coherence

[John Bateman]

> I have used this type of mixed-up text activity in composition (writing)
> classes with longer texts to make the pre theoretical point that we can
> find the beginning, middle, and end intuitively through information flow
> features (given/new etc.) and the intuitions that RST seems to get at so
> nicely relationally.

the given/new will correspond approximately to the thematic progressions
of Danes of the Prague School and will pick up lots, the other thematic
progressions from Fries, Halliday and Martin will get most of the rest;
conclusion: texts certainly have (among others) a sequenced structure
that flows from beginning to end, and this can be recognised and
described
in more detail, and this applies to a wide range of text types (almost
any written text type, less so spoken ones where long scale thematic
structuring is less common).

John B.

--
John Bateman
FB10, Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaften
Universität Bremen
28334 Bremen, Germany.

Tel: +49/421-218-9483
Fax: +49/421-218-4283 (or 218-7801)
http://www.uni-bremen.de/~bateman