Differences between stereotypical gender and definitional gender in pronominal antecedent retrieval in Brazilian Portuguese

Abstract

This paper is the second of a research work aimed at investigating the role of gender cues in pronominal antecedent retrieval in Brazilian Portuguese. It was examined how antecedent candidates carrying stereotypical gender and definitional gender are perceived by memory in pronoun resolution. The results of two eye-tracking experiments conducted with native speakers of Brazilian Portuguese showed that gender morphological cues play a role at the very beginning of pronoun resolution processing, and only at a later processing phase, structural constraints of Principle B seemed to help the parser to select the correct antecedent. Like the previous work, the results indicated Principle B does not work as an initial filter blocking structurally unacceptable candidates in Brazilian Portuguese; on the contrary, all candidates seemed to be taken into account despite of violating Principle B. Similarly to the previous work, masculine antecedent candidates were preferable to be retrieved by memory in comparison to feminine candidates. And this time the results provided evidence that antecedent candidates with definitional gender rather than stereotypical gender are preferable to be retrieved by memory since the former is lexically specified, while the latter relies on probabilities based on world knowledge inferences.