El procesamiento de oraciones con conectores adversativos y causales

Abstract

The functional role of adversative (but, although) and causal (because, since) connectives was explored. In Experiment 1, participants read sentences with adversative or causal biases, and with the corresponding connective either present or absent (e.g., While climbing up the mountain the mountaineer was unfortunate [because} when he arrived he twisted his ankle). The connective speeded up reading during most of the second clause (when he arrived he twisted) and the next sentence, but slowed down reading in the last segment of the former clause (his ankle). In Experiment 2, every sentence included a connective, but only half of them matched the sentence bias (e.g., The pedestrian tried to jump the pool in the street, but [because} she fell on her button in the water). The results showed that readers read the second clause much slower when the connective was inappropriate. Similar results were obtained in Experiment 3, in which the connectives although or because were used cataphorically at the beginning of the sentence. The results are discussed in terms of Givón's functionalist theory, and Talmy's notion of force dynamics