ACCESSING NOUN-PHRASE ANTECED CL (Croom Helm Linguistics Series)

This book offers a radical shift in the analysis of discourse anaphora, from a purely pragmatic account to a cognitive account, in terms of processing procedures. Mira Ariel defines referring expressions as markers signalling the degree of "accessibility" in memory of the antecedent. The notion of "accessibility" is explicitly defined, the crucial factors being the "salience" of the antecedent, and the "unity" between the antecedent and the anaphor. This analysis yields a wide array of results. The precise distribution of referring expressions in actual discourse is directly predicted. Several universals of anaphoric relations are stated. Thus, although not all languages necessarily have the same markers, and nor do they assign them precisely the same function, Ariel shows that they all obey the same accessibility marking hierarchy.