Discourse Multiple Dependencies
Claire Gardent

Abstract:
It is sometimes claimed (cf. [Mann/Thompson 1988, Scha/Polanyi 1988, 
Webber 1991, Gardent 1991, Pr¨ust 1992]) that discourse has a
tree structure which reflects the semantic structure of discourse. In
this paper, I argue that this claim is problematic in cases of discourse
multiple dependencies i.e. cases where one discourse segment is
semantically related to two discourse segments. I develop a discourse
framework which is based on [Scha/Polanyi 1988] but integrates ideas
from Feature­based Tree Adjoining Grammars (FTAGs). I then show
that this new framework adequately captures multiple dependencies
whilst retaining the precise linguistic predictions made by the 
discourse grammar. In particular, I show how it permits a simple 
modelling of discourse semantics, discourse coherence and discourse 
based constraints on anaphora resolution.