Study

In this paper I report two studies of discourse anaphora (in Russian and English narrative discourse). I claim that referential device selection is primarily influenced by the speaker’s current cognitive state, namely the referent’s activation in the speaker’s working memory. Activation is assumed to be a gradual parameter varying between the minimal and the maximal values. A methodology of numerical calculation of referent activation is proposed. The level of a specific referent’s activation at a particular point of discourse depends on multiple factors. Each of these factors contributes (in a positive or negative numerical way) to the ultimate activation score of the referent. Activation factors are rooted in either the discourse context (several measurements of distance to the antecedent; the antecedent’s syntactic role in its clause…) or in the referent’s properties (animacy, protagonisthood…) The numerical model employed to calculate activation score is supposed to imitate the cognitive interplay of activation factors during discourse production. There exist soft and hard thresholds of activation determining the speaker’s referential choice. For example, above the hard threshold a reduced NP (that is, an anaphoric pronoun or zero) is necessary, while above the soft threshold it is possible. The proposed model aims at predicting/explaining all referential occurrences in the sample discourse. This model has substantial consequences for the general understanding of the cognitive domain of working memory. Specific claims about the capacity and control of working memory are proposed