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The Role of Gaze and the Semantics of Demonstratives in Referent Selection (Short Paper)

Authors Crystal H. Y. Chen, Lyn Tieu, Ana T. Pérez-Leroux

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Author Details

Crystal H. Y. Chen
  • University of Toronto, Canada
Lyn Tieu
  • University of Toronto, Canada
  • MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Sydney, Australia
  • Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
Ana T. Pérez-Leroux
  • University of Toronto, Canada

Funding

  • Chen, Crystal H. Y.: Vanier CGS.
  • Tieu, Lyn: SSHRC Insight Development Grant.
  • Pérez-Leroux, Ana T.: Department of Spanish and Portuguese (University of Toronto).

Cite AsGet BibTex

Crystal H. Y. Chen, Lyn Tieu, and Ana T. Pérez-Leroux. The Role of Gaze and the Semantics of Demonstratives in Referent Selection (Short Paper). In 16th International Conference on Spatial Information Theory (COSIT 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 315, pp. 20:1-20:8, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)
https://doi.org/10.4230/LIPIcs.COSIT.2024.20

Abstract

Demonstratives (this/that) situate objects in space with the aid of gestures and a proximal-distal contrast. However, it is unclear how these cues interact to aid the listener in referent selection. The current paper presents a referent selection task where listeners choose an object out of a group of objects based on a physical and verbal cue provided by a speaker. Results indicate that listeners are sensitive to a variety of cues, but only integrate the minimum amount of information necessary for referent selection, with physical cues being prioritized over the semantic contributions of the demonstrative.

Subject Classification

ACM Subject Classification
  • Theory of computation → Semantics and reasoning
Keywords
  • Demonstratives
  • spatial language
  • proximal-distal contrast
  • referent distance
  • joint attention coordination
  • gesture
  • deixis
  • referent selection
  • experimental semantics

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