Mark Seligman
CNTR:
Basic Functions for Centering Experiments
with ASURA
Abstract:Centering is a family of theories of cohesion, the linkage among utterances. Entities (especially
those expressed by noun phrases) are tracked through successive utterances, with empahsis on entities which are especially salient because of their syntactic prominence. Such tracking enables a
classification of utterance-to-utterance transitions, ranked by respective cohesiveness. By conmputing all possible interpretations of the current utterance and selecting the one which would provide the
most cohesive transition, it is possible to resolve the reference of many pronouns, including zero pronouns. This report describes CNTR, an implementation of a representative centering approach using
ASURA's transfer system, based on suggestions by Nagata. Full code and programmer-oriented instructions are provided, as well as suggestions for future experiments. The mechanisms described here
are fully compatible with pronoun resolution techniques already implemented in ASURA, especially
Dohsaka's use of honorific information.