Building a Discourse-Tagged Corpus in the Framework of Rhetorical Structure Theory

2003 ◽  
pp. 85-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynn Carlson ◽  
Daniel Marcu ◽  
Mary Ellen Okurowski
Keyword(s):  
Structure Theory ◽  
Rhetorical Structure

Text as tautology: an exploration in inference, transitivity, and logical compression

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Potter
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Representation ◽  
Propositional Logic ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Transitive Inference ◽  
Structure Theory ◽  
Rhetorical Structure ◽  
Logical Models ◽  
Logical Operations ◽  
Selection Of

Abstract Rhetorical structure theory (RST) and relational propositions have been shown useful in analyzing texts as expressions in propositional logic. Because these expressions are systematically derived, they may be expected to model discursive reasoning as articulated in the text. If this is the case, it would follow that logical operations performed on the expressions would be reflected in the texts. In this paper the logic of relational propositions is used to demonstrate the applicability of transitive inference to discourse. Starting with a selection of RST analyses from the research literature, analyses of the logic of relational propositions are performed to identify their corresponding logical expressions and within each expression to identify the inference path implicit within the text. By eliminating intermediary relational propositions, transitivity is then used to progressively compress the expression. The resulting compressions are applied to the corresponding texts and their compressed RST analyses. The application of transitive inference to logical expressions results in abridged texts that are intuitively coherent and logically compatible with their originals. This indicates an underlying isomorphism between the inferential structure of logical expressions and discursive coherence, and it confirms that these expressions function as logical models of the text. Potential areas for application include knowledge representation, logic and argumentation, and RST validation.

scholarly journals Online Suicide Identification in the Framework of Rhetorical Structure Theory (RST)

Healthcare ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 847
Author(s):  
Xingyun Liu ◽  
Xiaoqian Liu
Keyword(s):  
Suicide Prevention ◽  
Suicide Ideation ◽  
Population Based ◽  
Structure Theory ◽  
Context Analysis ◽  
Chi Square ◽  
Rhetorical Structure ◽  
Chi Square Test ◽  
Ideation Methods ◽  
Rhetorical Structures

Background: Suicide is a serious social problem. Substantial efforts have been made to prevent suicide for many decades. The internet has become an important arena for suicide prevention and intervention. However, to the best of our knowledge, only one study has analyzed suicidal comments online from the perspective of rhetorical structure with incomplete rhetorical relations. We aimed to examine the rhetorical differences between Chinese social media users who died by suicide and those without suicidal ideation. Methods: The posts of 15 users who died by suicide and 15 not suffering from suicide ideation were annotated by five postgraduates with expertise in analyzing suicidal posts based on rhetorical structure theory (RST). Group differences were compared via a chi-square test. Results: Results showed that users who died by suicide posted significantly more posts and used more rhetorical relations. Moreover, the two groups displayed significant differences in 17 out of 23 rhetorical relations. Limitations: Because this study is largely exploratory and tentative, caution should be taken in generalizing our findings. Conclusions: Our results expand the methods of RST to the online suicidal identification field. There are implications for population-based suicide prevention by combining rhetorical structures with context analysis.

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