Centering Theory in Discourse Processing

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To investigate computational discourse and psycholinguistic aspects of the centering theory developed by the Principal Investigator, and her students and colleagues. The centering model addresses the relation between the form of linguistic expression and the local discourse coherence. There are four issues investigated in this research effort. The first deals with the integration of the centering theory with other linguistic processes in the interpretation of pronouns. The second involves the use application of centering to additional context-dependent linguistic forms such as ellipsis and accentuation. The third consists of the interaction between centering and discourse segmentation. Finally, the fourth aspect considers the formulation of computationally tractable rules constraining centering transitions.