Barbara Hemforth
Biographic Data
| ID | 1008385 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Barbara Hemforth |
| GIVEN NAMES | Barbara |
| FAMILY NAME | Hemforth |
| SIGNATURE | HEMFORTH B |
| AFFILIATIONS | Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8371-1323 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 21 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 26 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 20 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2000 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Developing sociolinguistic evaluative competence
As children acquire the core rules of their language, they also develop the ability to use it in a sociolinguistically adapted way. Although some works have addressed the production of sociolinguistic variables, few have explored the development of a sociolinguistic evaluative competence in children and their ability to pair linguistic forms and social meanings. With an aged-adapted matched-guise paradigm, we investigate how monolingual children …
Interference of Implicit Causality in Relative Clause Processing
Differences in the processing of subject and object relative clauses have been explained by a combination of syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic factors, such as a general subject advantage based on syntactic constraints, effects of animacy, and the discourse status of relative clause internal subjects. In this paper, we will focus on a factor related to verb meaning, the implicit causality of the verb, which biases the principal causer of the eve…
Discourse-based constraints on long-distance dependencies generalize across constructions in English and French
The article presents four acceptability judgment experiments that evaluate novel predictions of the Focus-Background Conflict constraint (Abeillé et al. 2020, Cognition) with respect to the acceptability of long distance dependencies for so-called "subject islands" in English and French. In contrast with syntactic accounts, the Focus-Background Conflict constraint predicts differential behavior across different constructions. The current paper te…
L’acquisition du placement de l’adjectif épithète en français L2 par les apprenants sinophones
Cet article porte sur l’étude des erreurs de surgénéralisation concernant le placement de l’adjectif épithète en français L2 par les apprenants sinophones. Nous avons mené une expérience à choix forcé avec trois groupes d’apprenants (niveaux débutant (N = 27), niveau intermédiaire (N = 27) et niveau avancé (N = 25)) dont la langue première et dominante est le chinois mandarin. Un groupe de locuteurs ayant le français comme langue première et domi…
Verb Phrase Ellipsis with nominal antecedents
This paper brings new theoretical and experimental evidence to bear on the classical question of whether Verb Phrase Ellipsis requires a syntactically identical antecedent and how it differs, in this respect, from the Verb Phrase Anaphor do it. We focus on the case of VPE with nominal antecedents and argue that it is always grammatical. Its acceptability is variable and is predicted by a discourse condition on VPE, namely that VPE prefers a salie…
Subject Alternation and Antecedent Preference in Romanian
In this paper, we will study the use of null pronouns on the one hand and the interpretation of null and pronominal subjects on the other hand in Romanian. While both questions have been studied across a wide range of Romance languages, empirical data on Romanian are still missing in the literature. Our first three experiments, using a binary choice of possible answers to questions, show that null subjects are generally preferred in Romanian. Thi…
Voice mismatch and contrast in French Right-Node Raising
Right-Node Raising is generally considered to impose stricter identity conditions than other kinds of ellipsis, such as VP ellipsis, according to Hankamer & Sag 1976 and Hardt 1993. In this paper, we investigate voice mismatch in French Right-Node Raising (RNR) through a corpus study and two experiments. We show that RNR with voice mismatch can be found in a written corpus (frTenTen 2012) and that many examples involve coordination of a reflexive…
Corpus, experimental and modeling investigations of cross-linguistic differences in pronoun resolution preferences
We investigate the impact of syntactic alternatives on pronoun resolution in ambiguous constructions in English and French. Previous research detected language-specific preferences in pronoun resolution in utterances of the type “The postman met the streetsweeper before he went home”. These preferences have been attributed to the interaction of information structural and syntactic constraints inducing a subject bias on the one hand, and Gricean r…
Structural, Functional, and Processing Perspectives on Linguistic Island Effects
Ross (1967) observed that “island” structures like “Who do you think [ NP the gift from__] prompted the rumor?” or “Who did you hear [ NP the statement [ S that the CEO promoted__]]?” are not acceptable, despite having what seem to be plausible meanings in some contexts. Ross (1967) and Chomsky (1973) hypothesized that the source of the unacceptability is in the syntax. Here, we summarize how theories of discourse, frequency, and memory from the …
Sœurs de Même Taille
Dans deux expériences, chacune réalisée en français et en anglais, nous montrons que la préférence d'attachement d'une phrase relative à une coordination de syntagmes nominaux peut être modifiée par la longueur du premier conjoint. Alors qu'un attachement haut à la coordination est généralement préféré dans les deux langues, un attachement bas au second conjoint seulement devient plus acceptable pour les phrases dont le premier conjoint est plus …
Missing Antecedents Found
Numerous papers have used so-called `missing antecedent phenomena' as a criterion for distinguishing deep and surface anaphora. Specifically, only the latter are claimed to licence pronouns with missing antecedents. These papers also argue that missing antecedent phenomena provide evidence that surface anaphora involve unpronounced syntactic structure in the ellipsis site. The present paper suggests that the acceptability judgments on which the a…
Extraction from subjects
The Effect of Semantic and Discourse Features on the Use of Null and Overt Subjects - A Quantitative Study of Third Person Subjects in Brazilian Portuguese
In a corpus study and two acceptability experiments, we investigate whether semantic and discourse features of the antecedents affect the use of null and overt subjects in Brazilian Portuguese. Previous literature has proposed two hypotheses: the Hierarchy of Referentiality Hypothesis (Cyrino et al. 2000, inter alia) and the Semantic Gender Hypothesis (Creus & Menuzzi 2004, among others). We show that animacy and specificity affect the relative f…
Effects of exposure and information structure in native and non-native pronoun resolution in French
The present study investigated pronoun resolution strategies in French native speakers and in German-speaking learners of French. French and German differ in antecedent preferences in ambiguous constructions such as The postman hit the pirate before he went home : while French shows a N2-preference, German shows a N1-preference. This difference is explained by effects of exposure to an unambiguous alternative construction referring to N1 that exi…
First Language Influence on Second Language Offline and Online Ambiguous Pronoun Resolution
This study examined first language (L1) influence on second language (L2) ambiguous pronoun resolution by investigating (a) whether L1 influence takes place at the level of the pronominal form (form-dependent influence) and/or at the level of the construction in which the form appears (construction-dependent influence) and (b) whether effects differ in online compared to offline data. In Experiment 1, we replicated previously observed constructio…
Prosodic Realizations of Information Focus in French
Relative clause attachment in German, English, Spanish and French
Information structure effects on anaphora resolution in German and French
This paper presents an off-line study consisting of five questionnaires in which we observed interpretational preferences for ambiguous intra-sentential pronouns in parallel structures in German and French. We tested the influence of information structural factors, in particular, we compared the effects of topicalizing versus focusing potential antecedents of the ambiguous pronoun. Results replicated a baseline difference between the two language…
Accessibility of negated constituents in reading and listening
In two experiments conducted in French, we investigated the representation of negated constituents, focusing on their accessibility as antecedents for pronouns. Since only highly accessible discourse entities can serve as antecedents for simple pronouns, pronoun resolution preferences can reflect the degree of accessibility. In our first experiment, we analyzed fixation patterns of participants listening to sentence pairs like “I baked muffins no…
German Sentence Processing
Case Matching and Relative Clause Attachment
Relative clause attachment in German, English, Spanish and French
Structural, Functional, and Processing Perspectives on Linguistic Island Effects
Ross (1967) observed that “island” structures like “Who do you think [ NP the gift from__] prompted the rumor?” or “Who did you hear [ NP the statement [ S that the CEO promoted__]]?” are not acceptable, despite having what seem to be plausible meanings in some contexts. Ross (1967) and Chomsky (1973) hypothesized that the source of the unacceptability is in the syntax. Here, we summarize how theories of discourse, frequency, and memory from the …
Accessibility of negated constituents in reading and listening
In two experiments conducted in French, we investigated the representation of negated constituents, focusing on their accessibility as antecedents for pronouns. Since only highly accessible discourse entities can serve as antecedents for simple pronouns, pronoun resolution preferences can reflect the degree of accessibility. In our first experiment, we analyzed fixation patterns of participants listening to sentence pairs like “I baked muffins no…
Case Matching and Relative Clause Attachment
Sœurs de Même Taille
Dans deux expériences, chacune réalisée en français et en anglais, nous montrons que la préférence d'attachement d'une phrase relative à une coordination de syntagmes nominaux peut être modifiée par la longueur du premier conjoint. Alors qu'un attachement haut à la coordination est généralement préféré dans les deux langues, un attachement bas au second conjoint seulement devient plus acceptable pour les phrases dont le premier conjoint est plus …
Information structure effects on anaphora resolution in German and French
This paper presents an off-line study consisting of five questionnaires in which we observed interpretational preferences for ambiguous intra-sentential pronouns in parallel structures in German and French. We tested the influence of information structural factors, in particular, we compared the effects of topicalizing versus focusing potential antecedents of the ambiguous pronoun. Results replicated a baseline difference between the two language…
Voice mismatch and contrast in French Right-Node Raising
Right-Node Raising is generally considered to impose stricter identity conditions than other kinds of ellipsis, such as VP ellipsis, according to Hankamer & Sag 1976 and Hardt 1993. In this paper, we investigate voice mismatch in French Right-Node Raising (RNR) through a corpus study and two experiments. We show that RNR with voice mismatch can be found in a written corpus (frTenTen 2012) and that many examples involve coordination of a reflexive…
German Sentence Processing
Case Matching and Relative Clause Attachment
Accessibility of negated constituents in reading and listening
In two experiments conducted in French, we investigated the representation of negated constituents, focusing on their accessibility as antecedents for pronouns. Since only highly accessible discourse entities can serve as antecedents for simple pronouns, pronoun resolution preferences can reflect the degree of accessibility. In our first experiment, we analyzed fixation patterns of participants listening to sentence pairs like “I baked muffins no…
Information structure effects on anaphora resolution in German and French
This paper presents an off-line study consisting of five questionnaires in which we observed interpretational preferences for ambiguous intra-sentential pronouns in parallel structures in German and French. We tested the influence of information structural factors, in particular, we compared the effects of topicalizing versus focusing potential antecedents of the ambiguous pronoun. Results replicated a baseline difference between the two language…
Prosodic Realizations of Information Focus in French
Relative clause attachment in German, English, Spanish and French
Effects of exposure and information structure in native and non-native pronoun resolution in French
The present study investigated pronoun resolution strategies in French native speakers and in German-speaking learners of French. French and German differ in antecedent preferences in ambiguous constructions such as The postman hit the pirate before he went home : while French shows a N2-preference, German shows a N1-preference. This difference is explained by effects of exposure to an unambiguous alternative construction referring to N1 that exi…
First Language Influence on Second Language Offline and Online Ambiguous Pronoun Resolution
This study examined first language (L1) influence on second language (L2) ambiguous pronoun resolution by investigating (a) whether L1 influence takes place at the level of the pronominal form (form-dependent influence) and/or at the level of the construction in which the form appears (construction-dependent influence) and (b) whether effects differ in online compared to offline data. In Experiment 1, we replicated previously observed constructio…
Missing Antecedents Found
Numerous papers have used so-called `missing antecedent phenomena' as a criterion for distinguishing deep and surface anaphora. Specifically, only the latter are claimed to licence pronouns with missing antecedents. These papers also argue that missing antecedent phenomena provide evidence that surface anaphora involve unpronounced syntactic structure in the ellipsis site. The present paper suggests that the acceptability judgments on which the a…
Extraction from subjects
The Effect of Semantic and Discourse Features on the Use of Null and Overt Subjects - A Quantitative Study of Third Person Subjects in Brazilian Portuguese
In a corpus study and two acceptability experiments, we investigate whether semantic and discourse features of the antecedents affect the use of null and overt subjects in Brazilian Portuguese. Previous literature has proposed two hypotheses: the Hierarchy of Referentiality Hypothesis (Cyrino et al. 2000, inter alia) and the Semantic Gender Hypothesis (Creus & Menuzzi 2004, among others). We show that animacy and specificity affect the relative f…
Corpus, experimental and modeling investigations of cross-linguistic differences in pronoun resolution preferences
We investigate the impact of syntactic alternatives on pronoun resolution in ambiguous constructions in English and French. Previous research detected language-specific preferences in pronoun resolution in utterances of the type “The postman met the streetsweeper before he went home”. These preferences have been attributed to the interaction of information structural and syntactic constraints inducing a subject bias on the one hand, and Gricean r…
Structural, Functional, and Processing Perspectives on Linguistic Island Effects
Ross (1967) observed that “island” structures like “Who do you think [ NP the gift from__] prompted the rumor?” or “Who did you hear [ NP the statement [ S that the CEO promoted__]]?” are not acceptable, despite having what seem to be plausible meanings in some contexts. Ross (1967) and Chomsky (1973) hypothesized that the source of the unacceptability is in the syntax. Here, we summarize how theories of discourse, frequency, and memory from the …
Sœurs de Même Taille
Dans deux expériences, chacune réalisée en français et en anglais, nous montrons que la préférence d'attachement d'une phrase relative à une coordination de syntagmes nominaux peut être modifiée par la longueur du premier conjoint. Alors qu'un attachement haut à la coordination est généralement préféré dans les deux langues, un attachement bas au second conjoint seulement devient plus acceptable pour les phrases dont le premier conjoint est plus …
Voice mismatch and contrast in French Right-Node Raising
Right-Node Raising is generally considered to impose stricter identity conditions than other kinds of ellipsis, such as VP ellipsis, according to Hankamer & Sag 1976 and Hardt 1993. In this paper, we investigate voice mismatch in French Right-Node Raising (RNR) through a corpus study and two experiments. We show that RNR with voice mismatch can be found in a written corpus (frTenTen 2012) and that many examples involve coordination of a reflexive…
Verb Phrase Ellipsis with nominal antecedents
This paper brings new theoretical and experimental evidence to bear on the classical question of whether Verb Phrase Ellipsis requires a syntactically identical antecedent and how it differs, in this respect, from the Verb Phrase Anaphor do it. We focus on the case of VPE with nominal antecedents and argue that it is always grammatical. Its acceptability is variable and is predicted by a discourse condition on VPE, namely that VPE prefers a salie…
Subject Alternation and Antecedent Preference in Romanian
In this paper, we will study the use of null pronouns on the one hand and the interpretation of null and pronominal subjects on the other hand in Romanian. While both questions have been studied across a wide range of Romance languages, empirical data on Romanian are still missing in the literature. Our first three experiments, using a binary choice of possible answers to questions, show that null subjects are generally preferred in Romanian. Thi…
Interference of Implicit Causality in Relative Clause Processing
Differences in the processing of subject and object relative clauses have been explained by a combination of syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic factors, such as a general subject advantage based on syntactic constraints, effects of animacy, and the discourse status of relative clause internal subjects. In this paper, we will focus on a factor related to verb meaning, the implicit causality of the verb, which biases the principal causer of the eve…
Discourse-based constraints on long-distance dependencies generalize across constructions in English and French
The article presents four acceptability judgment experiments that evaluate novel predictions of the Focus-Background Conflict constraint (Abeillé et al. 2020, Cognition) with respect to the acceptability of long distance dependencies for so-called "subject islands" in English and French. In contrast with syntactic accounts, the Focus-Background Conflict constraint predicts differential behavior across different constructions. The current paper te…
L’acquisition du placement de l’adjectif épithète en français L2 par les apprenants sinophones
Cet article porte sur l’étude des erreurs de surgénéralisation concernant le placement de l’adjectif épithète en français L2 par les apprenants sinophones. Nous avons mené une expérience à choix forcé avec trois groupes d’apprenants (niveaux débutant (N = 27), niveau intermédiaire (N = 27) et niveau avancé (N = 25)) dont la langue première et dominante est le chinois mandarin. Un groupe de locuteurs ayant le français comme langue première et domi…
Developing sociolinguistic evaluative competence
As children acquire the core rules of their language, they also develop the ability to use it in a sociolinguistically adapted way. Although some works have addressed the production of sociolinguistic variables, few have explored the development of a sociolinguistic evaluative competence in children and their ability to pair linguistic forms and social meanings. With an aged-adapted matched-guise paradigm, we investigate how monolingual children …
Computer Science (16 works) · Linguistics (16 works) · Psychology (15 works) · Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism (11 works) · Philosophy (11 works) · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation (11 works) · Mathematics (10 works) · Natural language processing (10 works) · Artificial Intelligence (9 works) · Artificial Intelligence (7 works)