Np Reiteration in Chinese Texts

The present study attempts to give a cognitive account of the use of anaphoric lexical reiteration (i.e., same NP repetition, alternative NPs, pronouns, and zero anaphora) in staging the different participants in Chinese texts. It is postulated that the alternation among NP reinteration forms in referent tracking is largely triggered by two major mechanisms: The Accessibility Condition (AC) and The Variability Condition (VC). The AC defines the ease with which a given entity can be retrieved from the mental representation of the discourse for interpreting the referring expressions. Same NP repetition and alternative NPs are found to be low Accessibility Markers, whereas pronouns are intermediate Accessibility Markers, and zero anaphora is high Accessibility Marker. The parameters as subsumed under the AC are identified as: availability vs. unavailability of competing entities, low vs. high in discourse continuity, low vs. high in semantic prominence, and low vs. high in NP Accessibility Hierarchy. The VC supplements the AC in explaining the alternation between same NP repetition and alternative NPs. Variability refers to the relative ease with which an alternative referential expression can be retrieved from the mental representation for coding a given entity. Same NP repetition is taken as low Variability Marker, while alternative NPs are high Variability Markers. The parameters bearing on the VC have been identified as: simple proper NP vs. other types of NP, introduction of an entity with general terms vs. with specific terms, non-frequent versus frequent mention of an entity in discourse, and unavailability vs. availability of standardized labels.