Abstract
My research considered the methods of constructing the meaning of the co-referential chains in Czech and factors influencing it. I tested contexts of two sentences under the several conditions: The first sentence contained two noun phrases.
The second one contained a pronoun (possessive or personal). There were no preferences for neither of the two noun phrases to be pronouns antecedent.
An example of the test context: (1) Tomáš pozval na zápas Michala. Je velký fanoušek fotbalu. (ThomasT,Sub invited to match MichaelF,Obj.
Is huge fan soccer. Thomas invited Michael to the match.
He is a huge fan of soccer.; (2) Michala pozval na zápas Tomáš. Je velký fanoušek fotbalu.
MichaelT,Obj invited to match ThomasF,Sub. Is huge fan soccer.
Thomas invited Michael to the match. He is a huge fan of soccer.; (3) Tomášem byl na zápas pozván Michal.
Je velký fanoušek fotbalu. ThomasT,Obj was to match invited MichaelF,Sub.
Is huge fan soccer. Michael was invited to the match by Thomas.
He is a huge fan of soccer. I controled two possible factors: the information (topic-focus articulation) and the constituent structure (subject-object function).
My hypotheses were: (A) It is more often to choose the noun phrase within the topic position as an antecedent of the pronoun. (B) It is more often to choose the noun phrase within the subject position as an antecedent of the pronoun. Almost 300 respondents participated on the survey and have chosen the appropriate antecedent for the pronoun in the time limit of 20 seconds.
The results show that the information and constituent structures were the key factors; both hypotheses were, as whole, confirmed. Of course, there are additional factors to be considered: concrete lexical cast, respondents individual experience or the fact that the co-referential unspecificity on the language level is quite common in the communication.