The contribution of lexical and situational knowledge to resolving discourse roles: Bonding and resolution

Resolving Links between subsequent referents (e.g., the car) and open disco urse roles (as in Keith drove to London yesterday The car kept overheating) is crucial for discourse understanding. This article investigates the cont ribution of lexical semantic factors (e.g., that drive implies using a vehi cle) as compared to more general contextual factors in the on-line resoluti on of such Links. We report an eye-tracking experiment that measures immedi ate and delayed effects of both kinds of information as readers resolve the reference. The results indicate that lexical information dominates the ini tial linking process with more general contextual influences emerging later . They are discussed in terms of the distinction between early bonding and subsequent resolution processes that has been proposed for other kinds of a naphoric interpretation (Sanford, Garrod, Lucas, & Henderson, 1983). (C) 20 00 Academic Press.