C04 - Conceptual and referential activation in discourse - CRC1252 (Prominence in Language)

As a basis for the current project, we propose that prominence relations are among the core features contributing to referent management - at the level of comprehension and at the level of discourse planning. We suggest that, in referent management, prominence-lending features affect two related processes: activation of a concept and activation of a referent. The overall goal of the project is to develop a discourse model that can account for some key features in discourse processing, in particular for those features that are associated with concept activation and referent activation. For a brief introduction to the project, see