抄録
This article examined processes of relating sentences in comprehension of successive sentences. On the basis of previous findings, it is hypothesized that, if an anaphor is a noun which is identical with its antecedent, sentences can be related faster when the antecedent is in object position than in subject position of the former sentence; on the contrary, if an anaphor is a pronoun, sentences can be related faster when the antecedent is in subject position than in object position. In order to test this hypothesis, the surface form of anaphor (i.e., identical noun vs. pronoun), the syntactic position of antecedent (i.e., object vs. subject), and the postpositional particle of anaphor (i.e., “ga” vs. “wa”) were varied. Subjects read pairs of sentences, so constructed that the first sentence contained an antecedent and the second one contained an anaphor. Consistent with the prediction, the interaction between the surface form of anaphor and the syntactic position of antecedent was observed in comprehension time of the second sentence, regardless of postpositional particle. These results were discussed in terms of how readers utilized the surface form of anaphor in relating successive sentences.
