Indirect anaphora in text

A cognitive account

Dados Bibliográficos

ID23162143
AutoresMonika Schwarz-Friesel (autor correspondente)
Ano2007
Páginas3-20
Data de publicação2007-05-15
Open AccessNão
TipoCHAPTER
PeriódicoAnaphors in Text (SOURCE_BOOK)
EditoraJohn Benjamins Publishing Company (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1075/slcs.86.04sch
OpenAlexW2489966937
ISBN9789027230966
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas8

The term indirect anaphor (IA) refers to a definite NP which has no explicit antecedent in text and is linked via a cognitive process to some element in prior text which functions as some kind of anchor for the interpretation of IA. According to one popular view, IA are treated as phenomena that can best be explained in terms of associability. In this paper I will argue for a more complex cognitive approach. Taking a procedural perspective, I want to demonstrate, firstly, that there are different types of IA. A distinction will be drawn between IA which are based on the activation of semantic knowledge in the mental lexicon and IA which require more general conceptual knowledge for their interpretation. I will base the discussion on naturally occurring data from German texts. All kinds of indirect anaphora have to be seen as “given-and-new-entities”. Combining both easy accessibility and the establishment of new referential files in text-world models, they serve as “progressive continuity markers”. The second aim of this paper is to illustrate that in many cases there is no clear-cut distinction between direct and indirect anaphora in text, showing that the most typical examples of direct and indirect anaphors may best be regarded as two extremes on a continuum of textual reference, thereby weakening the claim for a strict distinction between the two types and arguing for a unified account in explaining the interpretation of referring expressions.

Anaphora (linguistics) · Linguistics · Natural language processing · Resolution (logic) · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition · Linguistic research and analysis · linguistics and terminology studies · Philosophy