Anaphora and Discourse Structure

Title: Anaphora and Discourse Structure

Research Question: Can common adverbial phrases that are typically seen as signaling a discourse relation between syntactically connected units within a discourse structure, actually work anaphorically to contribute relational meaning, with only indirect dependence on discourse structure?

Methodology: The researchers used a combination of linguistic analysis and computational modeling to investigate this question. They first identified common adverbial phrases that are often seen as discourse connectives, such as "but," "therefore," and "however." They then analyzed how these phrases contribute to the overall meaning of a discourse, focusing on their anaphoric relationships.

Results: The researchers found that many adverbial phrases work anaphorically to contribute relational meaning to a discourse, with only indirect dependence on discourse structure. This allows for a simpler discourse structure to provide scaffolding for compositional semantics, and reveals multiple ways in which the relational meaning conveyed by adverbial connectives can interact with that associated with discourse structure.

Implications: This research suggests that the relational meaning conveyed by adverbial connectives can be complex and multifaceted, and that these connectives may not always be directly tied to the discourse structure. This could have implications for how we understand and model discourse in natural language processing and other areas of linguistics.

Link to Article: https://arxiv.org/abs/0109010v2 Authors: arXiv ID: 0109010v2