CONNECTIVES
In our experimental pragmatics research, we focus on how connectives, as procedural elements, shape the interpretation of utterances and, consequently, communication itself. Due to their high sensitivity to contextual factors and their varied morphological, syntactic, and semantic properties, connectives establish different relationships between discourse segments. By guiding access to relevant contexts, they significantly influence the communicative process.
We hypothesize that connectives carry substantial communicative value, as they constrain interpretation by directing attention to specific contextual effects. To test this, we have conducted a series of experiments across multiple languages—Spanish, English, German, and Italian—examining the relationship between the formal properties of connectives and their cognitive processing.
Our research has led to the development of cognitive principles of discourse marking, which predict how connectives impact the processing of utterances (Loureda, Cruz & Recio, 2021). These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of how connectives facilitate coherence and continuity in discourse.
Current Researchers
- Prof. Dr. Óscar Loureda Lamas
- Sarah Thome, M.A.
Funded Projects
Proyecto REDES: Written Discourse and Cognition: Processing and comprehension of verbal and multimodal texts. Cooperation with the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso. Funded by the Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo (ANID) of Chile (2020-2022).
Discourse, cognition and linguistic markers: empirical studies on word processing using the eye-tracking method. Cooperation with the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Chile. Funded by the Chilean funding institution CONICYT (Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica, PII 20150058; 2016-2019).