Discourse structure and anaphora: Written and conversational english

Abstract

Abstract The article is a critical review of Fox (1987). After an introduction outlining Fox's essential aims, the scope of her study and her general approach to it, section 2 critically examines Fox's theoretical assumptions, methodology and selection of data, and the ways in which they affect her analyses of discourse anaphora in two genres of written and spoken English. Section 3 discusses Fox's approach to the various types of third-person referring expressions occuring in her data, as well as her choice of only two of them (third person pronouns and ‘full NPs’ — mainly Proper nouns) as the subject of her study. The article concludes by suggesting that its initial promise has not been fully borne out, due to certain of its methodological and theoretical standpoints.