A Pragmatics-Based Approach to Understanding Intersentential Ellipsis

Abstract

Intersentential elliptical utterances occur frequently in information-seeking dialogues. This paper presents a pragmatics-based framework for interpreting such utterances, including identification of the speaker discourse goal in employing the fragment. We claim that the advantage of this approach is its reliance upon pragmatic information, including discourse content and conversational goals, rather than upon precise representations of the preceding utterance alone.