On the Integration of the Centering Algorithm with Models of the Global Discourse Structure

On the Integration of the Centering Algorithm with Models of the Global Discourse Structure

This paper discusses the searching mechanism of the antecedent of (overt and null) pronouns in English and Korean Since centering is underspecified with respect to its interaction to global discourse structure, it is difficult to test centering on extended discourses Extended discourses are likely to consist of multiple segments, but any claim of the theory cannot be tested on two utterances that span a discourse segment boundary. In this paper, I argue that the restriction of centering to operate within a discourse segment poses many problems for centering theory. They can be eliminated by abandoning this restriction, and by integrating centering with Grosz and Sidner's (1986) stack model and the cache model of attentional state proposed in Walker (1996, 1998)