Intersentential Anaphora Relation

A Intersentential Anaphora Relation is a Intersentential Relation in which an Anaphor that Refers to an Anaphor Antecedent which is in a different Sentence as the Anaphor.

• AKA: Intersentential Anaphora, Intersentential Anaphora Binding.
• Example(s):
  • Susan phoned Barbara. Then, she went out for dinner.
• Counter-Example(s):
  • Intrasentential Anaphora Relation.
• See: Natural Language Processing, Anaphora.

---

---

References

2011

• (Bary & Haug, 2011) ⇒ Corien Bary, and Dag Haug (2011, September). Inter-and intrasentential anaphora: the case of the Ancient Greek participle. In Semantics and Linguistic Theory (Vol. 21, pp. 373-392).
  • QUOTE: The combination of LFG and CDRT using Glue semantics made it possible to provide an analysis of these phenomena all the way from syntax to discourse incorporating both intersentential and intrasentential binding. the underlying dynamic semantics.

2009

• (Cornish, 2009) ⇒ Francis Cornish (2009). Inter-sentential anaphora and coherence relations in discourse: a perfect match. Language Sciences, 31(5), 572-592.
  • QUOTE: Inter-sentential anaphors, then, far from being merely ‘resolved as a by-product’ of the implementation of a given coherence relation holding between two discourse units, are an essential pillar supporting the overlay of that relation in fleshing out and integrating their discourse values. Just as a ‘weaker’ semantically- or textually-based coherence relation (e.g. Elaboration or Ground-Figure) will often be invoked by default at the initial stages in the processing of a multi-clausal text, with a ‘stronger’ pragmatically-oriented relation possibly overlaid upon it at stage 2(ii), so the processing of anaphors in subsequent clauses or sentences goes through two distinguishable processing stages — ‘bleeding’ as well as buttressing the implementation of that or those relation(s).

2002

• (Miltsakaki, 2002) ⇒ Eleni Miltsakaki (2002). Toward an aposynthesis of topic continuity and intrasentential anaphora. Computational Linguistics, 28(3), 319-355.
  • QUOTE: (...) involve cases of intersentential anaphora such as the following:
    • (43) a. This green indicator is lit when the controller is on.
    • b. It shows that the DC power supply voltages are at the correct levels.

The RAP algorithm resolves the pronoun it in (43b) to the controller in (43a). This is because, in RAP, the subject of the main as well as the when clause in (43a) are of equal salience (...)

(...) this does not explain the contrast in (55):

• (55) a. Susan phoned Barbara. Then, she went out for dinner.
• b. Susan phoned Barbara before she went out for dinner.
• c. After Susan phoned Barbara, she went out for dinner.

Example (55a) is an instance of intersentential anaphora, and there is a subject reference for the pronoun as predicted. Example (55b) is a case of intrasentential anaphora, and there is no clear subject reference. Example (55c) is another instance of intrasentential anaphora, but in this case the subject preference is clearly on a par with the intersentential case in (55a). Whatever required modification to the algorithm will prove to be more useful, the fact remains that the similarity between (55a) and (55c) remains unexplained in purely structural terms. We suspect that the difference between (55b) and (55c) and the similarity between (55a) and (55c) is the result of an interaction with a discourse function of subordinate clauses.

---