Reference without anaphora

On Agency Through Grammar

Bibliographic Data

ID3988175
AuthorsChase Wesley Raymond (0000-0003-4353-7345, Department of Linguistics , University of Colorado, Boulder , Boulder , CO , USA, corresponding author), R Clift (0000-0002-5956-0438, University of Essex), J Heritage (0000-0002-8603-6447, University of California, Los Angeles)
Year2021
Volume59
Issue3
Pages715-755
Publication date2021-05-26
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLinguistics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0024-3949 • E-ISSN: 1613-396X
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/ling-2021-0058
OpenAlexW3120132436
LanguageEN
Citations received24
References cited122

In this article, we investigate a puzzle for standard accounts of reference in natural language processing, psycholinguistics and pragmatics: occasions where, following an initial reference (e.g.,the ice), a subsequent reference is achieved using the same noun phrase (i.e.,the ice), as opposed to an anaphoric form (i.e.,it). We argue that such non-anaphoric reference can be understood as motivated by a central principle: the expression of agency in interaction. In developing this claim, we draw upon research in what may initially appear a wholly unconnected domain: the marking of epistemic and deontic stance, standardly investigated in linguistics as turn-level grammatical phenomena. Examination of naturally-occurring talk reveals that to analyze such stances solely though the lens of turn-level resources (e.g., modals) is to address only partially the means by which participants make epistemic and deontic claims in everyday discourse. Speakers' use of referential expressions illustrates a normative dimension of grammar that incorporates both form and position, thereby affording speakers the ability to actively depart from this form-position norm through the use of a repeated NP, a grammatical practice that we show is associated with the expression of epistemic and deontic authority. It is argued that interactants can thus be seen to be agentively mobilizing the resources of grammar to accommodate the inescapable temporality of interaction

Agency (philosophy) · Anaphora (linguistics) · Deontic logic · Epistemology · Expression (computer science) · Grammar · Linguistics · Norm (philosophy) · Normative · Noun · Noun phrase · Pragmatics · Resolution (logic) · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition · Philosophy · Psychology · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access