Compensis P (2022)
Publication Language: English
Publication Type: Thesis
Publication year: 2022
URI: https://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/62893/
In this study, I argue that object reduplication in Bulgarian is a special encoding strategy that is concerned with discourse management and primarily used to mark (perceived) deviances from expectations with respect to the status of referents in discourse. In particular, I adopt a new perspective by capturing the phenomenon under discussion as a form of differential object marking with a person index, i.e., differential object indexing (DOI). Based on theoretical considerations, corpus evidence and a comprehensive empirical investigation, I reject the interpretation of Bulgarian DOI as a topic marker and suggest a functional explanation in terms of discourse prominence. In addition, I emphasize the role of predictability as a relevant dimension underlying this type of differential marking. I present evidence from acceptability judgment studies and web-based experiments suggesting that DOI in Bulgarian is typically used to (re-)activate or clarify the discourse prominence status of a less prominent referent. In terms of processing, I present the results from an ERP experiment and a visual cueing web-experiment showing that the presence of an object index during online processing modulates (discourse-based) expectations, initiates discourse updating and interacts with (visually induced) salience of a referent. Throughout this study, I elaborate on the association of discourse prominence and language-related predictability with more general cognitive mechanisms, such as attention and predictions.
APA:
Compensis, P. (2022). Differential object indexing in Bulgarian - The role of discourse prominence and predictability (Dissertation).
MLA:
Compensis, Paul. Differential object indexing in Bulgarian - The role of discourse prominence and predictability. Dissertation, 2022.
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