---
title: "Cascading Collective Classification for Bridging — Hou 2013"
description: "The paper addresses the automatic recognition of bridging anaphora."
authors: ["Yufang Hou", "Katja Markert", "Michael Strube"]
year: 2013
venue: "Proceedings of the 2013 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing"
source: "https://aclanthology.org/D13-1077/"
licence: "CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 (ACL Anthology, before 2016)"
licence_url: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/"
summary_licence: "Elamur Cosmic License"
canonical: "https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/hou-2013-cascading-collective-classification-bridging-anaphora/"
---
[Elamur Research](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/hou-2013-cascading-collective-classification-bridging-anaphora/)

[home](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [papers](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/) / [2013](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/2013/) / Cascading Collective Classification for Bridging Anaphora Recognition using a Rich Linguistic Feature Set

# Cascading Collective Classification for Bridging Anaphora Recognition using a Rich Linguistic Feature Set

**Authors:** [Yufang Hou](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/yufang-hou/), [Katja Markert](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/katja-markert/), [Michael Strube](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/michael-strube/) · **Year:** 2013 · **Venue:** Proceedings of the 2013 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing · **Licence:** [CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 (ACL Anthology, before 2016)](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/)

**Links:** [Publisher's page](https://aclanthology.org/D13-1077/) · [PDF](https://aclanthology.org/D13-1077.pdf) · [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/W2251819693)

**Citations:** 21 citations (openalex-snapshot · 2026-10-14) · [17](#cited-by) in our library, of the 140673 papers whose bibliographies we read

## Summary
The paper addresses the automatic recognition of bridging anaphora. These are noun phrases that are not coreferent with an earlier mention but are tied to it through an associative relation, as when "the lobby" follows "one building". Bridging is varied, has few surface cues and is rare, so earlier information status (IS) classifiers detected it poorly. Within the fine-grained IS framework of Markert et al. (2012), the authors add three groups of linguistically motivated features. The first captures discourse structure, such as sentences lacking entity coherence with prior context. The second is lexico-semantic, drawing on relational nouns, role nouns, building parts and set elements. The third helps separate generic NPs from bridging. They combine these features with a cascading minority preference algorithm: binary LibSVM classifiers for rare classes run from rarest to most frequent, and a multiclass model handles the remaining cases. Experiments on OntoNotes WSJ texts show much better bridging recognition while other IS classes keep their performance. The features and the cascade turn out to be complementary, which matters for coherence modelling and for applications such as prosody.

## Key points
- Data: 50 WSJ documents from OntoNotes (the ISNotes corpus) with about 11,000 NPs annotated for IS, including 663 bridging anaphors. Evaluation uses 10-fold cross-validation on documents, with gold mentions.
- Fewer than 40% of bridging anaphors in the corpus are definite NPs, so restricting recognition to definites is not justified.
- Lexical resources:
  - about 4,000 relational nouns taken from WordNet;
  - about 500 professional-role nouns from the General Inquirer;
  - building-part and spatial/temporal modifier lists from Inquirer;
  - frequent proper names from the Tipster corpus.
- Adding the new features significantly raised overall accuracy over both baselines (McNemar's test, 1% level).
- The cascade on its own, with only the baseline features, overgenerated rare classes and lowered accuracy. An ablation of the best system found that lexical and semantic features matter most, while discourse and genericity features contribute less.

*Our summary of the paper, in our own words — not its text. The work belongs to its authors; read it at the links above.*

Fields: [Linguistics & languages](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/shelves/linguistics/)

Topics: [Coreference resolution](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/coreference-resolution/)

## Cited by

Cited by

17 papers of our library cite it (of the 140673 whose bibliographies we read); 10 of them have a page here, 7 not yet.

- [A Rule-Based System for Unrestricted Bridging Resolution: Recognizing Bridging Anaphora and Finding Links to Antecedents](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/hou-2014-rule-based-system-unrestricted-bridging/)
- [A Deterministic Algorithm for Bridging Anaphora Resolution](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/hou-2018-deterministic-algorithm-bridging-anaphora-resolution/)
- [Enhanced Word Representations for Bridging Anaphora Resolution](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/hou-2018-enhanced-word-representations-bridging-anaphora/)
- [Unrestricted Bridging Resolution](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/hou-2018-unrestricted-bridging-resolution/)
- [Bridging Anaphora Resolution as Question Answering](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/hou-2020-bridging-anaphora-resolution-as-question/)
- [Fine-grained Information Status Classification Using Discourse Context-Aware BERT](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/hou-2020-fine-grained-information-status-classification/)
- [Bridging Resolution: A Survey of the State of the Art](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/kobayashi-2020-bridging-resolution-survey-state-art/)
- [Bridging resolution: Task definition, corpus resources and rule-based experiments](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/roesiger-2018-bridging-resolution-task-definition-corpus/)
- [Rule- and Learning-based Methods for Bridging Resolution in the ARRAU Corpus](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/roesiger-2018-rule-learning-based-methods-bridging/)
- [BASHI: A Corpus of Wall Street Journal Articles Annotated with Bridging Links](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/rosiger-2018-bashi-corpus-wall-street-journal/)

## Cite

The paper itself, not this page. BibTeX from the library's record of the work.

```bibtex
@inproceedings{hou2013cascading,
  title = {{Cascading Collective Classification for Bridging Anaphora Recognition using a Rich Linguistic Feature Set}},
  author = {Hou, Yufang and Markert, Katja and Strube, Michael},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2013 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing},
  year = {2013},
  doi = {10.18653/v1/d13-1077},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/d13-1077}
}
```

- [← previous Better Word Representations with Recursive Neural Networks for Morphology](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/luong-2013-better-word-representations-recursive-neural/)
- [next → Chinese Event Coreference Resolution: Understanding the State of the Art](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/chen-2013-chinese-event-coreference-resolution-understanding/)
- [↑ back to papers of 2013](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/2013/)

## References

29 references, 8 of them with a card of ours. ↗ leads to the work, «find» searches for one we have no id for yet.

1. Regina Barzilay and Mirella Lapata. 2008. Modeling local coherence: An entity-based approach. Computational Linguistics, 34(1):1–34. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Regina+Barzilay+and+Mirella+Lapata%2E+2008%2E+Modeling+local+coherence%3A+An+entity%2Dbased+approach%2E+Computational+Linguistics%2C+34%281%29%3A1%E2%80%9334%2E) [our card](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/barzilay-2008-modeling-local-coherence-entity-based/)
2. Stefan Baumann and Arndt Riester. 2013. Coreference, lexical givenness and prosody in German. Lingua. Accepted. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Stefan+Baumann+and+Arndt+Riester%2E+2013%2E+Coreference%2C+lexical+givenness+and+prosody+in+German%2E+Lingua%2E+Accepted%2E)
3. Aoife Cahill and Arndt Riester. 2012. Automatically acquiring fine-grained information status distinctions in German. In Proceedings of the SIGdial 2012 Conference: The 13th Annual Meeting of the Special Interest Group on Discourse and Dialogue, Seoul, Korea, 5–6 July 2012, pages 232–236. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Aoife+Cahill+and+Arndt+Riester%2E+2012%2E+Automatically+acquiring+fine%2Dgrained+information+status+distinctions+in+German%2E+In+Proceedings+of+the+SIGdial+2012+Conference%3A+The+13th+Annual+Meeting+of+the+Spec)
4. Tommaso Caselli and Irina Prodanof. 2006. Annotating bridging anaphors in Italian: In search of reliability. In Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation, Genoa, Italy, 22–28 May 2006. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Tommaso+Caselli+and+Irina+Prodanof%2E+2006%2E+Annotating+bridging+anaphors+in+Italian%3A+In+search+of+reliability%2E+In+Proceedings+of+the+5th+International+Conference+on+Language+Resources+and+Evaluation%2C+Ge) [our card](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/caselli-2006-annotating-bridging-anaphors-italian-search/)
5. Herbert H. Clark. 1975. Bridging. In Proceedings of the Conference on Theoretical Issues in Natural Language Processing, Cambridge, Mass., June 1975, pages 169– 174. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Herbert+H%2E+Clark%2E+1975%2E+Bridging%2E+In+Proceedings+of+the+Conference+on+Theoretical+Issues+in+Natural+Language+Processing%2C+Cambridge%2C+Mass%2E%2C+June+1975%2C+pages+169%E2%80%93+174%2E)
6. Claire Gardent and Hélène Manuélian. 2005. Création d’un corpus annoté pour le traitement des descriptions définies. Traitement Automatique des Langues, 46(1):115–140. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Claire+Gardent+and+He%CC%81le%CC%80ne+Manue%CC%81lian%2E+2005%2E+Cre%CC%81ation+d%E2%80%99un+corpus+annote%CC%81+pour+le+traitement+des+descriptions+de%CC%81finies%2E+Traitement+Automatique+des+Langues%2C+46%281%29%3A115%E2%80%93140%2E)
7. Barbara J. Grosz, Aravind K. Joshi, and Scott Weinstein. 1995. Centering: A framework for modeling the local coherence of discourse. Computational Linguistics, 21(2):203–225. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Barbara+J%2E+Grosz%2C+Aravind+K%2E+Joshi%2C+and+Scott+Weinstein%2E+1995%2E+Centering%3A+A+framework+for+modeling+the+local+coherence+of+discourse%2E+Computational+Linguistics%2C+21%282%29%3A203%E2%80%93225%2E) [our card](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/cl-1995-grosz-centering-framework-modeling-local-coherence/)
8. Jeanette K. Gundel, Nancy Hedberg, and Ron Zacharski. 1993. Cognitive status and the form of referring expressions in discourse. Language, 69:274–307. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Jeanette+K%2E+Gundel%2C+Nancy+Hedberg%2C+and+Ron+Zacharski%2E+1993%2E+Cognitive+status+and+the+form+of+referring+expressions+in+discourse%2E+Language%2C+69%3A274%E2%80%93307%2E)
9. Udo Hahn, Michael Strube, and Katja Markert. 1996. Bridging textual ellipses. In Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Computational Linguistics, Copenhagen, Denmark, 5–9 August 1996, volume 1, pages 496–501. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Udo+Hahn%2C+Michael+Strube%2C+and+Katja+Markert%2E+1996%2E+Bridging+textual+ellipses%2E+In+Proceedings+of+the+16th+International+Conference+on+Computational+Linguistics%2C+Copenhagen%2C+Denmark%2C+5%E2%80%939+August+1996%2C+vo) [our card](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/hahn-1996-bridging-textual-ellipses/)
10. M. A. K. Halliday and Ruqaiya Hasan. 1976. Cohesion in English. London, U.K.: Longman. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=M%2E+A%2E+K%2E+Halliday+and+Ruqaiya+Hasan%2E+1976%2E+Cohesion+in+English%2E+London%2C+U%2EK%2E%3A+Longman%2E)
11. Yufang Hou, Katja Markert, and Michael Strube. 2013. Global inference for bridging anaphora resolution. In Proceedings of the 2013 Conference of the North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics: Human Language Technologies, Atlanta, Georgia, 9–14 June 2013, pages 907–917. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Yufang+Hou%2C+Katja+Markert%2C+and+Michael+Strube%2E+2013%2E+Global+inference+for+bridging+anaphora+resolution%2E+In+Proceedings+of+the+2013+Conference+of+the+North+American+Chapter+of+the+Association+for+Compu) [our card](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/hou-2013-global-inference-bridging-anaphora-resolution/)
12. Emmanuel Lassalle and Pascal Denis. 2011. Leveraging different meronym discovery methods for bridging resolution in French. In Proceedings of the 8th Discourse Anaphora and Anaphor Resolution Colloquium (DAARC 2011), Faro, Algarve, Portugal, 6–7 October 2011, pages 35–46. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Emmanuel+Lassalle+and+Pascal+Denis%2E+2011%2E+Leveraging+different+meronym+discovery+methods+for+bridging+resolution+in+French%2E+In+Proceedings+of+the+8th+Discourse+Anaphora+and+Anaphor+Resolution+Colloqui)
13. Sebastian Löbner. 1985. Definites. Journal of Semantics, 4:279–326. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Sebastian+Lo%CC%88bner%2E+1985%2E+Definites%2E+Journal+of+Semantics%2C+4%3A279%E2%80%93326%2E)
14. Katja Markert, Malvina Nissim, and Natalia N. Modjeska. 2003. Using the web for nominal anaphora resolution. In Proceedings of the EACL Workshop on the Computational Treatment of Anaphora. Budapest, Hungary, 14 April 2003, pages 39–46. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Katja+Markert%2C+Malvina+Nissim%2C+and+Natalia+N%2E+Modjeska%2E+2003%2E+Using+the+web+for+nominal+anaphora+resolution%2E+In+Proceedings+of+the+EACL+Workshop+on+the+Computational+Treatment+of+Anaphora%2E+Budapest%2C+H)
15. Katja Markert, Yufang Hou, and Michael Strube. 2012. Collective classification for fine-grained information status. In Proceedings of the 50th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics, Jeju Island, Korea, 8–14 July 2012, pages 795–804. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Katja+Markert%2C+Yufang+Hou%2C+and+Michael+Strube%2E+2012%2E+Collective+classification+for+fine%2Dgrained+information+status%2E+In+Proceedings+of+the+50th+Annual+Meeting+of+the+Association+for+Computational+Lingu) [our card](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/markert-2012-collective-classification-fine-grained-information/)
16. Alexis Mitchell, Stephanie Strassel, Mark Przybocki, JK Davis, George Doddington, Ralph Grishman, Adam Meyers, Ada Brunstain, Lisa Ferro, and Beth Sundheim. 2002. ACE-2 Version 1.0. LDC2003T11, Philadelphia, Penn.: Linguistic Data Consortium. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Alexis+Mitchell%2C+Stephanie+Strassel%2C+Mark+Przybocki%2C+JK+Davis%2C+George+Doddington%2C+Ralph+Grishman%2C+Adam+Meyers%2C+Ada+Brunstain%2C+Lisa+Ferro%2C+and+Beth+Sundheim%2E+2002%2E+ACE%2D2+Version+1%2E0%2E+LDC2003T11%2C+Philad)
17. Natalia M. Modjeska, Katja Markert, and Malvina Nissim. 2003. Using the web in machine learning for other-anaphora resolution. In Proceedings of the 2003 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing, Sapporo, Japan, 11–12 July 2003, pages 176–183. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Natalia+M%2E+Modjeska%2C+Katja+Markert%2C+and+Malvina+Nissim%2E+2003%2E+Using+the+web+in+machine+learning+for+other%2Danaphora+resolution%2E+In+Proceedings+of+the+2003+Conference+on+Empirical+Methods+in+Natural+Lan) [our card](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/modjeska-2003-web-machine-learning-other-anaphora/)
18. Malvina Nissim, Shipara Dingare, Jean Carletta, and Mark Steedman. 2004. An annotation scheme for information status in dialogue. In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation, Lisbon, Portugal, 26–28 May 2004, pages 1023–1026. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Malvina+Nissim%2C+Shipara+Dingare%2C+Jean+Carletta%2C+and+Mark+Steedman%2E+2004%2E+An+annotation+scheme+for+information+status+in+dialogue%2E+In+Proceedings+of+the+4th+International+Conference+on+Language+Resourc)
19. Malvina Nissim. 2006. Learning information status of discourse entities. In Proceedings of the 2006 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing, Sydney, Australia, 22–23 July 2006, pages 94–012. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Malvina+Nissim%2E+2006%2E+Learning+information+status+of+discourse+entities%2E+In+Proceedings+of+the+2006+Conference+on+Empirical+Methods+in+Natural+Language+Processing%2C+Sydney%2C+Australia%2C+22%E2%80%9323+July+2006%2C+)
20. Adinoyi Omuya, Vinodkumar Prabhakaran, and Owen Rambow. 2013. Improving the quality of minority class identification in dialog act tagging. In Proceedings of the 2013 Conference of the North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics: Human Language Technologies, Atlanta, Geor… [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Adinoyi+Omuya%2C+Vinodkumar+Prabhakaran%2C+and+Owen+Rambow%2E+2013%2E+Improving+the+quality+of+minority+class+identification+in+dialog+act+tagging%2E+In+Proceedings+of+the+2013+Conference+of+the+North+American+)
21. Massimo Poesio and Renata Vieira. 1998. A corpus-based investigation of definite description use. Computational Linguistics, 24(2):183–216. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Massimo+Poesio+and+Renata+Vieira%2E+1998%2E+A+corpus%2Dbased+investigation+of+definite+description+use%2E+Computational+Linguistics%2C+24%282%29%3A183%E2%80%93216%2E)
22. Massimo Poesio, Rahul Mehta, Axel Maroudas, and Janet Hitzeman. 2004a. Learning to resolve bridging references. In Proceedings of the 42nd Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics, Barcelona, Spain, 21–26 July 2004, pages 143–150. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Massimo+Poesio%2C+Rahul+Mehta%2C+Axel+Maroudas%2C+and+Janet+Hitzeman%2E+2004a%2E+Learning+to+resolve+bridging+references%2E+In+Proceedings+of+the+42nd+Annual+Meeting+of+the+Association+for+Computational+Linguisti) [our card](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/poesio-2004-learning-resolve-bridging-references/)
23. Massimo Poesio, Rosemary Stevenson, Barbara Di Eugenio, and Janet Hitzeman. 2004b. Centering: A parametric theory and its instantiations. Computational Linguistics, 30(3). 309-363. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Massimo+Poesio%2C+Rosemary+Stevenson%2C+Barbara+Di+Eugenio%2C+and+Janet+Hitzeman%2E+2004b%2E+Centering%3A+A+parametric+theory+and+its+instantiations%2E+Computational+Linguistics%2C+30%283%29%2E+309%2D363%2E)
24. Ellen F. Prince. 1981. Towards a taxonomy of given-new information. In P. Cole, editor, Radical Pragmatics, pages 223–255. Academic Press, New York, N.Y. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Ellen+F%2E+Prince%2E+1981%2E+Towards+a+taxonomy+of+given%2Dnew+information%2E+In+P%2E+Cole%2C+editor%2C+Radical+Pragmatics%2C+pages+223%E2%80%93255%2E+Academic+Press%2C+New+York%2C+N%2EY%2E)
25. Altaf Rahman and Vincent Ng. 2012. Learning the fine-grained information status of discourse entities. In Proceedings of the 13th Conference of the European Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics, Avignon, France, 23–27 April 2012, pages 798– 807. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Altaf+Rahman+and+Vincent+Ng%2E+2012%2E+Learning+the+fine%2Dgrained+information+status+of+discourse+entities%2E+In+Proceedings+of+the+13th+Conference+of+the+European+Chapter+of+the+Association+for+Computationa)
26. Nils Reiter and Anette Frank. 2010. Identifying generic noun phrases. In Proceedings of the 48th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics, Uppsala, Sweden, 11–16 July 2010, pages 40–49. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Nils+Reiter+and+Anette+Frank%2E+2010%2E+Identifying+generic+noun+phrases%2E+In+Proceedings+of+the+48th+Annual+Meeting+of+the+Association+for+Computational+Linguistics%2C+Uppsala%2C+Sweden%2C+11%E2%80%9316+July+2010%2C+page)
27. Philip J. Stone, Dexter C. Dunphy, Marshall S. Smith, Daniel M. Ogilvie, and Cambridge Computer Associates. 1966. General Inquirer: A Computer Approach to Content Analysis. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Philip+J%2E+Stone%2C+Dexter+C%2E+Dunphy%2C+Marshall+S%2E+Smith%2C+Daniel+M%2E+Ogilvie%2C+and+Cambridge+Computer+Associates%2E+1966%2E+General+Inquirer%3A+A+Computer+Approach+to+Content+Analysis%2E+MIT+Press%2C+Cambridge%2C+Mass%2E)
28. Renata Vieira and Massimo Poesio. 2000. An empirically-based system for processing definite descriptions. Computational Linguistics, 26(4):539– 593. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Renata+Vieira+and+Massimo+Poesio%2E+2000%2E+An+empirically%2Dbased+system+for+processing+definite+descriptions%2E+Computational+Linguistics%2C+26%284%29%3A539%E2%80%93+593%2E)
29. Ralph Weischedel, Martha Palmer, Mitchell Marcus, Eduard Hovy, Sameer Pradhan, Lance Ramshaw, Nianwen Xue, Ann Taylor, Jeff Kaufman, Michelle Franchini, Mohammed El-Bachouti, Robert Belvin, and Ann Houston. 2011. OntoNotes release 4.0. LDC2011T03, Philadelphia, Penn.: Linguistic Data Consortium. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Ralph+Weischedel%2C+Martha+Palmer%2C+Mitchell+Marcus%2C+Eduard+Hovy%2C+Sameer+Pradhan%2C+Lance+Ramshaw%2C+Nianwen+Xue%2C+Ann+Taylor%2C+Jeff+Kaufman%2C+Michelle+Franchini%2C+Mohammed+El%2DBachouti%2C+Robert+Belvin%2C+and+Ann+Ho)