<html>
Hi all,<br>
<br>
I had a student this summer doing annotations, and she started using the
disjunction and conjunction relations, because they were listed listed in
the RST coder. Below are a few examples of the text that she coded with
those relations. I'm not sure they all apply, since I haven't gone over
them, and she was working without precise definitions (she sort of came
up with definitions based on the examples she found). She found many more
disjunctions than conjunctions, and most, if not all, of them had only 2
nuclei.<br>
<br>
As for why the relations are not listed on the web site any more, I
simply don't know. I transferred whatever was on the original site around
mid-2004, and it looks like Bill had removed them by then. I don't know
why.<br>
<br>
If there's consensus in the list about definitions, I'd be happy to post
them again on the site with examples.<br>
<br>
- Maite<br>
<br>
---------------------------------------------------------<br>
Examples:<br>
<br>
Disjunction<br>
<font face="Courier New, Courier">He either had Langdon flashback to a
lecture he gave in a class somewhere (yawn)<br>
or he had two or more characters discuss the issue to death.<br>
<br>
Will Peter ever get out,<br>
or will he die in the tower?<br>
<br>
She can’t get a good night’s sleep,<br>
[disjunction, nucleus1] because either Grandma is snoring<br>
[disjunction, nucleus2] or somebody is breaking into her house [sat.,
result] and waking her up.<br>
<br>
either that,<br>
or he was specifically looking for a movie contract for this story,<br>
<br>
Apparently he just liked the name Betsey<br>
or kept forgetting he'd already used it.<br>
<br>
<br>
</font>Conjunction<br>
<font face="Courier New, Courier">This didn't make me like the story any
less<br>
nor did I find it hard to follow-<br>
<br>
Disney provides great access to transportation<br>
and every cast member is ready to provide detailed directions and tips
for getting to your desired destination quickly.<br>
<br>
</font>---------------------------------------------------------<br>
<br>
<br>
At 19:20 12/09/2006 +0200, Gisela Redeker wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>I have been using the following
definitions, which I am pretty sure I got from Bill Mann's page in
2003:<br>
<br>
<b>Relation <br>
</b><br>
<b>Constraints on each pair of N <br>
</b><br>
<b>Intention of W <br>
</b><br>
Conjunction<br>
<br>
The items are conjoined to form a unit in which each item plays a
comparable role<br>
<br>
R recognizes that the linked items are conjoined<br>
<br>
Disjunction<br>
<br>
An item presents a (not necessarily exclusive) alternative for the
other(s)<br>
<br>
R recognizes that the linked items are alternatives<br>
<br>
What I like about these definitions is their flexibility: I distinguish
subject matter and presentational uses (for these and for the
multi-nuclear relations of LIST and SEQUENCE). <br>
<br>
I've only now discovered that the current list of definitions on the RST
site no longer includes these -- does anyone know why?<br>
<br>
Best regards,<br>
Gisela<br>
<br>
<br>
<pre>Gisela Redeker, Professor
Department of Communication and Information Sciences
Faculty of Arts, University of Groningen
P.O.Box 716, NL-9700 AS Groningen
<a href="mailto:g.redeker@rug.nl">g.redeker@rug.nl</a> tel:
+31-50-3635973 fax: +31-50-3636855
<a href="http://www.let.rug.nl/~redeker">http://www.let.rug.nl/~redeker</a></pre><font face="Courier New, Courier"></font><br>
<br>
Mick O'Donnell wrote: <br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>Hi Chris, Jelisaveta, <br>
<br>
The original document describing was RST: <br>
<br>
William C. Mann and Sandra A. Thompson 1987 "Rhetorical Structure
Theory: A Theory of Text Organization". ISI Technical Report
ISI/RS-87-190. <br>
(available from:
<a href="http://www.sfu.ca/rst/05bibliographies/report.html">http://www.sfu.ca/rst/05bibliographies/report.html</a>)
<br>
<br>
It mentions disjunction under multinuclear relations (p73). However,
<br>
from a quick look, I don't think any details are given of this <br>
relation. <br>
<br>
Conjunction is not mentioned. <br>
However, there is a Joint relation (p76), which I think is too weak
<br>
for conjunction: Joint asserts no relation between nuclei, while <br>
Conjunction should assert some relation amongst the nuclei. <br>
<br>
Note however that Bill Mann did add Conjunction <br>
to the relation sets for both classical and extended RST. <br>
<br>
Mick <br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Jelisaveta Safranj wrote: <br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>Dear Chris, <br>
<br>
I have found something in Discourse Tagging Reference Manual written by
Lynn Carlson and Daniel Marcu. <br>
<br>
Disjunction is a multinuclear relation whose elements can be listed as
alternatives, either positive or negative. <br>
<br>
Examples: <br>
[Call it a fad.] [Or call it the wave of the future.] <br>
<br>
In the aerobic phase, for instance, lactic acid and lactate are still
produced, [but they are consumed by less active muscles] [or metabolized
in the liver] and so do not accumulate. <br>
<br>
Conjunction is not mentioned at all. <br>
<br>
Hope it helps <br>
Jelisaveta <br>
<br>
<br>
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<br>
</blockquote></blockquote></blockquote>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
_____<br>
Maite Taboada<br>
Assistant Professor<br>
Department of Linguistics<br>
Simon Fraser University<br>
8888 University Dr.<br>
Burnaby, B.C. V5A 1S6 <br>
Canada<br>
<br>
Tel: 604-291-5585 Fax: 604-291-5659<br>
mtaboada@sfu.ca -
<a href="http://www.sfu.ca/~mtaboada" eudora="autourl">http</a>://www.sfu<a href="http://www.sfu.ca/~mtaboada" eudora="autourl">.ca/~mtaboada</a></html>