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<Paper uid="C00-2112">
  <Title>Making Sense of Reference to the Unfamiliar</Title>
  <Section position="3" start_page="0" end_page="775" type="intro">
    <SectionTitle>
1. Introduction
</SectionTitle>
    <Paragraph position="0"> Itow do reti;rring exl)ressions denote? According to II.ussell, a definite description such as %he King of France&amp;quot;, denotes a mfique individual by virtue of its meaning. But, according to Familiarity Theory (Helm, 1.983), reti;rring expressions need not denote mfiquely by virtue of their meaning as they refer to individuals made familiar by the discourse or other context. This observation plays a key role in Centering Theory (Grosz and Sidner, 1986; Grosz et al., 1995) and other computational al)t)roaches in which rethrring expressions are resolved by locating their antecedents in the discourse. The reference of pronouns like &amp;quot;he&amp;quot;, definite descriptions like &amp;quot;the woman&amp;quot;, and referential tenses like &amp;quot;had&amp;quot; clearly has more to do with salience ill context thml with uniqueness of meaning. Similarly, while names like &amp;quot;Mary&amp;quot; need not denote individuals prominent in the discourse context, * \Ve would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their detailed and helpful comments.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="1"> they must nevertheless denote individuals familiar to conversants if they are successflflly to refer. However, there is another (:lass of referring expressions in relation to which we believe the concept of uniqueness of meaning does have an essential role to plt~y. These include such definite descrit)tions as &amp;quot;the first man&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;the first snowdrop of Spring&amp;quot;, along with such variations on these as &amp;quot;the first three men&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;the first snowdrops of Spring&amp;quot;.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="2"> In implementing a system of retL, renee resolution, we have attemt)ted to reconcile the notions of familiarity mM uniqueness. This enables us to dereli;rence exl)ressions like &amp;quot;the first snowdrop of Spring&amp;quot; in a unified framework alongside anal)hers ~, pron(mns, retbrential tenses, names, and other definite descriptions like &amp;quot;the nlall&amp;quot;.  (1) Two men nrrive(t.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="3"> (2) The .fir.st 'm,a'H, spoke.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="4">  In the case of a referring expression like &amp;quot;the first mini&amp;quot;, there may be an antecedent of sorts in the discourse, trot it is not the individual referred to (or indeed ml individual at all). We will say that the antecedent &amp;quot;two men&amp;quot; introduces a set, and that the referring expression &amp;quot;the first man&amp;quot; denotes, by virtue of the meaning of.first, a unique subset of this familiar set. (1) Mary saw th, e first snowd,vp of Spring.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="5"> In the case of &amp;quot;tile first snowdrop of Spring&amp;quot;, there need be no explicit antecedent in the discourse. We will s~w that, in the same way that &amp;quot;Mary&amp;quot; denotes a familiar individual, &amp;quot;the snowdrops of Spring&amp;quot; denotes a t'~nniliar set, or &gt;vVe use this term to distinguish reflexives like &amp;quot;herself&amp;quot; from t)ronouns like &amp;quot;he&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;hiln&amp;quot;.  property. Again, by virtue of tile meaning of first, &amp;quot;tile first snowdrop of Spring&amp;quot; can be said to denote a unique subset of the familiar set. We will not claim that it denotes a unique individual, but that rather it denotes a unique subset of the specified cardinality, i.e., 1. This treatment has tile advantage that it extends to plural referring expressions.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="6"> Below we outline the approach we have developed to the representation and resolution of referring expressions, betbre discussing in more detail its extension to deal with unfamiliar referents. null</Paragraph>
  </Section>
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