Open AccessOpinion Piece: Can we Fix the Scope for Coreference?
Author(s) -
Amir Zeldes
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
dialogue and discourse
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2152-9620
DOI - 10.5210/dad.2022.102
Subject(s) - coreference , computer science , noun phrase , anaphora (linguistics) , natural language processing , focus (optics) , consistency (knowledge bases) , artificial intelligence , scope (computer science) , generalizability theory , benchmark (surveying) , semantics (computer science) , resolution (logic) , noun , linguistics , psychology , philosophy , developmental psychology , physics , geodesy , optics , programming language , geography
Current work on automatic coreference resolution has focused on the OntoNotes benchmark dataset, due to both its size and consistency. However many aspects of the OntoNotes annotation scheme are not well understood by NLP practitioners, including the treatment of generic NPs, noun modifiers, indefinite anaphora, predication and more. These often lead to counterintuitive claims, results and system behaviors. This opinion piece aims to highlight some of the problems with the OntoNotes rendition of coreference, and to propose a way forward relying on three principles: 1. a focus on semantics, not morphosyntax; 2. cross-linguistic generalizability; and 3. a separation of identity and scope, which can resolve old problems involving temporal and modal domain consistency.