish rapidly, though we found evidence that it was under s trategic control. (C) 1995 Academic Press, Inc.