Abstract
This article describes three production experiments in which the role of the ontology of referents is investigated with respect to establishing and maintaining local coherence in discourse. The experiments elaborate on the basic claims put forward by Centering Theory. Subjects were asked to complete sentences or fill in the most adequate anaphoric device in two- or three-sentenc e sequences in which concrete and abstract referents were manipulated along the lines of variables which in centering theory are claimed to determine the type of center transition and hence the accessibility of referents. The distribution of different types of anaphoric expressions indicated that—all other things being equal—abstract referents require more 'referential force' than concrete referents, which is claimed to be due to their being less accessible by their very nature. Furthermore, demonstrative nominal and demonstrative pronominal anaphors appeared to function quite differently in expressing differences in transition stages of discourse referents.
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