Documentation

Linglib.Studies.KehlerRohde2013

Pronoun interpretation: coherence vs. centering [KR13] #

[KR13] reconcile [Hob79]'s coherence-driven account of pronoun interpretation with the centering-driven account of [GJW95] through a Bayesian decomposition, P(referent | pronoun) ∝ P(pronoun | referent) × P(referent). The prior P(referent) is a coherence-driven next-mention bias; the likelihood P(pronoun | referent) is a centering-driven topichood (production) bias. The two components are empirically dissociable across five passage-completion experiments with transfer-of-possession and implicit-causality verbs.

Main declarations #

Implementation notes #

Probabilities are exact rationals () on a 0–100 percentage scale; empirical values are quoted from the paper's Tables 1–10. sourceBias marginalizes over CoherenceRelation.all, so adding a coherence relation forces the mixture to be revisited (via CoherenceRelation.mem_all) rather than silently dropping it.

References #

[Hob79] [Keh02] [Dav84] [Kam86] [GJW95]

Experimental design #

Prompt type in passage completion experiments.

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      Instruction condition (transfer-of-possession experiments).

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          The Bayesian model #

          The coherence-marginalized next-mention bias (the paper's Eq. (9)): P(referent) = Σ_CR P(CR) × P(referent | CR), a mixture of CR-specific biases weighted by the prior over coherence relations — the coherence-driven prior. Probabilities are percentages (0–100).

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            Topichood level, determined by grammatical construction. Passive subjects signal stronger topichood than active subjects, since a marked construction placing an entity in subject position is a stronger topic indicator ([Dav84]). The likelihood P(pronoun | referent) tracks this level, not grammatical role per se.

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                Aspect manipulation #

                Table 1: Source interpretation rate by aspect. Imperfective focuses on the ongoing event (Source still central); perfective focuses on the end state (Goal = endpoint of transfer).

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                  Imperfective yields more Source interpretations than perfective.

                  Coherence relation analysis #

                  Coherence relation frequency and bias data from Table 2 (perfective condition, transfer-of-possession verbs). The paper's "Violated Expectation" is modelled as CoherenceRelation.contrast: it is a denial-of-expectation relation, which [Umb04] classes with contrast, though [Keh02] alternatively files it under cause-effect. No theorem here depends on its coherence class.

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                    def KehlerRohde2013.instReprCRDatum.repr :
                    CRDatumStd.Format
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                        Occasion and Result are Goal-biased (Source < 50%).

                        Elaboration, Explanation, and Violated Expectation are Source-biased.

                        The overall ~57/43 Source/Goal split masks strong CR-conditioned biases: Occasion is most common (.38) and Goal-biased (.18 Source); Elaboration is second (.28) and strongly Source-biased (.98).

                        Instruction manipulation: P(CR) shift #

                        Table 3: "What happened next?" yields Occasion-dominated completions; "Why?" yields Explanation-dominated ones. Instructions shift P(CR) without changing the stimuli.

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                          Table 5: Source interpretation by instruction condition (perfective). Shifting P(CR) shifts P(referent), as predicted by the mixture (Eq. (9)).

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                            The instruction effect is 48 pp on identical stimuli — no morphosyntactic heuristic can account for it.

                            Bias stability: P(ref | CR) invariance #

                            Table 4: P(Source | CR) is stable across the original experiment and the instruction manipulation, supporting the structural claim that CR-conditioned biases are properties of the coherence relation itself, not the experimental context.

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                                Bias direction (above/below 50%) is preserved for all five CRs across conditions: P(CR) can shift independently of P(ref | CR).

                                Bidirectionality: pronoun → coherence #

                                Table 6: CR distribution by prompt type. The mere presence of an ambiguous pronoun shifts coherence expectations toward Source-biased relations. This bidirectionality — coreference affects coherence, not just vice versa — is predicted by Bayes (Eq. (12)) but not by Hobbs (pronouns are inert free variables) or Centering (does not model coherence).

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                                    Voice manipulation: implicit-causality verbs #

                                    Voice affects next-mention in the pronoun condition: active (.77) vs. passive (.42). Passivization moves the causally-implicated referent out of subject position — same proposition, different bias.

                                    In the no-pronoun condition the pattern reverses: passive (.76) > active (.59). By-phrases are optional in English, so their inclusion signals the referent will be re-mentioned.

                                    Voice affects coherence in the pronoun condition: active produces more Explanations than passive. Since the propositions are identical, this is mediated by the shift in pronominal reference — bidirectional coherence–coreference dependency.

                                    Passive subjects are pronominalized more than active subjects (87% vs. 62%). Both are subjects, so this is not explicable by grammatical role; it reflects the stronger topichood signal of the passive — the key evidence that P(pronoun | referent) tracks topichood, not subjecthood.

                                    Non-subject pronominalization is invariant across voice (24% vs. 23%): at the same (low) topichood level, the voice manipulation has no effect on pronominalization rate. This is the Independence Hypothesis — P(pronoun | referent) does not depend on coherence-driven factors.

                                    Subjects are pronominalized more than non-subjects in both voices — the centering-derived component.

                                    Topichood monotonically predicts pronominalization: strong (passive subject, 87%) > default (active subject, 62%) > low (non-subject, ~24%).

                                    Bayesian predictions are directionally correct: active > passive in both predicted and actual biases.

                                    The passive prediction is highly accurate (59% vs. 60%).

                                    Mixture derivation (Eq. (9)) #

                                    The coherence-marginalized Source bias of a NextMentionModel. This is the paper's Eq. (9), P(Source) = Σ_CR P(CR) × P(Source | CR), as a percentage — marginalizing over CoherenceRelation.all.

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                                          The two instruction models share their CR-conditioned biases: the instruction manipulation changes P(CR) while holding P(ref | CR) constant (Table 4).

                                          The "Why?" mixture exceeds the "What next?" mixture, derived from the model rather than read off Table 5: Explanation (Source-biased at 82%) dominates the "Why?" mixture at 91% P(CR).

                                          The computed mixtures track Table 5: "Why?" → ~84% Source, "What next?" → ~36% Source (vs. observed 82% and 34%), the small gap from integer rounding and the "Other" CR category.

                                          Bayesian inversion (Eq. (13)) #

                                          def KehlerRohde2013.bayesianPrediction (pSubj pPronSubj pPronNonSubj : ) :

                                          P(Subject | pronoun) via Bayes' rule (Eq. (13)), from P(Subject next-mentioned) (no-pronoun data) and P(pronoun | position) (pronominalization rates). Result is a percentage.

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                                            Active voice: from P(Subject) = 59% (Table 7), P(pronoun | Subject) = 62%, P(pronoun | NonSubject) = 24% (Table 9), Bayes' rule yields ≈ 78% (the paper reports 81% from unrounded data; the direction matches).

                                            Passive voice: from P(Subject) = 100 − 76 = 24% (Table 7), P(pronoun | Subject) = 87%, P(pronoun | NonSubject) = 23% (Table 9), Bayes' rule yields ≈ 54%.

                                            Bayes' rule derives active > passive for P(Subject | pronoun) even though passive subjects are pronominalized more (87% vs. 62%): the lower passive prior P(Subject) (24% vs. 59%) dominates, reversing the production bias.

                                            Coherence–referent bridge #

                                            The two Goal-biased CRs (Occasion, Result) both focus on what happens after the prior event; for transfer verbs the endpoint is the Goal.

                                            Explanation is Source-biased and selects for causes (backward causal). For transfer verbs the Source is the cause; for IC verbs the stimulus is — the bridge to IC bias studies.

                                            The contiguity class does not uniformly predict bias: Occasion (18% Source) and Elaboration (98% Source) are both contiguity relations with opposite biases. Occasion focuses on the end state (Goal); Elaboration redescribes the same event (Source). Bias is set by the relation, not the class.

                                            Centering substrate connection #

                                            [KR13] is the Bayesian–Centering reconciliation paper, so this section grounds the file's topichood/bayesianPrediction apparatus in the Discourse/Centering/ substrate (cb, cp, Rule1Gordon). Under the standard grammatical-role Cf ranking (SUBJECT > OBJECT > OTHER, [Kam86]), the CB is invariant under voice — both (Amanda, SUBJ) (Brittany, OBJ) and (Amanda, SUBJ) (Brittany, OTHER-by-phrase) make Amanda the most-preferred Cf — yet topichood distinguishes them (passive subject .strong, active subject .default_). The voice-induced pronominalization gradient (87% vs. 62%) lives in the topichood signal, not the CB signal; this dissociation is the structural reason RosaArnold2017.independence_violated_bridges_to_KR finds the Independence Hypothesis empirically violatable.

                                            Two referents in the toy KR2013 example: Amanda (subject across voice manipulations) and Brittany (object/by-phrase).

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                                              Prior "Amanda V'd Brittany": Amanda SUBJ, Brittany OBJ. Under Kameyama's role ranking the forward-looking centers are [Amanda, Brittany] with Amanda Cp.

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                                                Active continuation "She V'd her" — Amanda still SUBJ, both pronouns.

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                                                  Passive continuation "Amanda was V'd by Brittany" — Amanda promoted to SUBJ by the marked passive; Brittany now in the by-phrase (OTHER). The proposition is identical; only the construction differs.

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                                                    Cp of the prior utterance is Amanda (SUBJ outranks OBJ).

                                                    CB is invariant under voice: both continuations have CB = Amanda, since Amanda is in prev.cf and realized in both, and the grammatical-role ranker cannot see voice — both subjects rank equally as .subject.

                                                    KR2013's topichood is voice-sensitive: the same subject-position Amanda is .strong under passive marking but .default_ under active — the gradient driving the 87% vs. 62% pronominalization difference (Table 9).

                                                    The dissociation: Centering's CB and KR2013's topichood diverge on the voice manipulation. CB is the same in both (Amanda); topichood differs (.strong vs. .default_). The 25-pp pronominalization gap (Table 9) lives in the topichood signal, not the CB signal — "P(pronoun | referent) tracks topichood, not subjecthood."

                                                    Rule 1 (Gordon) is satisfied in both voice variants — both Amanda-realizations are pronominal — so the substrate Rule 1 constraint is voice-insensitive too. KR2013's contribution is the gradient it averages over: among Rule 1-satisfying utterances, passive-subject ones pronominalize 87% of the time vs. 62% for active (Table 9).

                                                    Centering as the qualitative skeleton of KR2013's likelihood: where Rule1Gordon says "the CB should be pronominalized" (Bool), the likelihood P(pronoun | referent) says "at a rate proportional to topichood" (gradient). The 87% / 62% / ~24% rates (Table 9) monotonically track the .strong / .default_ / .low levels (topichood_monotone).