RST, spans & pragmatics

[andrearocci@katamail.com]

Hi all,

This is my first post. I wanted to comment on the recent discussion on the nature of spans.

>I am not sure what a "pragmatic unit" is and so have no comments.

Maybe pragmatic units = units corresponding to the performance of at least one complete speech act.

Considering the definitions of rhetorical relations in terms of "intended effects", I would say that RST ultimately defines the structure of texts in pragmatic terms. Even if RST does not seem to be designed to fit with classic speech act theory.
I don't know if this means that spans are pragmatic units.

More generally, maybe the pragmatic nature of RST as opposed to other theories that define discourse relations in referential and/or cognitive terms (such as resemblance, causality, etc.) is something worth discussing on the list.