This course will be an in-depth examination of the semantic, syntactic, and psychological features of cross-sentential anaphora.
We will start the semester by discussing both the basic features of anaphoric relations within sentences and the theories that aim to explain those features. We will then move to cross-sentential phenomena and discuss discourse representation theory, centering theory, segmented discourse representation theory, and anaphora processing. Over the course of the semester we will welcome five guest speakers -- experts in the linguistics, philosophy, and psychology of discourse and anaphora -- who will help us better understand the relationships between anaphora, context, intentionality, representation, and the mind. In addition, we plan to hold a conference supplemental to the seminar in order to create a sustained conversation that will facilitate a wide range of interdisciplinary interactions.