# How to Evaluate Coreference in Literary Texts?

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.00238 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.00238/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 1 of its 17 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 30 Dec 2023.

## Builds on (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [An Annotated Dataset of Coreference in English Literature](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.01140/) (2019)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Understanding Literary Texts by LLMs: A Case Study of Ancient Chinese Poetry](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.00060/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

In this short paper, we examine the main metrics used to evaluate textual coreference and we detail some of their limitations. We show that a unique score cannot represent the full complexity of the problem at stake, and is thus uninformative, or even misleading. We propose a new way of evaluating coreference, taking into account the context (in our case, the analysis of fictions, esp. novels). More specifically, we propose to distinguish long coreference chains (corresponding to main characters), from short ones (corresponding to secondary characters), and singletons (isolated elements). This way, we hope to get more interpretable and thus more informative results through evaluation.