A Cognitive Perspective on the Licensing Conditions of Associative Anaphora in Modern Chinese

This study adopts a discourse-cognitive perspective to investigate the licensing conditions of associative anaphora in Modern Chinese. It argues that the establishment of such reference is influenced by three key factors: the knowledge frames, the descriptive modifier of the antecedent, and the type of predication. Drawing on Discourse Model Theory, the interpretive process is shown to be dynamic, unfolding from general to specific and from abstract to concrete. Crucially, it is not solely based on stereotypical lexical relationships but is highly context-dependent, requiring integration of discourse-level information.