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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Maite,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I don't know how you'll know when a consensus has
been reached, but it seems to me that the definitions recovered by
Gisela capture disjunction and conjunction in a way that is both
useful and consistent with the spirit of RST.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Andy</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=mtaboada@SFU.CA href="mailto:mtaboada@SFU.CA">Maite Taboada</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=RSTLIST@LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
href="mailto:RSTLIST@LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG">RSTLIST@LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, September 13, 2006 10:39
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: [RST-LIST] Definitions of
Conjunction and Disjunction</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT><BR></DIV>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 class=cite cite="" type="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 class=cite cite="" type="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 class=cite cite="" type="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
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<BR><BR><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> </P></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>