Week 9: Anaphora and co-reference

Question 1

Anaphora

Answer 1

The use of a word which refers to, or is a substitute for, a preceding word or group of words.

Question 2

What is anaphora the relationship between?

Answer 2

An anaphor and an antecendant

Question 3

What is the antecedant?

Answer 3

The thing being referred back to

Question 4

What is the anaphor?

Answer 4

Something that refers back to a preceding expression (the antecedant)

Question 5

Cataphora

Answer 5

The forward reference relation
(often this is included in the term anaphora)

Question 6

Anaphoric chain

Answer 6

When anaphors are themselves antecedents, creating a chain of linked anaphors

Question 7

anaphora resolution

Answer 7

the process by which the addressee/reader makes the correct anaphoric relations in order for communication to be successful

Question 8

Deixis

Answer 8

a relation where the referent of an expression is determined in relation to features of the utterance act: the time, the place and the participants

Question 9

What is deixis a type of?

Answer 9

exophora

Question 10

Discourse deixis

Answer 10

Deixis where the referent is in the discourse (no longer a type of exophora)

Question 11

Name three types of anaphoric relations

Answer 11

Co-reference
Associative anaphora/indirect anaphora/bridging
Substitution

Question 12

What is the prototypical and simplest anaphoric relation?

Answer 12

Co-reference

Question 13

What is co-reference?

Answer 13

Where the anaphor and antecedent have the same referent.

Question 14

What semantic relation(s) play a role in co-reference?

Answer 14

synonymy and hyponymy/hypernymy

Question 15

What semantic relation(s) play a role in associative anaphora?

Answer 15

meronymy

Question 16

What is substitution?

Answer 16

Where part of an NP is substituted for something else

Question 17

What words are often used for substitution in English?

Answer 17

one
do
so

Question 18

Give some examples of non-referential noun phrases

Answer 18

Copular verb with an indefinite noun phrases
Dummy subjects
Clefting

Question 19

What is generic reference?

Answer 19

The noun phrase refers to an entire class of entities rather than a specific entity

Question 20

What is typically excluded from analysis of anaphors?

Answer 20

Anything that is not co-reference (substitution and associative reference)

Non-referential noun phrases

Generic reference

Deictic reference

Any anaphor whose antecedent is not a word or group of words.

Question 21

When is a noun phrase definite?

Answer 21

When the referent is identifiable.

Question 22

What type of notion is definiteness?

Answer 22

Grammatical

Question 23

Noun phrases that are marked as indefinite…

Answer 23

…denote a referent that is not identifiable

Question 24

What type of notion are given and new?

Answer 24

Pragmatic
They are concerned with the status of the referent in the discourse.

Question 25

What is a given referent?

Answer 25

A given referent is known to the hearer/addressee

Question 26

What is a new referent?

Answer 26

A new referent is not yet known to the hearer/addressee

Question 27

An anaphor with co-reference denotes a ______ referent, more specifically,...

Answer 27

given ...one that is given in the text

Question 28

What is often a new referent?

Answer 28

The first antecedent in an anaphoric chain.

Question 29

Give examples of definite noun phrases

Answer 29

Proper names Noun phrases with this/that Noun phrases with the Noun phrases with a possessive determiner

Question 30

What is Ariel's accessibility theory?

Answer 30

“referring expressions are actually accessibility markers, i.e., expressions cueing the addressee on how to retrieve the appropriate mental representation in terms of degree of mental accessibility”

Question 31

Which is more accessible: full name + modifier full name

Answer 31

full name

Question 32

Which is more accessible: long definite NP full name

Answer 32

long definite NP

Question 33

Which is more accessible: long definite NP first name

Answer 33

first name

Question 34

Which is more accessible: short definite NP last name

Answer 34

last name

Question 35

Which thing is least accessible

Answer 35

full name + modifier

Question 36

Explain what accessibility represents

Answer 36

How much grammatical structure is needed to identify it: something that is highly accessible needs very little grammatical structure to identify it

Question 37

Which thing is most accessible (excluding zero)

Answer 37

cliticised pronoun (e.g. herself)

Question 38

Which is more accessible: NP with this/these NP with that/those

Answer 38

NP with this/these

Question 39

Put these in order of accessibility (low to high): stressed pronoun unstressed pronoun that/those

Answer 39

that/those stressed pronoun unstressed pronoun

Question 40

Put these in order of accessibility (low to high): NP with that/those first name stressed pronoun

Answer 40

first name NP with that/those stressed pronoun

Question 41

Put these in order of accessibility (low to high): stressed pronoun cliticised pronoun unstressed pronoun

Answer 41

stressed pronoun unstressed pronoun cliticised pronoun

Question 42

List 5 things that affect the accessibility of the referent

Answer 42

1. Discourse-given vs discourse-new 2. Distance between anaphor and antecedent 3. Intervention of alternative antecedents (disambiguations) 4. Breaks or interruptions in the discourse 5. Importance of the referent

Question 43

Endophoric relations

Answer 43

In-text phoric relations

Question 44

Exophoric relations

Answer 44

Opposite of endophoric relations, i.e. out-of-text phoric relations