Download or read book Discourse Structure and Anaphora written by Barbara A. Fox and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1993-02-11 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Barbara Fox's thoughtful study examines the use of anaphora in both written and spoken discourse. Any treatment of anaphora must consider the hierarchical of its source texts-type. Texts may be produced and heard or read linearly, but they are designed and understood hierarchically. Discourse Structure and Anaphora goes beyond the information processing concerns of cognitive science to assess the critical role played in all text-types by social, interactional and affective factors. It also considers the fact that texts are organised by socially accepted conventions. Using conversation analysis and rhetorical structure analysis, this book looks at the distribution of pronouns and full noun phrases in three different genres of English, taking data from naturally occurring face-to-face and telephone conversations, small newspaper and magazine articles and a psychoanalytic biography.

Download or read book A Formal Approach to Discourse Anaphora written by Bonnie Lynn Webber and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-11-18 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1979, this book starts from the perspective that dealing with anaphoric language can be decomposed into two complementary tasks: 1. identifying what a text potentially makes available for anaphoric reference and 2. constraining the candidate set of a given anaphoric expression down to one possible choice. The author argues there is an intimate connection between formal sentential analysis and the synthesis of an appropriate conceptual model of the discourse. Some of the issues with the creation of this conceptual model are discussed in the second chapter, which follows a background to the thesis that catalogues the types of anaphoric expression available in English and lists the types of things that can be referred to anaphorically. The third and fourth chapters examine two types of anaphoric expression that do not refer to non-linguistic entities. The final chapter details three areas into which this research could potentially be extended. This book will be of interest to students of linguistics.

Download or read book Reference to Abstract Objects in Discourse written by Nicholas Asher and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 468 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reference to Abstract Objects in Discourse presents a novel framework and analysis of the ways we refer to abstract objects in natural language discourse. The book begins with a typology of abstract objects and related entities like eventualities. After an introduction to `bottom up, compositional' discourse representation theory (DRT) and to previous work on abstract objects in DRT (notably work on the semantics of the attitudes), the book turns to a semantic analysis of eventuality and abstract object denoting nominals in English. The book then substantially revises and extends the dynamic semantic framework of DRT to develop an analysis of anaphoric reference to abstract objects and eventualities that exploits discourse structure and the discourse relations that obtain between elements of the structure. A dynamic, semantically based theory of discourse structure (SDRT) is proposed, along with many illustrative examples. Two further chapters then provide the analysis of anaphoric reference to propositions VP ellipsis. The abstract entity anaphoric antecedents are elements of the discourse structures that SDRT develops. The final chapter discusses some logical and philosophical difficulties for a semantic analysis of reference to abstract objects. For semanticists, philosophers of language, computer scientists interested in natural language applications and discourse, philosophical logicians, graduate students in linguistics, philosophy, cognitive science and artificial intelligence.

Download or read book Implicatures in Discourse written by Sarah E. Blackwell and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 2003 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Implicatures in Discourse" examines Spanish conversations and oral narratives in order to seek support for a pragmatic theory of anaphora. Blackwell argues that the use of anaphoric expressions may be considered conversational implicatures that give rise to inferences of coreference and non-coreference. Her analysis shows how speakers abide by Levinson's 'neo-Gricean' principles of Quantity, Informativeness, and Manner, but that grammatical, semantic, cognitive, and pragmatic constraints interact with the neo-Gricean principles, influencing anaphora use and interpretation. The study also reveals how mutual knowledge, including familiarity with Spanish social and cultural norms, enables interlocutors to use and comprehend minimal referring expressions, which cultural outsiders may not be able to interpret. While drawing on earlier work on anaphora and reference, this book offers a fresh look at discourse anaphora, and sheds light on the ways in which speakers felicitously use and interpret anaphoric expressions in a variety of communicative contexts.

Download or read book Anaphora and Conceptual Structure written by Karen van Hoek and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1997-09-02 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Karen van Hoek presents a cogent analysis of the classic problem of constraints on pronominal anaphora within the framework of Cognitive Grammar. Van Hoek proceeds from the position that grammatical structure can be characterized in terms of semantic and phonological representations, without autonomous syntactic structures or principles such as tree structures or c-command. She argues that constraints on anaphora can be explained in terms of semantic interactions between nominals and the contexts in which they are embedded. Integrating the results of previous work, Van Hoek develops a model in which some nominals function as "conceptual reference points" that dominate over stretches defined by the semantic relations among elements. When a full noun is in the domain of a reference point, coreference is ruled out, since the speaker would be sending contradictory messages about the salience of the noun's referent. With profound implications for the nature of syntax, this book will interest theoretical linguists of all persuasions.

Download or read book Bridging Inferences written by Matthias Irmer and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2011-07-28 with total page 425 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents work on bridging inferences in discourse interpretation. It develops a formalization that permits integrating indirect anaphora in the construction of a structured discourse representation. From a broader perspective, it provides a suitable dynamic-logic framework which can account for underspecifications in cohesion and coherence of discourses by either inferentially resolving or contextually constraining them. Special attention is given to the resolution of bridging anaphora by means of integrating encyclopedic knowledge encoded in FrameNet into a formal theory of discourse structure as provided by Segmented Discourse Representation Theory. A second focus lies on the discourse effects of Clitic Left Dislocation in Spanish. In addition, the book provides a synopsis of the problems, methods, approaches, and desiderata of research on text, context, and discourse interpretation from formal, computational, cognitive, and psychological points of view. Central topics include pragmatic inferences and defeasible reasoning, the Common Ground, cohesion and anaphora resolution, coherence and discourse structure, and discourse interpretation. The volume may thus also serve as a reference book on text meaning and context.

Download or read book Studies in Anaphora written by Barbara A. Fox and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 1996 with total page 530 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The last 15 years has seen an explosion of research on the topic of anaphora. Studies of anaphora have been important to our understanding of cognitive processes, the relationships between social interaction and grammar, and of directionality in diachronic change. The contributions to this volume represent the “next generation” of studies in anaphora — defined broadly as those morpho-syntactic forms available to speakers for formulating reference — taking as their starting point the foundation of research done in the 1980s. These studies examine in detail, and with a richness of methods and theories, what patterns of anaphoric usage can reveal to us about cognition, social interaction, and language change.

Download or read book Backwards Anaphora and Discourse Structure written by Peter Sells and published by . This book was released on 1987 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Anaphora Resolution written by Ruslan Mitkov and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-02-24 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Teaching computers to solve language problems is one of the major challenges of natural language processing. There is a large amount of interesting research devoted to this field. This book fills an existing gap in the literature with an up-to-date survey of the field, including the author’s own contributions. A number of different fields overlap in anaphora resolution – computational linguistics, natural language processing (NLP), grammar, semantics, pragmatics, discourse analysis and artificial intelligence. This book begins by introducing basic notions and terminology, moving onto early research methods and approaches, recent developments and applications, and future directions. It addresses various issues related to the practical implementation of anaphora systems, such as rules employed, algorithms implemented or evaluation techniques used. This is an ideal reference book for students and researchers in this particular area of computational linguistics. Since anaphora resolution is vital for the development of any practical NLP system, the book will be of interest to readers from both academia and industry.

Download or read book The Syntax of Anaphora written by Ken Safir and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2004-04-08 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this work, Ken Safir develops a comprehensive theory on the role of anaphora in syntax. First, he contends that the complementary distribution of forms that support the anaphoric readings is not accidental, contrary to most current thinking, but rather should be derived from a principle, one that he proposes in the form of an algorithm. Secondly, he maintains that dependent identity relations are always possible where they are not prohibited by a constraint. Lastly, he proposes that there are no parameters of anaphora - that all anaphora-specific principles are universal, and that the patterns of anaphora across languages arise entirely from a restricted set of lexical properties. This comprehensive consideration of anaphora redirects current thinking on the subject.

Download or read book Anaphora Resolution and Text Retrieval written by Helene Schmolz and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2015-03-30 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book covers anaphora resolution for the English language from a linguistic and computational point of view. First, a definition of anaphors that applies to linguistics as well as information technology is given. On this foundation, all types of anaphors and their characteristics for English are outlined. To examine how frequent each type of anaphor is, a corpus of different hypertexts has been established and analysed with regard to anaphors. The most frequent type are non-finite clause anaphors - a type which has never been investigated so far. Therefore, the potential of non-finite clause anaphors are further explored with respect to anaphora resolution. After presenting the fundamentals of computational anaphora resolution and its application in text retrieval, rules for resolving non-finite clause anaphors are established. Therefore, this book shows that a truly interdisciplinary approach can achieve results which would not have been possible otherwise. Open Access: In July 2019, this volume was retroactively turned into an Open Access publication thanks to the support of the Fachinformationsdienst Linguistik. https://www.linguistik.de/

Download or read book Handbook of Logic and Language written by Johan F.A.K. van Benthem and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2010-12-17 with total page 1169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The logical study of language is becoming more interdisciplinary, playing a role in fields such as computer science, artificial intelligence, cognitive science and game theory. This new edition, written by the leading experts in the field, presents an overview of the latest developments at the interface of logic and linguistics as well as a historical perspective. It is divided into three parts covering Frameworks, General Topics and Descriptive Themes. - Completely revised and updated - includes over 25% new material - Discusses the interface between logic and language - Many of the authors are creators or active developers of the theories

Download or read book Essays on Anaphora written by H. Lasnik and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The articles collected in this book are concerned with the treatment of anaphora within generative grammar, specifically, within Chomsky's 'Ex tended Standard Theory' (EST). Since the inception of this theory, and virtually since the inception of generative grammar, anaphora has been a central topic of investigation. In current research, it has, perhaps, become even more central, as a major focus of study in such areas as syntax, semantics, discourse analysis, and language acquisition. Beginning in the early 1970's, and continuing to the present, Chomsky has developed a comprehensive syntactic theory of anaphora. The articles here are all related to stages in the development of that theory, and can best be understood in relation to that development. For that reason, Chapter 1 presents a historical survey of Chomsky's EST proposals on anaphora, along with brief indications of how the present articles fit into that history. Some of the articles here (e.g. Chapters 4, 8, and 9) proposed extensions of Chomsky's basic ideas to a wider range of phenomena.

Download or read book Centering Theory in Discourse written by Marilyn A. Walker and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 474 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edited collection of previously unpublished papers focuses on Centering Theory, an account of local discourse structure. Developed in the context of computational linguistics and cognitive science, Centering theory has attracted the attention of an international interdisciplinary audience. As the authors focus on naturally occurring data, they join the general trend towards empiricism in research on computational models of discourse, providing a significant contribution to a fast-moving field.

Download or read book A Reference Grammar of Chinese written by Chu-Ren Huang and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2016-03-31 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Reference Grammar of Chinese is a comprehensive and up-to-date guide to the linguistic structure of Chinese, covering all of the important linguistic features of the language and incorporating insights gained from research in Chinese linguistics over the past thirty years. With contributions from twenty-two leading Chinese linguists, this authoritative guide uses large-scale corpora to provide authentic examples based on actual language use. The accompanying online example databases ensure that a wide range of exemplars are readily available and also allow for new usages to be updated. This design offers a new paradigm for a reference grammar where generalizations can be cross-checked with additional examples and also provide resources for both linguistic studies and language learning. Featuring bilingual term lists, this reference grammar helps readers to access relevant literature in both English and Chinese and is an invaluable reference for learners, teachers and researchers in Chinese linguistics and language processing.

Download or read book Anaphora and Semantic Interpretation written by Tanya Reinhart and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-11-25 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1983, this book examines anaphora — a central issue in linguistic theory as it lies at the crossroads of several major problems. On the one hand it is believed that the same conditions that govern the interpretation of anaphora also govern syntactic movement rules but on the other, while anaphora is known to interact with various discourse and semantic considerations, it also provides a clear instance of the dependency of the semantic interpretation of sentences upon semantic properties of natural language. This book has two major goals: the first is a comprehensive analysis of sentence-level anaphora that addresses the questions posed above, and the second is an examination of the broader issues of the relations between the structural properties of sentences and their semantic interpretation within the hypotheses of the autonomy of syntax and of interpretative semantics shown by Chomsky.

Download or read book Linguistic Foundations of Narration in Spoken and Sign Languages written by Annika Hübl and published by John Benjamins Publishing Company. This book was released on 2018-05-15 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent years, the focus of linguistic research has shifted from sentence to larger units such as text and discourse and accordingly from syntax to semantics and pragmatics. This has led to the development and application of corresponding discourse semantic and pragmatic theories such as, for instance, (S)DRT, Centering Theory, Accessibility Theory, QUD, Generalized Conversational Implicatures, Super Monsters and Gesture Semantics and new empirical approaches in the framework of experimental semantics and pragmatics or corpus linguistic discourse analysis. The contributions to this collected volume build on these developments and investigate the linguistic foundations of narration from various perspectives. The contributions address topics such as speech and thought representation, free indirect speech, information structure, anaphora resolution, co-speech gestures, classifier constructions as well as role shift and constructed action. The volume provides new insights in the linguistic structures underlying narration in written, spoken, and sign languages from an experimental, developmental, historical, typological, and theoretical perspective. The contributions will appeal to theoretical linguists, sign language linguists, typologists, literary scholars, psycholinguists, and philosophers.