Anaphora

The basics
Keywords
Cohesion
Anaphora
Anaphor
Antecedent
Anaphora resolution
Coreference
Coreferential
Pronominal anaphora
Lexical NP anaphora
Intrasentential and intersentential
Location of the antecedents
Cataphora
Anaphora and deixis
Outline of the lecture
Basic notions and terminology
Coreference
Varieties of anaphora according to the form
of the anaphor
Types of according to the locations of the
anaphor and the antecedent
Indirect anaphora
Location of the antecedent
Anaphora and cataphora
Basic notions and terminology (1)
Cohesion is a phenomenon accounting for the observation
(and assumption) that what people try to communicate in
spoken or written form under normal circumstances is a
coherent whole, rather than a collection of isolated or
unrelated sentences, phrases or words
Sipping the last of the bitter cordial, the businessman was
presented with the cheque. A look of incredulity crept over
his face.
Sipping the last of the bitter cordial, the businessman was
presented with the cheque. A look of incredulity crept over
her face.
Sipping the last of the bitter cordial, the businessman was
presented with the cheque. This lecture is about anaphora.
Basic notions and terminology (2)
Anaphora (Haliday & Hasan 76): cohesion
which points back to some previous item
Pointing back, NOT referring!
Anaphor: the "pointing back" word
Antecedent: the entity to which it refers or
for which it stands
Anaphora resolution: the process of
determining the antecedent of an anaphor
Basic notions and terminology (3)

Coreference: the act of picking out the

same referent in the real world.
Anaphors and antecedents are said to be
coreferential if they have the same referent
in the real world
Example
Sophia Loren says she will always be
grateful to Bono. The actress revealed that
the U2 singer helped her calm down when
she became scared by a thunderstorm while
travelling on a plane.
Coreferential chains: {Sophia Loren, she,
the actress, her, she}, {Bono, the U2
singer}, {a thunderstorm}, {a plane}
Coreference and anaphora
Not all types of anaphora involve coreference!
Identity-of-sense anaphora: The man who gave
his paycheck to his wife was wiser that the man
who gave it to his mistress
Verb anaphora: Stephanie balked, as did Mike
Bound anaphora: Every man has his own agenda
Substitution test
to establish coreference

John has his own agenda

John has Johns own agenda
Every man has his own agenda.
Every man has every mans own agenda. ??
Coreference and anaphora (2)
Not all types of coreference involve
anaphora!
Cross-document coreference: two
mentions of the same person in two
different documents will be coreferential,
but will not stand in anaphoric relation.
Varieties of anaphora according to
the form of the anaphor

Nominal anaphora arises when a referring

expression (pronoun, definite noun phrase or
proper name), has a non-pronominal noun phrase
as its antecedent.
Nominal anaphora:
most important and frequently occurring class
of anaphora
researched and covered most extensively, and
best understood in the Computational
Linguistics literature.
Varieties of anaphora according to
the form of the anaphor (2)

Pronominal anaphora: the most widespread type

of anaphora
Personal pronouns: John had to go to a meeting so he
decided to have a shave
Possessive pronouns: John grabbed his old razor
Reflexive pronouns...but unfortunately cut himself
during the shave
Demonstrative pronouns: This delayed him further...
John picked the electric razor. That was not working
either
Relative pronouns: John picked the electric razor
which was not working either).
Varieties of anaphora according to
the form of the anaphor (3)

Lexical noun phrase anaphora: realised

syntactically as definite noun phrases, also called
definite descriptions, and proper names.
Roy Keane has warned Manchester United he may snub
their pay deal. United's skipper is even hinting that unless
the future Old Trafford Package meets his demands, he
could quit the club in June 2000. Irishman Keane, 27, still
has 17 months to run on his current 23,000-a-week
contract and wants to commit himself to United for life.
Alex Ferguson's No. 1 player confirmed: If it's not the
contract I want, I won't sign
Lexical noun phrase anaphors:
further examples
Mark went for a drive and got hopelessly
lost. That's Mark for you.
Both noses went down to the footprints in
the snow. These footprints were very fresh.
Most crucial (and most studied)
type of anaphora in NLP

identity-of-reference nominal anaphora:

involves coreference by virtue of the
anaphor and its antecedent having the same
real-world referent
Zero anaphora
Zero anaphors are invisible' anaphors
Zero pronominal anaphora occurs when the
anaphoric pronoun is omitted but is
nevertheless understood
Willie paled and pulled the sock up
quickly
Marta est muy cansada. Ha estado
trabajando todo el da.
Anaphoric / non-anaphoric
Are pronouns always anaphoric?
Pleonastic it: It is important, It is necessary,
It is far away, It is raining.
Generic use of pronouns: He that plants thorns
must never expect to gather roses.
Are definite descriptions always anaphoric?
Generic definite descriptions:No one knows
precisely when the wheel was invented
Types of anaphora according to the locations
of the anaphor and the antecedent

intrasentential : anaphor and its antecedent are

located in the same sentence.
intersentential : antecedent is in a different
(preceding) sentence from the anaphor
Pop superstar Robbie Williams hid his secret heartbreak as
he picked up three Brit awards last night. He was stunned
to discover that his ex-fiance, All Saints beauty Nicole
Appleton, is dating a New York rapper. Robbie, 25, was
distraught after being dumped by the love of his life Nicole
at Christmas.
Indirect anaphora
(bridging, associative anaphora)
Indirect anaphora: arises when a reference
becomes part of the hearers or readers
knowledge indirectly rather than by direct
mention:
Although the store had only just opened, the food
hall was busy and there were long queues at the
tills.
When Take That broke up, the critics gave Robbie
Williams no chance of success.
Location of the antecedent
Pronominal anaphors: distance between a
pronominal anaphor and its antecedent in
most cases does not exceed 2-3 sentences
Demonstrative anaphors: longer-distance
anaphors than pronouns
Definite descriptions: longer-distance
Proper names: even longer-distance
anaphors
Cataphora
Cataphora arises when a reference is made
to an entity mentioned subsequently in the
text.
She is now as famous as her ex-boyfriend.
From the deserts of Kazakhstan to the south
seas of Tonga, everyone knows Monica
Lewinsky
Anaphora and Deixis
He seems remarkably bright for a child of
his age.
George is only 4 but can read and write in
both English and Bulgarian. He seems
remarkably bright for a child of his age.
I want you to be here now.
Maggie came to England when she was
four, and has lived here ever since
Anaphora resolution
Anaphora resolution: the process of determining
the antecedent of an anaphor
Identity-of-reference nominal anaphora: preceding
lexical noun phrases that are coreferential with the
anaphor(s) are regarded as a legitimate antecedent
Sophia Loren says she will always be grateful to
Bono. The actress revealed that the U2 singer
helped her calm down when she became scared by
a thunderstorm while travelling on a plane.
Coreference resolution
Idenification of all coreferential chains
Sophia Loren says she will always be grateful to
Bono. The actress revealed that the U2 singer
helped her calm down when she became scared by
a thunderstorm while travelling on a plane.
Coreferential chains: {Sophia Loren, she, the
actress, her, she}, {Bono, the U2 singer}, {a
thunderstorm}, {a plane}