A Corpus Study of Referential Choice: The Role of Rhetorical Structure

This study shares the view that reference in discourse is influenced by the distance to prior mentions of the referent in the discourse. Kibrik (1996, 1999) suggested a measurement of rhetorical distance to assess this factor. In this paper we address three complications created by that methodology when applied to a large corpus of written newspaper texts. These problems include: difference between symmetrical and asymmetrical discourse structures as sites of antecedents; type of rhetorical relations as a factor or referential choice; and multiple (competing) antecedents. In this study we outline a model that is relevant for both theory of referential choice in discourse and applied explorations of anaphora resolution or generation.