Discourse-oriented Anaphora Systems and Theories

(5-24) 81 ~x : m a x s e t ( B o y ) x e 2 ex : m a x s e t ( G i r l ) x " t h e se t of all boys . . . . the se t of all g i r ls" a n d so (5-33) is i n s t a n t i a t e d as: 5. 4 .1 D e f i n i t e p r o n o u n s DISCOURSE-ORIENTED ANAPHORA THEORIES 75 (5-25) e 3 ~z : m a z s e t ( A ( u : P e a c h ) [ ( 3 x e e l ) ( B y e e2) , Gave z , y , u & evoke (5-21) ,y]) z " t h e s e t of peaches , e a c h one of which is l i nked to (5-81) by virt ue of s o m e m e m b e r of e 1 giving i t to s o m e m e m b e r of e 2Al though s u c h ru l e s could (in p r inc ip le ) be u sed to g e n e r a t e all IDs (focus e l e m e n t s ) t h a t a s e n t e n c e evokes, Webber does no t c o m m i t he r se l f to s u c h a n app roach , i n s t e a d allowing for the poss ib i l i ty of g e n e r a t i n g IDs only when t h e y a re needed , d e p e n d i n g on s u b s e q u e n t i n f o r m a t i o n s u c h as s p e a k e r ' s p e r s p e c tive. She also sugges t s the poss ib i l i ty of "vague, t e m p o r a r y " IDs for i n t e r i m use (1978a:67). There is a p r o b l e m here with i n t r a s e n t e n t i a l a n a p h o r a , s ince i t is a s s u m e d t h a t a s e n t e n c e ' s a n a p h o r s are r e so lved before ID ru l e s a re app l i ed to f ind wha t m a y be the a n t e c e d e n t s n e c e s s a r y for t h a t r e so lu t ion . Webber p roposes t h a t known s y n t a c t i c and se l ec t iona l c o n s t r a i n t s m a y help in th i s confl ict , b u t th is is no t always suff ic ient . For example : (5-26) Mary b o u g h t each gir l a c o t t o n T-shir t , b u t n o n e of t h e m were the s tyle de r i geu r in high schools. The IDs for both the set of girls and the set of T-shirts are needed to resolve them, but them needs to be resolved before the IDs are generated. In this particular example, the clear solution is to work a clause at a time rather than at a sentence level. However, this is not always an adequate solution, as (5-27) shows: (5-57) The rebel students annoyed the teachers greatly, and by the end of the week none of the faculty were willing to go to their classes. In th i s a m b i g u o u s s e n t e n c e one poss ib le a n t e c e d e n t for their, the f a c u l t y , occurs in the same clause as the anaphor. Thus neither strictly intraclausal nor strictly interclausa] methods are appropriate. Webber is aware of this problem (1978a:48), and believes that it suffices that such information as is available be used to rule out impossible choices; the use of vague temporary IDs then allows the anaphor to be resolved. 5.4.2. G ~ e a n a p h o r s The s e c o n d type of a n a p h o r Webber d i s cus se s is the ONE-ANAPHOR. 17 By this, she m e a n s an a n a p h o r t h a t r e f e r s to a d e s c r i p t i o n r a t h e r t h a n a specif ic e n t i t y (see s e c t i o n 2.5). For e x a m p l e (Webber 1978a:97): 17I feel one-anaphor is a misleading (as well as clumsy) term, since a one-anaphor can be instantiated by that, those, it, or ¢ as well as one. Perhaps Webber's earlier term descviptional anaphor (Nash-Webber 1976) would have been better.