Never Look Back: An Alternative to Centering

I propose a model for determining the hearer's attentional state which depends solely on a list of salient discourse entities (S-list). The ordering among the elements of the S-list covers also the function of the backward-looking center in the centering model. The ranking criteria for the S-list are based on the distinction between hearer-old and hearer-new discourse entities and incorporate preferences for inter- and intra-sentential anaphora. The model is the basis for an algorithm which operates incrementally, word by word.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1998
• Where: ACL
• Authors: Michael Strube
• Keywords: ACL 1998, ACL 2007, Discourse Entities, Hearer's Attentional State, Salient Discourse Entities