Coherence, Reference, and the Theory of Grammar

Contents......Page 5
1. Introduction......Page 7
2. A Theory of Discourse Coherence......Page 17
2.1.1 Resemblence Relations......Page 21
2.1.2 Cause-Effect Relations......Page 26
2.1.3 Contiguity Relations......Page 28
2.2 Basic Principles of Coherence......Page 29
2.3 Identifying Relations in Examples......Page 37
2.4 Conclusion......Page 40
3. Coherence and VP-Ellipsis......Page 41
3.1.1 Syntactic Approaches......Page 42
3.1.2 Semantic Approaches......Page 45
3.2 VP-Ellipsis and Coherence......Page 47
3.2.1. Syntactic and Semantic Properties of VP-Ellipsis......Page 48
3.2.2 Interaction with Coherence Establishment......Page 51
3.3 Explaining the Data......Page 58
3.3.1 Ellipsis and Cause-Effect Relations......Page 59
3.3.2 Ellipsis and Resemblance Relations......Page 61
3.3.3 Ellipsis and Contiguity Relations......Page 68
3.4 Ellipsis and Syntactic Constraints Involving Traces......Page 69
3.5 Comparison with Past Work in VP-Ellipsis......Page 73
3.6 Linguistic Form and Readings for VP-Ellipsis......Page 77
3.7 Situationally-Evoked Referents, Event Reference, and the Sag and Hankamer Dichotomy......Page 82
3.8 Conclusion......Page 85
4. Coherence and Gapping......Page 87
4.1 Syntactic and Semantic Properties of Gapping......Page 91
4.2 The Analysis Applied to Gapping......Page 97
4.3 Interaction of Gapping and VP-Ellipsis......Page 101
4.4 Comparison to Past Work......Page 103
4.5 Conclusion......Page 105
5. Coherence and Extraction......Page 107
5.1 The Coordinate Structure Constraint......Page 108
5.2 CSC Violations and Their Treatments......Page 109
5.3 A Pattern in the Data......Page 122
5.4 Topichood Constraints on Extraction......Page 123
5.5 Toward Explaining Away the CSC: The Interaction between Topichood and Coherence......Page 127
5.5.1 Extraction from Resemblance Relations......Page 128
5.5.2 Extraction from Cause-Effect Relations......Page 132
5.5.3 Extraction from Contiguity Relations......Page 135
5.5.4 Summary......Page 138
5.6 Impact on Theories of Autonomous Syntax......Page 139
5.7 An Attempt at Salvaging a Syntactic Solution: Postal's Analysis......Page 140
5.8 Remaining Questions about Coherence......Page 144
5.9 Conclusion......Page 147
6. Coherence and Pronoun Interpretation......Page 149
6.1 A Coherence-Driven Approach......Page 151
6.2 Attention-Driven Approaches......Page 153
6.3 Parallelism......Page 159
6.4 A Pattern in the Data......Page 160
6.5 Coherence and Coreference Revisited......Page 162
6.5.1 Pronoun Interpretation during the Establishment of Resemblance......Page 163
6.5.2 Pronoun Interpretation during the Establishment of Cause-Effect......Page 168
6.5.3 Pronoun Interpretation during the Establishment of Contiguity......Page 172
6.5.4. Summary......Page 177
6.6 Previous Attempts to Resolve Preference Interactions......Page 178
6.7 Conclusion......Page 185
7. Coherence and Tense Interpretation......Page 187
7.1 Two Approaches to Tense Interpretation......Page 188
7.1.1 A Tense-As-Anaphora Approach......Page 189
7.1.2 A Coherence-Driven Approach......Page 190
7.1.3 Problems with the Analyses......Page 192
7.2.1 Temporal Constraints Imposed by Tense......Page 194
7.2.2 Temporal Constraints Imposed by Coherence Relations......Page 197
7.2.3 Predictions......Page 199
7.3 Comparison with Webber's Analysis......Page 201
7.4 Comparison with Coherence-Driven Approaches......Page 203
7.5 Extensions of the Analysis......Page 205
7.5.1 Application to Future Tenses......Page 206
7.5.2 Stative Predicates......Page 208
7.5.3 Discourse Structure......Page 210
7.6 Conclusion......Page 211
8. Conclusion......Page 213
References......Page 217
Index......Page 229