Introduction

In this chapter, I discuss the distribution of pronouns and full noun phrases in non-story conversational texts.

In presenting the distributions, I operate in two modes of description, one of which can be thought of as the “context-determines-use” mode, the other the “use-accomplishes-context” mode. In the context-determines-use mode, it is assumed that the hierarchic structure of the talk determines to some large extent the anaphoric form which the speaker is to use. The type of pattern offered in this mode says that in context X the speaker will use anaphoric form Y. In the use-accomplishes-context mode, on the other hand, it is assumed that it is by virtue of using a particular anaphoric form that the structure is created.

I have assumed in this study that both modes of operation are always present for the participants. That is, for the most part knowledge about how anaphora is usually handled in certain contexts leads a participant to pick the anaphoric form that is “unmarked” for the context, and by picking this form the participant displays his/her understanding of what type of context is currently under development: this display of understanding, in turn, can create for the other parties present the same understanding (when by themselves they might have constructed some other sort of understanding of the current structure). There is thus a continuous interaction, even in the simplest cases, of the following three steps of reasoning:

1. Anaphoric form X is the “unmarked” form for a context like the one the participant is in now.

2. […]