A method of anaphora resolution based on the concept of observation
Tsuyoshi Yamamura, Noboru Ohnishi, Noboru Sugie · Systems and Computers in Japan · 1995
Abstract The meaning of a sentence depends on the context in which it is used with other sentences. This results from the fact that several sentences are usually integrated to form a context. To date, the study of context structure has been concerned mostly with the semantic relation between the verbs (predicates) of the two sentences. It should be noted, however, that even if the verbs are semantically related, the relation may be felt to be unnatural and cannot be considered to form a context when the relation called discourse factor, such as the relationship between viewpoint, is not established. This study considers the context construction problem from the viewpoint of the natural relation between sentences. For this purpose, the concept of observation is introduced, this is an extension of viewpoint. Using that concept, it is shown how the interpretation of the sentence is helped by the preceding sentence. Then, the application to the resolution of anaphora is discussed. In other words, the anaphora is resolved by establishing the natural relation between sentences. It is shown that the anaphora problem which has not been resolved by the past method can now be resolved. The effectiveness of the anaphora resolution considered in this study is verified by examining actual examples.