Pronoun resolution is an uncertain process in machine oriented natural language processing. There are many techniques to determine the referent of the pronoun. This paper addresses the resolution of two pronouns. "they" and "them". and looks at simplistic rules to improve the process of determining the referent, beyond simply deciding tm the basis of most recent plural noun.

Consider a familiar example of deferred ostention: pointing to a parked car just dented by a runaway driver, one says ‘he is going to have a bad day’, succeeding in referring thereby to the car’s owner. In deferred ostention, a demonstration picks out from the context an object or event; this is not the referent of the indexical to which the demonstration is associated, but an auxiliary with wh...

AIMS To examine whether inclusion of both self- and peer-referent items in the context of a single social norms drinking questionnaire plays an active role in producing the much-reported tendency for young people to overestimate the extent of peers' alcohol-related behaviour and the permissiveness of their attitudes towards alcohol. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS AND MEASUREMENTS In a between-...