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Antecedent and referent types of abstract pronominal anaphora - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Centre for Language Technology Antecedent and referent types of abstract pronominal anaphora Costanza Navarretta University of Copenhagen costanza@hum.ku.dk Beyond Semantics, Gttingen February 23-25 2011 Centre for Language Technology

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Beyond Semantics, Göttingen February 23-25 2011

Centre for Language Technology

Antecedent and referent types

  • f abstract pronominal

anaphora

Costanza Navarretta University of Copenhagen costanza@hum.ku.dk

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Beyond Semantics, Göttingen February 23-25 2011 Dias 2

Third person singular personal pronouns and demonstrative pronouns having

  • as antecedents: copula predicates,

verbal phrases, clauses/ utterances

  • as referents: properties, events, facts,

speech acts, situations, propositions

Abstract anaphora

Centre for Language Technology

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DAD parallel and comparable written and spoken corpora in Danish and Italian (approx. 200000 words in Da, 150000 in It) 2007-2010. Related work: Webber 1988, Fraurud 1992, Byron & Allen 1998, Gundel et

  • al. 2003, 2005, Recasens & Martí 2008,

Artstein & Poesio 2008, Dipper & Zinsmeister 2008,2010.

Corpus-based work

Centre for Language Technology

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Centre for Language Technology

Abstract Anaphora in Danish

  • written Danish:
  • det (it/ this/ that)
  • dette (this)
  • spoken Danish:
  • unstressed det (it)
  • d'et (this/ that),
  • d'et h'er (this)
  • d'et d'er (that)
  • dette (this) – very seldom
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Centre for Language Technology

The Danish part of the DAD corpora

The written corpora:

  • general language texts, legal texts,

literary texts: 86,832 words. The spoken corpora:

  • DanPASS monologues: 23,957 words
  • two-party DanPASS dialogues: 52,145
  • multi-party LANCHART+ TV interviews:

26,304 words.

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Centre for Language Technology

Annotations and evaluation (Navarretta & Olsen LREC-2008)

Texts: structural information, PoS and lemma, (DDT) Spoken data: PoS, (lemma), stress, (prosody, phrases, hesitations), speakers, interaction segments, utterances, timestamps; All data:

  • 3sn: pronominal type, pronominal function (9),

syntactic function;

  • anaphoric occurrences: antecedents, syntactic type
  • f antecedents, semantic type of referent (Asher

1993), referential links and their type (identity/ non- identity), anaphoric distance (in clauses);

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Beyond Semantics, Göttingen February 23-25 2011 Dias 7

A: hun skulle nok sørge for han kom derover She would certainly make sure that he came over there B: d’et kunne jeg godt være sikker på

  • f that I could be completely sure

LANCHART 2008

Example

Centre for Language Technology

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Webber (1988,1991):

  • Abstract anaphors with same antecedent

can refer to objects of different semantic types; the referred object is created on the spot (ostension).

  • Strong preference for use of demonstrative

pronouns with clausal antecedents - 83.7%

  • ccurrences in written corpus.

Similar figures in other data i.a. Byron & Allen 1998, Gundel et al. 2003, 2004, Hedberg et al. 2007, Navarretta 2007.

Abstract Anaphora in English

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Beyond Semantics, Göttingen February 23-25 2011 Dias 9

Entities introduced in discourse by clauses are

  • nly activated in the cognitive status of the

addressee: they are often not accessible to reference by personal pronouns; entities introduced in discourse by VPs are “in focus” and can be referred to by personal pronouns (Givenness Hierarchy Gundel et

  • al. 1993) .

Referents of anaphors with clausal antecedents are often facts, situations and propositions.

Hegarty 2003, Gundel et al. 2005

Centre for Language Technology

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Eckert and Strube 2000, Byron 2002, Strube and Müller 2003, Müller 2007: use difference between personal and demonstrative pronouns in abstract reference in their algorithms. Non valid criterion in Danish.

Resolution algorithms

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Personal pronouns (comprising zero anaphora in Italian) have often clausal antecedents and thus refer to facts, situations and

  • propositions. (In Italian abstract pronominal

reference is seldom). Use of demonstrative pronouns (both individual and abstract) in Danish, Italian and English is different.

Abstract Reference: Danish, Italian vs. English

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Although many factors influence reference comprising IS, discourse structure, linguistic and extra-linguistic knowledge, some of the language specific differences in abstract reference are systematic and they should/ can be explained in terms of the three languages’ pronominal system and syntax (LREC 2010).

Differences –continued

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Pronouns for inanimate entities

  • English: 1 gender
  • Danish and Italian: 2 inanimate genders

Danish: common and neuter – only latter can be abstract anaphor Italian: feminine and masculine – only latter can be abstract anaphor. In English more necessary to restrict interpretation: via distinction personal- demonstrative pronoun.

Pronominal System

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  • constructions as clefts and left dislocations are

much more frequent in Danish than in English and Italian, thus in Danish the clause is often the entity which is in "focus" (Gundel et al. 1993) – this partly explains the frequent use

  • f personal pronouns (det and unstressed det)

with clausal antecedents;

  • word order is relatively free in Italian opposed

to Danish and English: the use of abstract substantives in Italian restricts the antecedent search space;

Syntax

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Only on Danish data: is there a relation between the type of pronoun, the clausal type of the antecedents, the type of referents and the anaphoric distance? If yes this could be used to improve anaphora resolution. Importance of anaphoric distance (Ariel 1988, 1994)

Present work

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  • Simple main clause (utterance)
  • Subordinate clause
  • Complex clause
  • Matrix clause
  • Discourse segment (sequence of main

simple clauses and/ or complex clauses)

Clausal types

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Both det and dette occur with all types of antecedents, but dette has seldom verbal phrase and copula predicate antecedents. The most frequent clausal antecedents:

  • 1. subordinate clauses
  • 2. simple main clauses.

Det and dette occur with all types of referent, but dette seldom refers to a property. Dette refers more often to fact-like objects.

Results in texts

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Most frequently used abstract anaphor is the unstressed det. Most frequently occurring antecedents are

  • 1. simple main clauses
  • 2. complex clauses.

Propositions are most frequently referred to by unstressed pronoun det.

Results in monologues

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Most common abstract anaphor is the unstressed det. Most frequent antecedent types are:

  • 1. simple main clauses,
  • 2. complex clauses,
  • 3. verbal phrases (map-task).

Propositions are most frequently referred to by the unstressed pronoun det.

Results in dialogues

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Distance Texts Monologues Dialogues zero 8 8 % 9 2 % 6 1 %

  • ne

8 % 5 % 2 7 % tw o 2 % 3 % 2 % three 1 % 0 .8 % four … 0 .4 % 0 .3 % eleven 0 .0 1 %

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With anaphoric distance > 1

  • Pronouns: unstressed det in dialogues and

the det in texts.

  • Syntactic types: subordinate clauses

and discourse segments in the texts, simple main clauses and discourse segments in dialogues.

  • Referent types: eventualities and fact-like
  • bjects.

Distance, antecedents, referents

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  • Machine Learning: pronominal type +

referent type + distance  antecedent type (only CL or CL types)

  • Find a better way to calculate distance
  • Resolution
  • Relation with non-verbal behaviours

On-going and future work

Centre for Language Technology