• Language and Information
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.1-26
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• 2008

This paper proposes a dynamic approach to anaphoric resolution in conjunction phrases, in terms of Discourse Representation Theory. Unlike Kamp, van Genabith, and Reyle (forthcomming)'s analysis, it proposes two different types of discourse representation structures for conjunction phrases; one for coordinate phrases such as and conjunction phrases and the other one for subordination conjunction phrases such as when subordination phrases. Following Chung (1992), Chung (2004), every element is processed in the order of occurrence and conjunction operators in a non-sentence-initial position cause the ongoing DR to split in two with the same index. DRS conditions and accessibility are accordingly modified so that DRs for conjunction clauses can be accessible from DRs for main clauses.

• Korean Journal of Logic
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.217-241
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• 2015

Brandom upholds the anaphoric theory of reference. On this theory, reference is a relation of anaphoric dependence between linguistic items rather than a substantial relation between linguistic items and non-linguistic objects. In addition, 'refers' is a pronoun-forming operator, which is used to form anaphorically indirect descriptions such as 'the one referred to as "Leibniz"'. Recently, Arbid $B{\aa}ve$ raises three objections against this theory. First, the anaphoric theory distinguishes between ordinary descriptions and anaphorically indirect descriptions in terms of iterability. But this condition is not an adequate ground for asserting that anaphorically indirect descriptions form a distinctive semantic category. Second, sentences containing a pronoun such as 'he' and sentences containing an anaphorically indirect description such as 'the one referred to as "Leibniz"' have different modal statuses. Consequently, indirect descriptions are semantically different from paradigmatic anaphors. Third, on the anaphoric theory, expressions of the form 'a' and the corresponding indirect descriptions of the form 'the one referred to as "a"' are intersubstitutable. But we can make an equivalent claim by using the more general semantic concepts such as equivalence and intersubstitutability, instead of using notions such as 'anaphor' and 'antecedent'. So the anaphoric theory is explanatorily idle. In this paper I argue that these objections do not pose a serious problem for the anaphoric theory of reference. I argue thereby that the anaphoric theory of reference is a promising theory which provides us with the right understanding of the expression 'refers'.

• KIPS Transactions on Software and Data Engineering
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• v.2 no.12
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• pp.873-880
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• 2013

This paper approaches the problem of resolving Korean zero pronouns using Centering Theory modeling local coherence. Centering Theory has been widely used to resolve English pronouns. However, it is much difficult to apply the centering framework for zero pronoun resolution in languages such as Japanese and Korean. Since in particular the use of non-anaphoric zero pronouns without explicit antecedents is not considered in the Centering Theory of Grosz et al., the presence of non-anaphoric cases negatively affects the performance of the resolution system based on Centering Theory. To overcome this, this paper presents a method which determines the intra-sentential anaphoricity of zero pronouns in subject position by using relationships between clauses, and then identifies antecedents of zero subjects. In our experiments, the proposed method outperforms the baseline method relying solely on Centering Theory.

• Korean Journal of Logic
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.401-435
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• 2016

Can a proposition that a sentence like "It is raining" represents be sometimes itself? or is it always ? This is known as the debate between Eternalism and Temporalism and belongs to the sub-category of the wider debate between Classical Propositionalism and Non-classical Propositionalism. Regarding this matter, Cappelen and Hawthorne(2009), supporting Eternalism[Classical Propositionalism], raise interesting objection to anaphoric 'that' argument that is one of the famous arguments supporting Temporalism. In this paper, I try to show how difficult it is to advocate Classical Propositionalism by refuting what Cappelen and Hawthorne claim.

• Language and Information
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.1-25
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• 2004

This paper examines two different approaches to resolving a theoretical problem which the bottom-up approach version of Discourse Representation Theory of Kamp et al. (2003) faces in dealing with anaphoric relations between pronouns and their potential antecedents in conditional sentences where consequent clauses precede their corresponding conditional clauses. In one of the approaches, every element is processed in the order of occurrence and conditional operators in a non-sentence-initial position cause the ongoing DR to split in two with the same index. The definition of accessibility is accordingly modified so that the right DR can be accessible from the left DR. In the other approach, a different type of discourse representation structure, K ${\Leftarrow}$ K, is introduced, which allows us to resolve the target problem without modifying accessibility proposed in Kamp et al. (2003). Compatibility of these two approaches with the bottom-up version of DRT is evaluated by examining their applicability to the analysis of quantified sentences where pronominal expressions precede generalized quantifiers.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.87-105
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• 2006

Many researchers have studied the relationship between the information structure and intonation. Arguments about the relations between the information structure and intonation researched so far can be summarized as follows: the intonation of topic and focus in English information structure is represented as i) a pitch accent, ii) a tune (a pitch accent + an edge tone), or iii) a boundary tone. The purpose of this paper is to study various informational patterns of the topic in English information structure, using real TV discussion data. In this paper, the topic is classified as contrastive topics and non-contrastive topics, based on contrastiveness. The results show that the intonation of the topic in English information structure is implemented as a pitch accent, neither a tune nor a boundary tone. Of the non-contrastive topics, while anaphoric determinative NP topics (Lnc, Lncd) are mainly represented as a H* pitch accent, the pronoun topic(Lp) does not have a pitch accent. Of contrastive topics, while the semantically focused topic(Lci) is mainly represented as a H* pitch accent, the contrastively focused topic(Lcc) is represented as both H* and L+H* pitch accents. It shows that it is not always true that the topic or focus to have the meaning of contrast is represented as a L+H* pitch accent as argued in the previous researches.

• Journal of KIISE:Software and Applications
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• v.37 no.12
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• pp.928-935
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• 2010

Identifying the referents of omitted elements in a text is an important task to many natural language processing applications such as machine translation, information extraction and so on. These omitted elements are often called zero anaphors or zero pronouns, and are regarded as one of the most common forms of reference. However, since all zero elements do not refer to explicit objects which occur in the same text, recent work on zero anaphora resolution have attempted to identify the anaphoricity of zero pronouns. This paper focuses on intra-sentential anaphoricity determination of subject zero pronouns that frequently occur in Korean. Unlike previous studies on pair-wise comparisons, this study attempts to determine the intra-sentential anaphoricity of zero pronouns by learning directly the structure of clauses in which either non-anaphoric or inter-sentential subject zero pronouns occur. The proposed method outperforms baseline methods, and anaphoricity determination of zero pronouns will play an important role in resolving zero anaphora.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.45
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• pp.381-431
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• 2016

This paper deals with Slavic discourse deixis comparing Russian, Polish, Czech and Bulgarian demonstrative and personal pronouns. In general, the Slavic proximal pronouns have precedence over the distal ones. Proximal pronouns, such as Russian eto, Polish to, and Bulgarian tova, are employed more frequently and widely than their distal counterparts to, tamto and onova. The distance-neutral pronoun to in Modern Czech was also a proximal pronoun in the past. These Slavic proximal and former-proximal pronouns function as a discourse deixis marker, whereas, in most other languages, the discourse deixis is mainly a function of distal or non-proximal demonstrative pronouns. However, the Russian, Polish, Czech, and Bulgarian discourse deixis differs in distal demonstrative and personal pronouns. In general, the Polish and Czech discourse deixis does not employ the distal demonstrative pronoun tamto or the personal pronoun ono. The Russian distal demonstrative pronoun to is actively used as a discourse deixis marker, and the personal pronoun ono can also be used to refer to the preceding discourse, though it is not frequent. In Bulgarian the distal demonstrative pronoun onova is rarely used to refer to a discourse, but the personal pronoun to frequently indicates a discourse that is repeatedly referred to in a text. The discourse deixis, which is a peripheral deixis and can be both deixis and anaphora, reveals different characteristics in different Slavic languages. In Russian, where all of the proximal, distal, and personal pronouns function as a discourse deixis marker, the deixis itself plays a crucial role in distinguishing these three pronouns from each other, revealing the speaker's psychological, emotional, temporal, and cognitive proximity to or distance from a given discourse. In Bulgarian, the most analytic Slavic language, the personal pronoun is used more as a discourse deixis marker to reveal the highest givenness of a discourse, and it seems that Bulgarian discourse deixis is more anaphoric than the other Slavic discourse deixis is.