Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to consider how the preference in the interpretation of anaphors and their distribution properties can interact and be best explained. To reach the goal, this paper presents the prominence hierarchy for computing a different degree of preference when there is more than one option for anaphor interpretations. This paper also argues that the coreferential possibility between the Korean anaphor caki and its antecedent is determined by the prominence principle, which is stated in terms of the prominence hierarchy: caki must be coreferential with a more prominent antecedent only if there exists such an antecedent. Finally, this paper extends its proposal to anaphors in other languages such as English, Icelandic, Japanese, and Chinese.