Pragmatic constraints and pronoun reference disambiguation: the possible and the impossible

TL;DR

This paper explores how pragmatic knowledge and formal constraints influence pronoun reference disambiguation in complex and implicit contexts within natural language texts, highlighting the challenges faced by AI and linguistics.

Contribution

It analyzes the interplay of pragmatic and formal factors in pronoun resolution, especially in texts with complex references and subtle contextual cues.

Findings

Pragmatic knowledge is crucial for resolving implicit references.

Formal constraints can override pragmatic considerations.

Complex texts often require advanced disambiguation strategies.

Abstract

Pronoun disambiguation in understanding text and discourse often requires the application of both general pragmatic knowledge and context-specific information. In AI and linguistics research, this has mostly been studied in cases where the referent is explicitly stated in the preceding text nearby. However, pronouns in natural text often refer to entities, collections, or events that are only implicitly mentioned previously; in those cases the need to use pragmatic knowledge to disambiguate becomes much more acute and the characterization of the knowledge becomes much more difficult. Extended literary texts at times employ both extremely complex patterns of reference and extremely rich and subtle forms of knowledge. Indeed, it is occasionally possible to have a pronoun that is far separated from its referent in a text. In the opposite direction, pronoun use is affected by considerations of focus of attention and by formal constraints such as a preference for parallel syntactic structures; these can be so strong that no pragmatic knowledge suffices to overrule them.