Technical Reports (CIS)
Document Type
Technical Report
Date of this Version
2-1-1988
Abstract
In this paper, I consider a range of English expressions and show that their context-dependency can be characterized in terms of two properties: 1. they specify entities in an evolving model of the discourse that the listener is constructing; 2. the particular entity specified depends on another entity in that part of the evolving 'discourse model' that the listener is currently attending to. Such expressions have been called anaphors. I show how tensed clauses share these characteristics, usually just attributed to anaphoric noun phrases. This not only allows us to capture in a simple way the oft-stated but difficult-to-prove intuition that tense is anaphoric, but also contributes to our knowledge of what is needed for understanding narrative text.
Recommended Citation
Bonnie L. Webber, "Tense as Discourse Anaphor", . February 1988.
Date Posted: 15 August 2007
Comments
University of Pennsylvania Department of Computer and Information Science Technical Report No. MS-CIS-88-09.