Intrasentential Centering: A Case Study

TL;DR

This paper extends the centering model to handle intrasentential pronouns by hierarchically breaking complex sentences into center-updating units, improving pronoun interpretation within complex utterances.

Contribution

It proposes a hierarchical approach to intrasentential centering, enabling better pronoun resolution in complex sentences within existing models.

Findings

Hierarchical sentence decomposition improves pronoun interpretation.

The approach is validated with examples from natural discourse.

Extends centering theory to complex sentence structures.

Abstract

One of the necessary extensions to the centering model is a mechanism to handle pronouns with intrasentential antecedents. Existing centering models deal only with discourses consisting of simple sentences. It leaves unclear how to delimit center-updating utterance units and how to process complex utterances consisting of multiple clauses. In this paper, I will explore the extent to which a straightforward extension of an existing intersentential centering model contributes to this effect. I will motivate an approach that breaks a complex sentence into a hierarchy of center-updating units and proposes the preferred interpretation of a pronoun in its local context arbitrarily deep in the given sentence structure. This approach will be substantiated with examples from naturally occurring written discourses.