Anaphora resolution attempts to determine the correct antecedent of an anaphor (the termpointing back). In what follows, we propose an algorithm for the resolution of anaphoric pronouns thatrelies on lexical and syntactic knowledge incorporated in a modular approach based on constraints andpreferences. Our objective was to find the correct antecedent to the following subject pronouns (il, ils,elle, elles), object pronouns (l’, le, la, les) and possessive pronouns (son, sa, ses, leur, leurs) inunrestricted texts. We also identify and eliminate pleonastic pronouns and discard candidatesappearing in appositions. Moreover we use a focus mechanism to determine salient entities. Thealgorithm, implemented in Prolog, realizes a success rate of 68%, which was considered a goodperformance for unrestricted French texts.
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