[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/aclbulk-2016-anand-antecedent-selection-sluicing-structure-content/)

[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [docs](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/) / [papers](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/) / [English](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/en/) / Antecedent Selection for Sluicing: Structure and Content

# Antecedent Selection for Sluicing: Structure and Content

**Authors:** [Pranav Anand](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/authors/pranav-anand/) and [Daniel Hardt](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/authors/daniel-hardt/) · **Year:** 2016 · **Venue:** Proceedings of the 2016 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing (EMNLP 2016) **Link:** [aclanthology.org/D16-1131](https://aclanthology.org/D16-1131/) · **Licence:** [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

[**10** citations](https://openalex.org/works?filter=cites:W2567206440) openalex · 2026-10-19[**7** citations in our library](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/cited-by/aclbulk-2016-anand-antecedent-selection-sluicing-structure-content/) of the 140673 papers whose bibliographies we read[Proceedings of the 2016 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing](https://aclanthology.org/volumes/D16-1/)[licence](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

- [Publisher's page](https://aclanthology.org/D16-1131/)
- [PDF](https://aclanthology.org/D16-1131.pdf)
- [DOI 10.18653/v1/d16-1131](https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/d16-1131)
- [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/W2567206440)

**Authors (2)**

1. [Pranav Anand](https://openalex.org/A5058849628) [Semantic Scholar](https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/49936558) · h 19 · 2232 citations · 83 works
2. [Daniel Hardt](https://openalex.org/A5054824570) [ORCID](https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6041-1475) · [Semantic Scholar](https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/144610213) · h 19 · 1785 citations · 101 works

Citations and author metrics from openalex (2026-10-19); authors with the same name are not always told apart.

## What it is about

The paper asks which earlier sentence or clause a sluice refers to. It argues that both syntax and discourse matter, and it builds features for the structural relation between the sluice and each candidate, for discourse relations, and for the match between the candidate's content and the wh-type of the sluice. A linear model is trained with hill-climbing on the 4,100 sluices from the New York Times in the Anand and McCloskey (2015) data. The development set has 453 sluices from 1994–95, and the test set 1,732 from 1996–2000, with 10-fold cross-validation. The model reaches 72.4% accuracy, well above strong hand-built baselines. Distance is the strongest single group: 63% of antecedents are in the same sentence as the sluice, and 33% in the sentence before.

## Ideas

- I1. `en/src/ctx.rs`: use the paper's distance feature as the first candidate ranking, since it carries most of the signal. Measure accuracy on a sluice test set whose licence allows testing, against a random candidate baseline.
- I2. wh-type check in `en/src/expert.rs`: a candidate must match the sluice's wh-type on the content it supplies (for example, "how much" needs a measure, "how" needs a manner clause). Report the error rate per wh-type, as the paper does by sluice type.
- I3. Model comparison on the same features: compare the hill-climbing model with the averaged perceptron of `en` on the development part only, with `en folds`. Keep the test set held out until the release check.

## For Mova

The code is `en/src/ctx.rs`, `en/src/expert.rs` and the perceptron in `en/src/parse.rs`. The chapter is [29. Ellipsis, word order and information structure](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/en/29-ellipsis-word-order-information-structure/). The sluice data is NC, so it is for tests only. Measure first: the distance-only ranking on any sluice set we may test on.

Topics: [Discourse analysis](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/topics/discourse-analysis/) · [Coreference resolution](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/topics/coreference-resolution/)

## Cite

The paper itself, not this card. BibTeX from the library's record of the work. [DOI 10.18653/v1/d16-1131](https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/d16-1131)

```
@inproceedings{anand2016antecedent,
  title = {{Antecedent Selection for Sluicing: Structure and Content}},
  author = {Anand, Pranav and Hardt, Daniel},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2016 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing},
  year = {2016},
  doi = {10.18653/v1/d16-1131},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/d16-1131}
}
```

- [← previous A Hierarchy with, of, and for Preposition Supersenses](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/aclbulk-2015-schneider-hierarchy-preposition-supersenses/)
- [next → Evaluating Inter-Annotator Agreement on Historical Spelling Normalization](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/aclbulk-2016-bollmann-evaluating-inter-annotator-agreement-historical/)
- [↑ back to English](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/en/)

## References

26 references, 4 of them with a card of ours. ↗ leads to the work, «find» searches for one we have no id for yet.

1. Pranav Anand and Jim McCloskey. 2015. Annotating the implicit content of sluices. In The 9th Linguistic Annotation Workshop held in conjuncion with NAACL 2015, page 178. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Pranav+Anand+and+Jim+McCloskey%2E+2015%2E+Annotating+the+implicit+content+of+sluices%2E+In+The+9th+Linguistic+Annotation+Workshop+held+in+conjuncion+with+NAACL+2015%2C+page+178%2E) [our card](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/aclbulk-2015-anand-annotating-implicit-content-sluices/)
2. Scott AnderBois. 2014. The semantics of sluicing: Beyond truth conditions. Language, 90(4):887–926. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Scott+AnderBois%2E+2014%2E+The+semantics+of+sluicing%3A+Beyond+truth+conditions%2E+Language%2C+90%284%29%3A887%E2%80%93926%2E)
3. Nicholas Asher. 1993. Reference to Abstract Objects in English. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Nicholas+Asher%2E+1993%2E+Reference+to+Abstract+Objects+in+English%2E)
4. Dordrecht. Henry Beecher. 2008. Pramatic inference in the interpretation of sluiced Prepositional Phrases. In San Diego Linguistic Papers, volume 3, pages 2–10. Department of Linguistics, UCSD, La Jolla, California. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Dordrecht%2E+Henry+Beecher%2E+2008%2E+Pramatic+inference+in+the+interpretation+of+sluiced+Prepositional+Phrases%2E+In+San+Diego+Linguistic+Papers%2C+volume+3%2C+pages+2%E2%80%9310%2E+Department+of+Linguistics%2C+UCSD%2C+La+Jol)
5. Eric Bengtson and Dan Roth. 2008. Understanding the value of features for coreference resolution. In Proceedings of the Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing, pages 294–303. Association for Computational Linguistics. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Eric+Bengtson+and+Dan+Roth%2E+2008%2E+Understanding+the+value+of+features+for+coreference+resolution%2E+In+Proceedings+of+the+Conference+on+Empirical+Methods+in+Natural+Language+Processing%2C+pages+294%E2%80%93303%2E+A)
6. Johan Bos and Jennifer Spenader. 2011. An annotated corpus for the analysis of vp ellipsis. Language Resources and Evaluation, 45(4):463–494. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Johan+Bos+and+Jennifer+Spenader%2E+2011%2E+An+annotated+corpus+for+the+analysis+of+vp+ellipsis%2E+Language+Resources+and+Evaluation%2C+45%284%29%3A463%E2%80%93494%2E)
7. Sara Cantor. 2013. Ungrammatical double-island sluicing as a diagnostic of left-branch positioning. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Sara+Cantor%2E+2013%2E+Ungrammatical+double%2Disland+sluicing+as+a+diagnostic+of+left%2Dbranch+positioning%2E)
8. S. Chung, W. Ladusaw, and J. McCloskey. 1995. Sluicing and logical form. Natural Language Semantics, 3:1–44. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=S%2E+Chung%2C+W%2E+Ladusaw%2C+and+J%2E+McCloskey%2E+1995%2E+Sluicing+and+logical+form%2E+Natural+Language+Semantics%2C+3%3A1%E2%80%9344%2E)
9. Mary Dalrymple, Stuart Shieber, and Fernando Pereira. 1991. Ellipsis and higher-order unification. Linguistics and Philosophy, 14(4), August. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Mary+Dalrymple%2C+Stuart+Shieber%2C+and+Fernando+Pereira%2E+1991%2E+Ellipsis+and+higher%2Dorder+unification%2E+Linguistics+and+Philosophy%2C+14%284%29%2C+August%2E)
10. Pascal Denis and Jason Baldridge. 2008. Specialized models and ranking for coreference resolution. In Proceedings of the 2008 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing, pages 660–669. Raquel Fernández, Jonathan Ginzburg, and Shalom Lappin. 2005. Automatic bare sluice disambigua… [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Pascal+Denis+and+Jason+Baldridge%2E+2008%2E+Specialized+models+and+ranking+for+coreference+resolution%2E+In+Proceedings+of+the+2008+Conference+on+Empirical+Methods+in+Natural+Language+Processing%2C+pages+660%E2%80%93)
11. Springer. Jonathan Ginzburg and Ivan Sag. 2000. Interrogative Investigations: The Form, Meaning and Use of English Interrogatives. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Springer%2E+Jonathan+Ginzburg+and+Ivan+Sag%2E+2000%2E+Interrogative+Investigations%3A+The+Form%2C+Meaning+and+Use+of+English+Interrogatives%2E)
12. CSLI Publications, Stanford, Calif. Daniel Hardt and Maribel Romero. 2004. Ellipsis and the structure of discourse. Journal of Semantics, 24(5):375–414. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=CSLI+Publications%2C+Stanford%2C+Calif%2E+Daniel+Hardt+and+Maribel+Romero%2E+2004%2E+Ellipsis+and+the+structure+of+discourse%2E+Journal+of+Semantics%2C+24%285%29%3A375%E2%80%93414%2E)
13. Daniel Hardt. 1997. An empirical approach to vp ellipsis. Computational Lingusitics, 23(4):525–541. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Daniel+Hardt%2E+1997%2E+An+empirical+approach+to+vp+ellipsis%2E+Computational+Lingusitics%2C+23%284%29%3A525%E2%80%93541%2E) [our card](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/cl-1997-hardt-empirical-approach-vp-ellipsis/)
14. Daniel Hardt. 1999. Dynamic interpretation of verb phrase ellipsis. Linguistics & Philosophy, 22(2):187– 221. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Daniel+Hardt%2E+1999%2E+Dynamic+interpretation+of+verb+phrase+ellipsis%2E+Linguistics+%26+Philosophy%2C+22%282%29%3A187%E2%80%93+221%2E)
15. Donald Hindle and Mats Rooth. 1993. Structural ambiguity and lexical relations. Computational linguistics, 19(1):103–120. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Donald+Hindle+and+Mats+Rooth%2E+1993%2E+Structural+ambiguity+and+lexical+relations%2E+Computational+linguistics%2C+19%281%29%3A103%E2%80%93120%2E)
16. Varada Kolhatkar and Graeme Hirst. 2012. Resolving “this-issue” anaphora. In Proceedings of the 2012 Joint Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing and Computational Natural Language Learning, pages 1255–65. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Varada+Kolhatkar+and+Graeme+Hirst%2E+2012%2E+Resolving+%E2%80%9Cthis%2Dissue%E2%80%9D+anaphora%2E+In+Proceedings+of+the+2012+Joint+Conference+on+Empirical+Methods+in+Natural+Language+Processing+and+Computational+Natural+Lang)
17. Varada Kolhatkar, Heike Zinmeister, and Graeme Hirst. 2013. Interpreting anaphoric shell nouns using antecedents of ctaphoric shell nouns as training data. In Proceedings of the 2013 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Varada+Kolhatkar%2C+Heike+Zinmeister%2C+and+Graeme+Hirst%2E+2013%2E+Interpreting+anaphoric+shell+nouns+using+antecedents+of+ctaphoric+shell+nouns+as+training+data%2E+In+Proceedings+of+the+2013+Conference+on+Emp)
18. Ken Litowski and Orin Hargraves. 2005. The preposition project. In ACL-SIGSEM Workshop on ”The Linguistic Dimension of Prepositions and Their Use in Computational Linguistic Formalisms and Applications, pages 171–179. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Ken+Litowski+and+Orin+Hargraves%2E+2005%2E+The+preposition+project%2E+In+ACL%2DSIGSEM+Workshop+on+%E2%80%9DThe+Linguistic+Dimension+of+Prepositions+and+Their+Use+in+Computational+Linguistic+Formalisms+and+Application)
19. Anne Lobeck. 1995. Ellipsis: Functional heads, licensing and identification. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Anne+Lobeck%2E+1995%2E+Ellipsis%3A+Functional+heads%2C+licensing+and+identification%2E)
20. Oxford University Press. Jason Merchant. 2001. The syntax of silence: Sluicing, islands, and identity in ellipsis. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Oxford+University+Press%2E+Jason+Merchant%2E+2001%2E+The+syntax+of+silence%3A+Sluicing%2C+islands%2C+and+identity+in+ellipsis%2E)
21. Oxford. Leif Nielsen. 2005. A Corpus-Based Study of Verb Phrase Ellipsis Identification and Resolution. Ph.D. thesis, King’s College London. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Oxford%2E+Leif+Nielsen%2E+2005%2E+A+Corpus%2DBased+Study+of+Verb+Phrase+Ellipsis+Identification+and+Resolution%2E+Ph%2ED%2E+thesis%2C+King%E2%80%99s+College+London%2E)
22. Johanna Nykiel. 2010. Whatever happened to Old English sluicing. In Robert A. Cloutier, Anne Marie Hamilton-Brehm, and Jr. William A. Kretzschmar, editors, Studies in the History of the English Language V: Variation and Change in English Grammar and Lexicon: Contemporary Approaches, pages 37–59. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Johanna+Nykiel%2E+2010%2E+Whatever+happened+to+Old+English+sluicing%2E+In+Robert+A%2E+Cloutier%2C+Anne+Marie+Hamilton%2DBrehm%2C+and+Jr%2E+William+A%2E+Kretzschmar%2C+editors%2C+Studies+in+the+History+of+the+English+Langua)
23. Walter de Gruyter. Rashmi Prasad, Nikhil Dinesh, Alan Lee, Eleni Miltsakaki, Livio Robaldo, Aravind K Joshi, and Bonnie L Webber. 2008. The penn discourse treebank 2.0. In LREC. Citeseer. Hub Prüst, Remko Scha, and Martin van den Berg. 1994. A discourse perspective on verb phrase anaphora. Linguist… [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Walter+de+Gruyter%2E+Rashmi+Prasad%2C+Nikhil+Dinesh%2C+Alan+Lee%2C+Eleni+Miltsakaki%2C+Livio+Robaldo%2C+Aravind+K+Joshi%2C+and+Bonnie+L+Webber%2E+2008%2E+The+penn+discourse+treebank+2%2E0%2E+In+LREC%2E+Citeseer%2E+Hub+Pru%CC%88st%2C+) [our card](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/disc-2008-prasad-penn-discourse-treebank-2-0/)
24. James Pustejovesky, Marc Verhagen, Roser Sauri, Jessica Littman, Robert Gaizauskas, Graham Katz, Inderjeet Mani, Robert Knippen, and Andrea Setzer. 2016. Timebank 1.2. LDC2006T08, April. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=James+Pustejovesky%2C+Marc+Verhagen%2C+Roser+Sauri%2C+Jessica+Littman%2C+Robert+Gaizauskas%2C+Graham+Katz%2C+Inderjeet+Mani%2C+Robert+Knippen%2C+and+Andrea+Setzer%2E+2016%2E+Timebank+1%2E2%2E+LDC2006T08%2C+April%2E)
25. Ivan A. Sag. 1976. Deletion and Logical Form. Ph.D. thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (Published 1980 by Garland Publishing, New York). [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Ivan+A%2E+Sag%2E+1976%2E+Deletion+and+Logical+Form%2E+Ph%2ED%2E+thesis%2C+Massachusetts+Institute+of+Technology%2E+%28Published+1980+by+Garland+Publishing%2C+New+York%29%2E)
26. W. M. Soon, H.T. Ng, and D. C. Y Lim. 2001. A machine learning approach to coreference resolution of noun phrases. Computational Linguistics, 27(4):521– 44. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=W%2E+M%2E+Soon%2C+H%2ET%2E+Ng%2C+and+D%2E+C%2E+Y+Lim%2E+2001%2E+A+machine+learning+approach+to+coreference+resolution+of+noun+phrases%2E+Computational+Linguistics%2C+27%284%29%3A521%E2%80%93+44%2E) [our card](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/soon-2001-machine-learning-approach-coreference-resolution/)