CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Anaphora: The Central Notion 1.1.1 Defining Anaphora in Its Narrow Sense 1.1.2 Direct Anaphora vs.Indirect Anaphora 1.1.3 Anaphor-oriented Classification of Nominal Anaphora 1.1.4 Identity-of-reference Anaphora vs.Identity-of-sense Anaphora 1.1.5 Intrasentential Anaphora vs.Intersentential Anaphora 1.1.6 The Scope and Focus of This Study 1.2 Central Theme and Basic Assumptions of This Study 1.3 Research Methodology and Data Collection 1.4 Organization of the Book CHAPTER 2 A CRITICAL SURVEY OF RESEARCHES ON DISCOURSE ANAPHORA 2.1 Linguistic Approaches to Anaphora Distribution in Discourse 2.1.1 The Textual Approach 2.1.2 The Pragmatic Approach 2.1.3 The Cognitive Approach 2 2 Computational Approaches to Anaphora Resolution 2.2.1 The BFP Algorithm: A Knowledge-poor Model Based on Centering Theory 2.2.2 Veins Theory: A Knowledge-based Model Driven by Rhetorical Structure Theory 2.3 Summary 2.3.1 Manner of Processing= Hierarchical vs.Linear 2.3.2 Angle of Approaching.Bidirectional vs.Unidirectional 2.3.3 Orientation of Modeling= Knowledge-based vs.Knowledge-poor CHAPTER 3 AN ANAPHORA-ORIENTED DEPICTION OF DISCOURSE STRUCTURE 3.1 Grosz and Sidner's Structural Theory: The Guiding Framework 3.2 Decomposing Discourse: The Foundation Stage 3.3 Portraying Intentional Structure with RST 3.3.1 RST: Portraying Discourse Structure with Rhetorical Relations 3.3.2 Synthesizing RST with Intentional Structure: Nuclearity vs.Dominance 3.3.3 Categorizing Rhetorical Relations in Terms of Anaphora Processing 3.4 Modeling Attentional State with CT 3.5 Summary CHAPTER 4 REMODELING ATrENTIONAL STATE WITHIN INTENTIONAL STRUCTURE 4.1 Specifying the Centering Update Unit: EDU and ARU 4.2 Identifying Attentional Center: The Assessment of Salience Weight 4.2.1 Dynamic Loading of Information: Topic vs.Focus 4.2.2 The Formal Bias for Referential Prominence: Pronominalization 4.2.3 The Viewpoint Effect on Salience Denotation: Empathy 4.3 Accounting for Centering Transition in Terms of Rhetorical Relations 4.3.1 Alignment Effect 4.3.2 Parallel Effect 4.3.3 Garden-Path Effect 4.4 Modeling Attentional Accessibility within Rhetorical Scope 4.5 Summary CHAPTER 5 THE OPTIMIZATION OF DISCOURSE ANAPHORA IN THE LIGHT OF STRUCTURAL CONSTRAINTS 5.1 Theoretical Foundation 5.1.1 Optimality Theory: Providing the Selection Procedure 5.1.2 Centering Optimality Theory: Reformulating CT within OT 5 2 The Working Mechanism of GEN 5.2.1 Identifying Pleonastic Pronouns 5.2.2 Setting the Search Scope of Potential Antecedents 5 3 The Working Mechanism of EVAL 5 4 Empirical Evaluation of the Optimizing Model 5.4.1 Shallow Processing of the Test Corpus 5.4.2 Applying the Optimizing Model to Anaphora Interpretation 5.4.3 Error Analysis 5.5 Summary CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSIONS 6.1 A summary of My Work 6.1.1 Defining the Notion Anaphora 6.1.2 A Critical Survey of Relevant Literature 6.1.3 Depicting Discourse Structure for Anaphora Processing 6.1.4 Polishing CT from Local to Global 6.1.5 Optimizing Discourse Anaphora 6.2 Contributions of the Study 6.2.1 Proposing an Anapbora-oriented Structural Model 6.2.2 Remodeling CT with Better Treatment for Discourse Anaphora 6.2.3 Formulating an Ideal Resolution System with the Merits of OT 6.3 Limitations of the Study 6.3.1 Inexplicit Representation of Knowledge Source and Contextual Information 6.3.2 Narrow-scale Data Base for a General Framework of Anaphora Processing 6 4 Future Research Directions 6.4.1 Cross-linguistic Applicability 6.4.2 Bidirectional Optimization 6.4.3 Coherence Evaluation Bibliography Appendix I Definitions of Rhetorical Relations Appendix II Data Base Acknowledgements
