Discourse functions of NP-anaphora: linguistic and text-analytic form/function analysis of NP-anaphora

Lettica Hustinx, Alfons Maes, Corine Schouten, Wietske Vonk

Research output: Other contribution

Abstract

This paper presents a functional analysis of nominal anaphors (NAs) in discourse. We survey the area of NP-anaphora starting from the traditional view on anaphoric expressions, according to which NP-anaphors form an accessibility hierarchy and NAs provide anaphoric access to discourse referents with low accessibility. This `identificational view' is then challenged with empirical evidence showing various non-identificational discourse functions of definite, indefinite, and demonstrative NAs. NAs are shown to participate not only in the management of reference, but also in other semantic and pragmatic discourse functions at local and global levels. They express interactive relations between writer and reader, they contribute to the semantic representation of discourse, and they express structural thematic relationships in discourse.
Original languageEnglish
TypeDandelion Project
Publication statusPublished - 1993

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