Showing papers on "Antecedent (grammar) published in 1977"

Pronouns, Quantifiers, and Relative Clauses (I)

Abstract: Some philosophers, notably Professors Quine and Geach, have stressed the analogies they see between pronouns of the vernacular and the bound variables of quantification theory. Geach, indeed, once maintained that ‘for a philosophical theory of reference, then, it is all one whether we consider bound variables or pronouns of the vernacular'. This slightly overstates Geach's positition since he recognizes that some pronouns of ordinary language do function differently from bound variables; he calls such pronouns ‘pronouns of laziness'. Geach's characterisation of pronouns of laziness has varied from time to time, but the general idea should be clear from a paradigm example: (1) A man who sometimes beats his wife has more sense than one who always gives in to her. The pronouns ‘one’ and ‘her’ go proxy for a noun or a noun phrase (here: ‘a man’ and ‘his wife’) in the sense that the pronoun is replaceable in paraphrase by simple repetition of its antecedent.

Inference in an approach to discourse anaphora

Abstract: Inference is discussed as a factor in the derivation of non-explicit antecedents and referents for three types of discourse anaphora definite pronouns, "one"-anaphora and verb phrase ellipsis. This derivation process is seen as being part of the normal process of text-understanding. It is claimed that the use of non-explicit antecedents and referents for anaphora depends on a contract between speaker and listener. This contract requires that if the speaker uses an anaphoric expression whose antecedent or referent was inferentially derived, the listener both can and will make the same inference. Insofar as it is shown that many of these inferences rely on one of the few things explicitly available to both speaker and listener alike i.e., the form of the utterance the identification of a sentence's formal properties becomes a matter of cognitive concern. Inference & Discourse Anaphora Table of

Antecedent Life History and Students' Behavior in College: A Canonical Correlation Analysis

Abstract: A longitudinal study was conducted to determine whether students' life-history or biographical data could be used to predict their experiences in college A biographical data questionnaire was admi