Where to next? Pronoun interpretation as a side effect of discourse direction

Previous work has demonstrated that pronouns are resolved differently in transfer-of-possession passages that vary by verbal aspect (Rohde et al. 2006, cf. Stevenson et al. 1994), suggesting that event structure influences referent identification. (1) [Perfective- salient Goal]: JohnSOURCE gave a book to BobGOAL. He___________ (2) [Imperfect- salient Source]: JohnSOURCE was giving a book to BobGOAL. He____ Further, the influence of event structure was observed only in passages in which certain coherence relations were inferred to hold (Rohde et al. (2006), Arnold (2001)). Since verbal aspect itself influences the elicited coherence relation (e.g., Elaboration/Explanation/Occasion/Parallel/Result/ViolatedExpectation from Kehler (2002), cf. Wolf et al. (2004)), Rohde et al. suggested that the influence of verbal aspect may be a side-effect of the influence of coherence type. Given that hypothesis, we predict that a shift in the distribution of coherence relations ought to induce a shift in the distribution of pronoun interpretations. To test this, we designed two experiments to manipulate the distribution of coherence relations in story continuations. Study 1: We modified Rohde et al.'s stimuli to include different types of objects-of-transfer, anticipating that abnormal objects would elicit more continuations explaining the event (i.e. Explanation relations). (3) John gave/was-giving a book/bloody-meat-cleaver to Bob. He_____________ (perf)/(imp) (normal)/(abnormal