Previous research accounting for pronoun resolution as a problem of probabilistic inference has not explored the phenomenon of adaptation, whereby the processor constantly tracks and adapts, rationally, to changes in a statistical environment. We investigate whether Brazilian (BP) and European Portuguese (EP) speakers adapt to variations in the probability of occurrence of ambiguous overt and null pronouns, in two experiments assessing resolution toward subject and object referents. For each variety (BP, EP), participants were faced with either the same number of null and overt pronouns (equal distribution), or with an environment with fewer overt (than null) pronouns (unequal distribution). We find that the preference for interpreting overt pronouns as referring back to an object referent (object-biased interpretation) is higher when there are fewer overt pronouns (i.e., in the unequal, relative to the equal distribution condition). This is especially the case for BP, a variety with higher prior frequency and smaller object-biased interpretation of overt pronouns, suggesting that participants adapted incrementally and integrated prior statistical knowledge with the knowledge obtained in the experiment. We hypothesize that comprehenders adapted rationally, with the goal of maintaining, across variations in pronoun probability, the likelihood of subject and object referents. Our findings unify insights from research in pronoun resolution and in adaptation, and add to previous studies in both topics: They provide evidence for the influence of pronoun probability in pronoun resolution, and for an adaptation process whereby the language processor not only tracks statistical information, but uses it to make interpretational inferences.

We report two experiments, a self-paced reading task and an off-line questionnaire, that tested if the overt subject pronoun in European Portuguese was sensitive to the animacy (animate vs. inanimate) of the antecedent in object position. We found higher reading times when the overt pronoun was forced to retrieve an inanimate antecedent compared to retrieving an animate one (Experiment 1) and less object choices with inanimate antecedents (compared to animate ones). Our findings show that several factors are taken into account during the resolution of pronominal forms, including animacy features, favouring thus a multifactorial approach to pronoun retrieval (Kaiser & Trueswell, 2008). We propose that there is a hierarchy that considers both syntactic and semantic information in pronoun resolution and that within the syntactic information the prominence of entities varies according to their animacy features. Our results are neither explained by processing theories that only consider syntactic factors (Carminati, 2005), nor by theoretical accounts that associate strong pronouns with animacy features (Cardinaletti & Starke, 1999).

Neste estudo, analisamos o processamento e a interpretação de sujeitos nulos e plenos em PE e em PB na retoma de antecedentes que ocupam diferentes posições estruturais. Resultados: função sintática e posição estrutural influenciam a resolução da correferência em PE; em PB, o nulo é mais facilmente interpretado como correferente com o Sujeito ou com o antecedente maispróximo que o comanda.

This study aims to connect data from ocular movements and reading aloud speech to syntactic and discursive properties of texts, in order to understand integrative cognitive processes during reading for understanding and to identify prosodic and eye movements' indicators of reading fluency. Assuming that in reading aloud there is a close interaction between syntax structure and speech prosody, we collected eye movements and reading speech data from 17 native EP speakers. Eye movements and reading speech produced simultaneously were analyzed and our results show that eyes and voice are both responsive to text complexity and to syntactic and discursive critical loci, as key points of information integration.

This research on reading comprehension is concerned with linguistic complexity processing and solving of mathematical exercises by 95 Portuguese students aged 9 to 15 years, attending one of the three basic school levels. Exercises were selected from the full set of national examinations (from 2000 till 2007), covering different mathematical areas. Experimental task was to present subjects with an exercise text followed by a possible result which they had to evaluate as a good or bad answer. Preliminary results indicate that although the extension of the exercise text and of the answer influences the time spent reading and solving the problem, it does not necessarily make the resolution of the exercise harder.

In this study we tested, in EP and in BP, complement clauses with a null or an overt pronoun in subject position that is forced by number agreement to retrieve an antecedent within a complex subject NP in the main clause. With an eye-tracking while reading paradigm, we analysed the impact of structural position on pronoun resolution, investigating if the bias described for null-subject and overt-object pronoun resolution for null subject languages replicates for antecedents with different structural positions: null-NP1, the highest structural entity, and overt-NP2, the lowest structural entity. Moreover, we especially investigate the impact of structural position in BP, where c-command relations are considered to be of great relevance for null subject resolution. Results indicate that structural position impacts on pronoun resolution in the predicted way: null-highest NP, overt-lowest NP. Also, BP results reveal that, not only is the null form more constrained by c-command relations, preferentially referring to the c-commanding antecedent (NP1), but also that the overt pronoun does not show a clear bias also when considering structural position (as does not for syntactic function, as shown in previous studies).

In a questionnaire study we investigate how native speakers of European Portuguese (EP) and Chinese, as well as Chinese learners of EP as second language (L2), interpret null and overt pronouns in forward and backward anaphora. Results show that EP native speakers exhibit different interpretative biases for null and overt pronominal subjects in both forward and backward anaphora. Chinese native speakers show similar interpretation in backward anaphora in their L1 but a subject preference with both null and overt pronouns in forward anaphora conditions. Chinese learners of L2 EP present an overall preference to interpret both pronouns as referring to the subject referent, although there is a developmental effect towards the target interpretation in overt pronoun backward anaphora conditions. Results confirm previous studies in L2 EP (Madeira et al., 2012; Lobo et al., 2017), but add the possibility that this pattern may be explained by L1 influence.------------------------------------------------------------------------------COMO OS APRENDIZES CHINESES DO PORTUGUÊS EUROPEU L2 INTERPRETAM OS PRONOMES NULOS E CLAROS NA ANÁFORA PARA FRENTE E PARA TRÁSNum estudo de questionário investigamos como os falantes nativos do Português Europeu (PE) e do chinês, bem como os aprendentes chineses que adquirem PE como língua segunda (L2), interpretam pronomes nulos e plenos em condições de anáfora e de catáfora. Os resultados mostram que os falantes nativos de PE exibem diferentes interpretações para sujeitos pronominais nulos e plenos tanto em anáfora como em catáfora. Os falantes nativos de Chinês mostram uma interpretação semelhante em catáfora na sua L1, mas preferem como antecedente o sujeito para pronome nulo e pleno nas condições de anáfora. Os aprendentes chineses de PE L2 preferem interpretar ambos os pronomes como referindo-se a um antecedente sujeito. No entanto, na condição de catáfora com pronome pleno, existe um efeito de desenvolvimento para a interpretação-alvo. Os resultados confirmam os estudos anteriores em PE L2 (Madeira et al. 2012; Lobo et al. 2017) e adicionam a possibilidade de explicar a interpretação na L2 por influência da L1.---Original em inglês.

This study focuses on priming as a function of exposure to bimodal stimuli of European Portuguese screen centred single words and isolated pictures inserted at the screen's right upper corner, with four kinds of word-picture relation. The eye movements of 18 Portuguese native university students were registered while reading four sets of ten word-picture pairs, and their respective oral recall lists of words or pictures were kept. The results reveal a higher phonological priming effect when recalling words. Results are discussed taking into consideration the eye movements' behaviour values (number and duration of fixations, and number of transitions between word and picture).