One and OneAnaphora in English

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An Investigation of the Uses of One
Richard Altwarg Thesis Project Proposal M.Sc.
Speech and Language Processing Macquarie
University Dept. of Linguistics
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Contents

• Uses of One
• What is Anaphora?
• Types of One-Anaphora
• Why Anaphora is Important
• Project Proposal Develop One Definition and
  Algorithm
• Project Objectives and Benefits
• Summary

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1.0 Uses of One
One appears in many different forms and contexts,
with different functions. What are they? Can
they be distinguished by a computer? How?
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1.1 Uses of One
One comes in different forms, with different
meanings and functions
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1.2 Uses of One
Additional functions of One
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2.0 What is Anaphora?
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Anaphora is the phenomenon of a linguistic
expression which acts as a substitute or
reference to some other linguistic form, which
generally precedes it. For example See
the balls1 on the table? Your goal is to knock in
the red ones1. (onesballs) The process of
associating 'ones' with balls' in the above
sentence is called anaphora resolution.

• The referring word is called an anaphor.
• The preceding form is called an antecedent.
• The context in which the anaphor occurs is called
  its discourse.
• Anaphors may occur within a sentence, or between
  sentences.

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2.1 What is Anaphora?
Anaphors frequently appear as pronouns (including
one) John1 hit the red ball2. Please count
it2 for him1. Joy1 needs a cue2. Please bring
one2 to her1. John1 and Joy2 would like the
rack3. Please bring it3 to them12. John1 and
Joy2 would like chalk3. Please bring them12
some3. But they can be a noun phrase, a
description, or a verb phrase John1 and Joy2
would like dessert3. Please bring them12 the
sweet stuff3. I like the billiards parlor1, the
place with the skilled shooters1.
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2.2 Anaphoric Substitution

• Prior researchers often characterize the
  relationship between an anaphor and its referent
  as one of substitution or reference. Heres an
  example
• See the balls1 on the table? Your goal is to
  knock in the red ones1.

Real-world knowledge information about balls
In this case, the anaphor is a substitute for the
antecedent.
Referent concept of balls
Antecedent balls
Anaphor ones
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2.3 Anaphoric Reference

• Here is an example of reference
• In American pool, there are solid and striped
  ones1.

Real-world knowledge information about pool and
balls
In this case, there is no antecedent. The anaphor
must be resolved through the use of other
information.
Referent concept of balls
Antecedent none
Anaphor ones
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3.0 Types of One-Anaphora
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3.1 Types of One-Anaphora
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3.2 Types of One-Anaphora
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3.3 Summary Types of One-Anaphora

• The following types of One-Anaphora have been
  described
• one/ones
• some
• they/them
• this/those
• ellipsis
• descriptions
• This project will focus on the first four listed
  above.

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4.0 Why Anaphora is Important

• Anaphora appear very frequently in text and
  spoken dialog
• Most natural language processing applications
  must resolve anaphors
• There is no existing theory or methodology which
  accounts for all anaphora

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5.0 Project Proposal

• Investigate the Uses of One
• Identify the non-anaphoric and anaphoric uses of
  one
• Systematically reconcile existing definitions of
  anaphoric uses of one
• Develop a computational method for identification
  of uses of one using reconciled definition

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6.0 Project Objectives

• Develop a new definition of anaphoric uses of one
  based on literature review and corpus analysis
• comprehensive
• integrative
• Develop a method of automated identification of
  anaphoric uses of one, resulting in several
  benefits
• enable others to more easily conduct research on
  one-anaphora
• create a model which may be extensible to
  identification and resolution of other types of
  anaphora

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7.0 Summary

• Uses of One
• numeric
• generic
• article
• Anaphoric uses of one
• one/ones
• they/them
• descriptional
• Project Goals
• Develop a new definition of anaphoric uses of
  one based on literature review and corpus
  analysis
• Develop a method of automated identification of
  anaphoric uses of one

• pro-noun
• anaphor

• some
• this/those
• ellipsis