How Computer Selects Antecedent?

1. Introduction This study provides a computer-simulated optimal selection of antecedent of reflexive pronouns based on the Visual C++ computer programming language. The algorithm that I use for this implementation is based on the optimal theoretic approach to the proper interpretation of reflexive pronoun roughly adopted in Moon (1999). I show that the complex behavior of reflexive pronouns can nicely be explained in the Optimality Theory (henceforth, OT) and the optimal selection of reflexive pronoun can be implemented on computer simulation. claim that the seemingly intricate anaphoric interpretation better be explained by the interaction of the six ranked violable The organization of this study is as follows: in section two I briefly introduce the core of optimality theory developed in Prince and Smolensky (1993); in section three I explore the major characteristics of unbounded reflexives; in section four I explain how OT is applied to the proper interpretation of reflexive pronouns; and finally in section five I show the computer implementation algorithm that I used for the optimal antecedent selection of reflexive pronoun.