Automatic Pronominal Anaphora Resolution in English Texts

Anaphora is a common phenomenon in discourses as well as an important research issue in the applications of natural language processing. In this paper, the anaphora resolution is achieved by employing WordNet ontology and heuristic rules. The proposed system identifies both intra-sentential and inter-sentential antecedents of anaphors. Information about animacy is obtained by analyzing the hierarchical relation of nouns and verbs in the surrounding context. The identification of animacy entities and pleonastic-it usage in English discourses are employed to promote the resolution accuracy.