This pioneering book brings together work in grammatical theory and discourse analysis to develop possibly the first coherent and comprehensive account of how hearers are able to comprehend anaphoric relations.
Bernard Comrie investigates a number of phenomena across a range of languages from both grammatical and discourse perspectives. These include: switch reference; obviation; reflexives and zero anaphora. Professor Comrie's discussion draws on a wide range of languages, including languages of Africa, Australia, New Guinea and the Americas, in addition to better-known European and Asian languages.