scholarly journals Parenthetical verbs as a challenge for discourse units

2014 ◽  
pp. 95-119
Author(s):  
Corinne Rossari ◽  
Frédéric Gachet
Keyword(s):  
Parenthetical Verbs ◽  
Discourse Units

scholarly journals Investigating genre distinctions through discourse distance and discourse network

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kun Sun ◽  
Rong Wang ◽  
Wenxin Xiong
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Study ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Quantitative Method ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
Discourse Structure ◽  
Structure Theory ◽  
Network Data ◽  
Quantitative Studies ◽  
Discourse Units ◽  
Syntactic Dependency

Abstract The notion of genre has been widely explored using quantitative methods from both lexical and syntactical perspectives. However, discourse structure has rarely been used to examine genre. Mostly concerned with the interrelation of discourse units, discourse structure can play a crucial role in genre analysis. Nevertheless, few quantitative studies have explored genre distinctions from a discourse structure perspective. Here, we use two English discourse corpora (RST-DT and GUM) to investigate discourse structure from a novel viewpoint. The RST-DT is divided into four small subcorpora distinguished according to genre, and another corpus (GUM) containing seven genres are used for cross-verification. An RST (rhetorical structure theory) tree is converted into dependency representations by taking information from RST annotations to calculate the discourse distance through a process similar to that used to calculate syntactic dependency distance. Moreover, the data on dependency representations deriving from the two corpora are readily convertible into network data. Afterwards, we examine different genres in the two corpora by combining discourse distance and discourse network. The two methods are mutually complementary in comprehensively revealing the distinctiveness of various genres. Accordingly, we propose an effective quantitative method for assessing genre differences using discourse distance and discourse network. This quantitative study can help us better understand the nature of genre.

scholarly journals The licensing condition on clausal ellipsis

2014 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 13-25
Author(s):  
Enrico Boone
Keyword(s):  
Direct Relation ◽  
Discourse Relations ◽  
Discourse Units

This paper is concerned with the correct characterization of the licensing condition on clausal ellipsis and how it relates to the distribution of ellipsis. I argue, essentially following López (2000), that ellipsis is licensed when the ellipsis clause bears a relation to an antecedent in the discourse component. A relation between two discourse units can be established in two ways: (1) Either there holds a direct relation between the two discourse units or (2) there holds an anaphoric relation mediated by a discourse anaphor. In this paper, I show how this two-way distinction in setting up discourse relations accounts for the two-way split we find in the distribution of ellipsis.

scholarly journals Analyzing Argumentative Discourse Units in Online Interactions

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Debanjan Ghosh ◽  
Smaranda Muresan ◽  
Nina Wacholder ◽  
Mark Aakhus ◽  
Matthew Mitsui
Keyword(s):  
Argumentative Discourse ◽  
Online Interactions ◽  
Discourse Units

scholarly journals TIARA 2.0: an interactive tool for annotating discourse structure and text improvement

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Wira Gotama Putra ◽  
Kana Matsumura ◽  
Simone Teufel ◽  
Takenobu Tokunaga
Keyword(s):  
Visual Complexity ◽  
Discourse Structure ◽  
Annotation Tool ◽  
Web Technologies ◽  
Four Levels ◽  
Structure Annotation ◽  
Argumentative Structure ◽  
Discourse Units ◽  
Interactive Visualisation ◽  
Tree View

AbstractDiscourse structure annotation aims at analysing how discourse units (e.g. sentences or clauses) relate to each other and what roles they play in the overall discourse. Several annotation tools for discourse structure have been developed. However, they often only support specific annotation schemes, making their usage limited to new schemes. This article presents TIARA 2.0, an annotation tool for discourse structure and text improvement. Departing from our specific needs, we extend an existing tool to accommodate four levels of annotation: discourse structure, argumentative structure, sentence rearrangement and content alteration. The latter two are particularly unique compared to existing tools. TIARA is implemented on standard web technologies and can be easily customised. It deals with the visual complexity during the annotation process by systematically simplifying the layout and by offering interactive visualisation, including clutter-reducing features and dual-view display. TIARA’s text-view allows annotators to focus on the analysis of logical sequencing between sentences. The tree-view allows them to review their analysis in terms of the overall discourse structure. Apart from being an annotation tool, it is also designed to be useful for educational purposes in the teaching of argumentation; this gives it an edge over other existing tools.

scholarly journals Desintegration versus Parordination bei 'obwohl'- und 'weil'- Konstruktionen

2018 ◽  
Vol 59 ◽  
pp. 57-82
Author(s):  
Werner Frey ◽  
Federica Masiero
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Discourse Markers ◽  
Main Clause ◽  
Discourse Units ◽  
Semantic Properties

In the paper, German disintegrated verb-final 'obwohl' (‘although’) and 'weil' (‘because’) clauses are compared with constructions in which 'obwohl' and 'weil' precedes clauses with main clause word order. The former constructions constitute independent, yet subsidiary speech acts. Thus, the subordinating connectors and the positioning of the verb do not indicate syntactic but textual dependency. The latter constructions are of a very different kind. Here, 'obwohl' and 'weil' do not form a constituent with the following clause. Instead, they appear as syntactically independent discourse markers connecting two discourse units. As discourse markers, 'obwohl' and 'weil' obtain their special syntactic and semantic properties as elements of the derived, but independent module of Thetic Grammar.  

The discourse structure of free indirect discourse reports

2021 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
pp. 21-39
Author(s):  
Sofia Bimpikou ◽  
Emar Maier ◽  
Petra Hendriks
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Structure ◽  
Pronoun Resolution ◽  
Free Indirect Discourse ◽  
Indirect Discourse ◽  
Attribution Analysis ◽  
Natural Conversation ◽  
Discourse Units

Abstract We investigate the discourse structure of Free Indirect Discourse passages in narratives. We argue that Free Indirect Discourse reports consist of two separate propositional discourse units: an (explicit or implicit) frame segment and a reported content. These segments are connected at the level of discourse structure by a non-veridical, subordinating discourse relation of Attribution, familiar from recent SDRT analyses of indirect discourse constructions in natural conversation (Hunter, 2016). We conducted an experiment to detect the covert presence of a subordinating frame segment based on its effects on pronoun resolution. We compared (unframed) Free Indirect Discourse with overtly framed Indirect Discourse and a non-reportative segment. We found that the first two indeed pattern alike in terms of pronoun resolution, which we take as evidence against the pragmatic context split approach of Schlenker (2004) and Eckardt (2014), and in favor of our discourse structural Attribution analysis.

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