Levinson (1985, 1987a & b, 1991) and Ariel (1985a & b, 1987, 1988a & b
, 1990a, 1991) have each proposed to anchor discourse and sentential a
naphora within a more general theory of communication. Levinson chose
a general, extra-linguistic pragmatic theory. He uses Grice's Quantity
maxim to account for the distribution of zeros, reflexives, pronouns
and lexical NPs, claiming that coreferent readings are preferred, unle
ss a disjoint reading is implicated (by the revised Gricean maxims he
offers). I have proposed a specifically linguistic, cognitive theory,
whereby speakers guide addresses' retrievals of mental representations
corresponding to all definite NPs (coreferent as well as disjoint) by
signalling to them the degree of Accessibility associated with the in
tended mental entity in their memory. An examination of actual data re
veals that Levinson's predictions regarding definite NP interpretation
s are often not borne out. In addition, his proposals cannot account f
or many anaphoric patterns actually found in natural discourse. Access
ibility theory, it is argued, can account for both types of problemati
c data.