Centering: a framework for modeling the local coherence of discourse

  • Authors:

  • Barbara J. Grosz;Scott Weinstein;Aravind K. Joshi

  • Affiliations:

  • Harvard University;University of Pennsylvania;University of Pennsylvania

  • Venue:
  • Computational Linguistics
  • Year:
  • 1995

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Abstract

This paper concerns relationships among focus of attention, choice of referring expression, and perceived coherence of utterances within a discourse segment. It presents a framework and initial theory of centering intended to model the local component of attentional state. The paper examines interactions between local coherence and choice of referring expressions; it argues that differences in coherence correspond in part to the inference demands made by different types of referring expressions, given a particular attentional state. It demonstrates that the attentional state properties modeled by centering can account for these differences.