Bezerra, G. & Leitão, M.
Federal University of Paraíba
Two experiments were performed in Brazilian Portuguese to investigate the Referentiality Principle (GILBOY, SOPENA, CLIFTON & FRAZIER, 1995): when two hosts are available for the relative clause, perceivers will prefer the host that is referential in the sense that it introduces an entity into a discourse model or corresponds to an already existing discourse entity (a noun being referential when introduced by a determiner). A self-paced reading was conducted considering four conditions: ?The policeman confiscated/ the bag of (the) leather/ that was illegally imported (Gender: N1/N2) / by the company?, with a final question focusing on the N1. The results did not reveal effect of N2 referentiality, but revealed a significant effect of gender information (F(1,31)= 8.31; p<0.01): participants preferred N1 attachment and answered YES to the question even when this answer was incorrect. However, a questionnaire study did show an influence of N2 referentiality (F(1,23) = 3.68; p<0.05): the number of N2 responses was significantly higher for a referential N2 than for a nonreferential N2. As predicted by Gilboy et al. (1995) for complex NPs of substance type, our general results reveal a preference for N1 attachment, with an increase of N2 attachment when the N2 was referential.