Centering Theory in Discourse
Title | Centering Theory in Discourse PDF eBook |
Author | Marilyn A. Walker |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Pages | 474 |
Release | 1998 |
Genre | Language Arts & Disciplines |
ISBN | 9780198236870 |
This edited collection of previously unpublished papers focuses on Centering Theory, an account of local discourse structure.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.
Where Centering Meets Chinese Discourse
Title | Where Centering Meets Chinese Discourse PDF eBook |
Author | Saina Wuyun |
Publisher | Springer Nature |
Pages | 197 |
Release | 2020-11-10 |
Genre | Language Arts & Disciplines |
ISBN | 9811586667 |
This book addresses the question: What can close discourse analysis contribute to the understanding of language? To do so, it presents a centering theory-based computational approach to discourse analysis concerning Chinese bei passive sentences, disposal ba constructions, ditransitive gei sentences, and locative fang sentences. The book first discusses the use of discourse analysis in the context of bei and ba constructions and then demonstrates how discourse analysis can contribute to the syntactic and semantic studies of these sentences. It also examines the various thematic roles differentiated in these four special sentence patterns, namely agent, recipient, theme/patient, and locative, and reveals the various degrees of discourse accessibility of these thematic roles. Exploring the correlation between centering theory and Chinese discourse, the book is a valuable resource for anyone interested in discourse analysis and Chinese special sentential structures, especially the formal approaches to these issues.
Centering Theory in contrast to the demonstrative description’s capability of ensuring referential continuity by “breaking” it
Title | Centering Theory in contrast to the demonstrative description’s capability of ensuring referential continuity by “breaking” it PDF eBook |
Author | |
Publisher | GRIN Verlag |
Pages | 23 |
Release | 2018-01-11 |
Genre | Foreign Language Study |
ISBN | 3668609152 |
Essay from the year 2016 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Grammar, Style, Working Technique, grade: 1.0, University of Tubingen, language: English, abstract: Comparing the apparent contrasting statements of Centering Theory and Fossard, Garnham and Cowles (2012) in regards to demonstrative descriptions, I particularly examined reference resolution as an influencing factor of text coherence. According to the results of Fossard et al. (2012), the reference resolution of demonstrative descriptions was only facilitated when the predicative information referred to the subordinate character in a gender-ambiguous condition. As demonstrative descriptions have an exceptional discourse function due to their anadeictic dimension, they are capable of ensuring unexpected referential continuity by marking a discontinuity with the previous context. In regards to Centering Theory, however, a discourse is more coherent if utterances preserve the same topic and keep it as the highest-focused entity without diminishing its relative ranking. This continue transition state is considered most preferable. While demonstrative descriptions serve in an unexpected and unique way, their exceptionality seems to be beyond the Centering Theory’s stated preferences for text coherence and hence not against it.
A Preliminary Model of Centering in Dialog
Title | A Preliminary Model of Centering in Dialog PDF eBook |
Author | |
Publisher | |
Pages | 0 |
Release | 1998 |
Genre | |
ISBN |
The centering framework explains local discourse coherence by relating a speaker's focus of attention and the forms of referring expressions. Although this framework has proven useful in single-speaker discourse, its utility for multi-party discourse has not been shown. It is unclear how to adapt it to handle discourse phenomena such as turn-taking, acknowledgments, first and second person pronouns, and disfluencies. This paper reports our experiments applying three naive models of centering theory for dialog. These results will be used as a baseline for future, more sophisticated models.
THE GENERATION OF BRIDGING ANAPHORA IN STREAM-OF-CONSCIOUSNESS DISCOURSE
Title | THE GENERATION OF BRIDGING ANAPHORA IN STREAM-OF-CONSCIOUSNESS DISCOURSE PDF eBook |
Author | WEI ZHAO |
Publisher | American Academic Press |
Pages | 245 |
Release | 2021-10-22 |
Genre | Education |
ISBN | 1631815466 |
This study mainly focuses on the revision and extension of two Rules of Standard Centering Theory (Pronoun Rule and Transition Rule) to develop the constraints on the generation algorithm of bridging anaphora (BA) in stream-of-consciousness (SOC) discourse from a revised Centering perspective by incorporating the revised neo-Gricean pragmatic M-principle into the standard Centering. The Centering Theory combined with the revised neo-Gricean pragmatic M-principle is supposed to impose some grammatical and pragmatic constraints on backward-looking center realization and movement. It provides theoretical rationale for an account of constraints on full noun phrase and elliptical zero pronoun bridging anaphora generation in terms of the interaction and the division of labor between syntax and pragmatics. As to both, one cannot alone handle bridging anaphora without the other. Even though syntax and pragmatics operate at distinct levels of linguistic explanation, they appear to interact systematically in the case of bridging anaphora generation. On the one hand, syntax sets certain restrictions on salience and distributions of bridging anaphora and regulates the part of interpretation which is related to grammatical structure. On the other hand, the choice of bridging anaphoric expressions by writers and their interpretation by readers heavily dependents on preference which is regulated by the M-principle of language use and communication. Hence, the bridging anaphora generation algorithm based on the incorporation of the revised neo-Gricean pragmatic M-principle of communication into Centering provides a neat and reasonable explanation for bridging full noun phrase and elliptical zero pronoun generation.
Centering: A Framework for Modelling the Local Coherence of Discourse
Title | Centering: A Framework for Modelling the Local Coherence of Discourse PDF eBook |
Author | |
Publisher | |
Pages | 0 |
Release | 1995 |
Genre | |
ISBN |
This paper concerns relationships among focus of attention, choice of referring expression, and perceived coherence of utterances within a discourse segment. It presents a framework and initial theory of centering which are intended to model the local component of attentional state. The paper examines interactions between local coherence and choice of referring expressions; it argues that differences in coherence correspond in part to the inference demands made by different types of referring expressions given a particular attentional state. It demonstrates that the attentional state properties modeled by centering can account for these differences.
Salience
Title | Salience PDF eBook |
Author | Christian Chiarcos |
Publisher | Walter de Gruyter |
Pages | 289 |
Release | 2011 |
Genre | Computers |
ISBN | 3110240726 |
Salience refers to the prominence of information; salient items pop out and capture attention. This volume addresses the role of salience in discourse. It illustrates the range of multidisciplinary approaches - their diversities and similarities. The collection of papers covers a variety of research with different foci ranging from discourse entities, to discourse segments, to extra-linguistic factors.