Similarities and Differences of Anaphoric Pronoun in Chinese and English

In both English and Chinese, pronouns are used with great frequency. And there are numerous usages of pronoun anaphors. The similarities and differences are summarized with the comparison of pronoun anaphors in English and Chinese.

Learning Noun Phrase Anaphoricity in Coreference Resolution via Label Propagation

Knowledge of noun phrase anaphoricity might be profitably exploited in coreference resolution to bypass the resolution of non-anaphoric noun phrases. However, it is surprising to notice that recent attempts to incorporate automatically acquired anaphoricity information into coreferenee resolution systems have been far from expectation. This paper proposes a global learning method in determining the anaphoricity of noun phrases via a label propagation algorithm to improve learning-based coreference resolution. In order to eliminate the huge computational burden in the label propagation algorithm, we employ the weighted support vectors as the critical instances in the training texts. In addition, two kinds of kernels, i.e instances to represent all the anaphoricity-labeled NP , the feature-based RBF （Radial Basis Function） kernel and the convolution tree kernel with approximate matching, are explored to compute the anaphoricity similarity between two noun phrases. Experiments on the ACE2003 corpus demonstrate the great effectiveness of our method in anaphoricity determination of noun phrases and its application in learning-based coreference resolution.

A Contrastive Study of Anaphora in English and Chinese

Recently,there has been growing interest in the study on cohesion of texts,particularly in the aspect of anaphoric reference.The problem under discussion is within the scope of similar and different usages of anaphors in English and Chinese.Although much work has been done,more studies need to be conducted to ascertain the convincingness of the theories.This essay will demonstrate language materials in real situation in English text and its Chinese translations to prove,explain and enrich the theories about the distinction of English and Chinese anaphora.The thesis for this essay is the contrastive study of anaphora between English and Chinese texts that is the dissimilarities of anaphora in these two language texts and discuss the reasons that caused these differences.And for arguments,four cases of Han’s Andersen’s fairy tales and their Chinese translations and one example from New Oxford Dictionary are selected for the purpose.For methodology,quality analysis is employed.But in general,it is to compare and to contrast in the light of Halliday’s theory on cohesion.The way adopted is to compare broad wise,which means to list similarities and dissimilarities of things needed to be contrast--anaphora in English and Chinese texts,and then conducts further analysis on them with the theoretical framework.In aspect of detailed analysis,the author adopts the way of illustration,combining language phenomenon listed above with arguments.

The Role that φ-Features Play in Long Distance Binding

Chinese long distance binding is explored in terms of a feature orientated approach: a long distance anaphor with barren or impoverished φ features is obliged to acquires φ features (or phi features) from its adjacent NPs in its upward movement at LF, and that this feature obtaining process, governed by rules that are summarized in terms of Feature Saturation Process (FSP), provides answers to long distance binding. Accordingly, binding is seen as an instance of a perfect match of features possessed by a saturated anaphor and an NP at LF. An anaphor is bound when it moves to INFL with its φ features matched with a feature functioning NP, whereas a middle way anaphor with unsaturated φ features is not bound. This approach satisfactorily explains the binding relations in sentences of long distance coreference and providing alternative answers to other issues of binding. It is further shown that the binding of Chinese reflexive ziji (自己)to its antecedent(s) results from a sequence of local dependency through movement.

Free State Constructions

This paper attempts to investigate Free State （FS） in Hijazi Arabic. This structure is not used in Modem Standard Arabic. It was introduced into the Arabic dialects later on as a competing structure to the Construct State （CS）. First, we discuss the characteristics of this structure in comparison to its counterpart： the CS. we show that semantically FS can express only three semantic relations out of the five semantic relations CS can convey. Furthermore, the paper shows that the FS genitive exponent in HA ＂hagg＂ agrees with the head noun of the matrix DP in phi-features. The discussion then shifts to the origin of the genitive exponent hagg. The paper argues that it is originally a noun that has acquired a new meaning： an anaphor that means something like ＂one of＂. Hence, we gloss hagg as ANAPH. Contrary to previous analyses for the FS genitive exponent, the paper proposes that hagg, the noun, heads its own CS and it is linked to the preceding DP by a binding relationship, which involves feature agreement in gender and number. Consequently, we propose that hagg-headed CS has the same structure of the nominal CS. Finally, we investigate the occurrence of both FS and CS structures in HA and show when one structure is preferred to the other.

Pronoun Anaphor and Cataphor in Chinese

Chinese pronoun anaphora and cataphora are different from those in English.The co-indexing judgment tests implemented by the present study indicate that for anaphora,only when the focus is on the head DP of the possessive phrase,the co-indexing between DP at possessive position and anaphor is possible.This can be explained by c-commanding instead of parameterized DP hypothesis since DP at possessive position c-commands pronoun anaphor but the focus shift will lead to the implicit raise of the head DP of the possessive phrase and change the structure.For cataphora,the pronoun cataphor at possessive position fails to co-index with DP and pronoun cataphor in sentences with C head can co-index with DP.It is argued that phase condition and visibility condition can explain cataphora in Chinese instead of the phase commanding theory since both phase condition and visibility condition can ensure the temporary location of cataphor for checking semantic match.

Linguistic Context's Effect to Anaphora

The anaphora resolution firstly relies on the special association between the anaphor and the antecedent.But this kind of associa tion may not result in the accomplishment of the anaphora resolution.By the analysis of many kinds of anaphoric examples,this paper will point out that,when the anaphora resolution has some mistake,the linguistic context will restrict on anaphor.The purpose is to influence semantic connection between the antecedent and the anaphor,and make the anaphora resolution accomplish successfully.