analysis question

[William Mann]

Looking back over the RSTLIST messages, the September 2003 message of Aliza Yahav seems to have been ignored.  That's unfortunate. 

The question is about the Introduction in the RST website, http://www.sil.org/linguistics/RST .  The analysis under examination appears  in the Introduction, and also appears as the 4th analysis on the Unpublished RST Analyses page.   The abstract text, with units numbered, is:  " 
1) Lactose and Lactase

2) Lactose is milk sugar; 3) the enzyme lactase breaks it down. 4) For want of lactase most adults cannot digest milk. 5) In populations that drink milk the adults have more lactase, perhaps through natural selection."

Norman Kretchmer, Scientific American, October 1972, page 70.

The analysis which Aliza Yahav offers below seems to me like a very credible alternative.  In it, the analyst would be saying that an important function, to the writer, of unit 5) seems to be to highlight the way that in certain populations, drinking milk may have caused (succeeding generations of) adults to have more lactase.

In the analysis on the website the analyst is saying that expressing the contrasting facts about the two populations and their lactase seems central to the writer's purposes.

Judging writers' purposes is a subjective matter, and so it is very understandable that two analysts would have these two different reactions to the text.

Of course, under the conventions of RST analysis, an analyst could affirm both analyses.  They do not exclude each other. 

Bill Mann  


----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Aliza Yahav 
  To: RSTLIST at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG 
  Sent: Wednesday, September 03, 2003 2:53 AM
  Subject: [RST-LIST] analysis question


  Hello,
  I'm just beginning to get acquainted with RSTanaysis, and have been trying to follow the examples provided on the site. I'd like to know if the following analysis is a possible alternative to the one appearing on p. 4 of the Introduction.
  The example: 1. Lactose and Lactase (preparation)
  2. Lactose is milk sugar; 3. the enzyme lactase breaks it down (elaboration)
  4. For want of lactase most adults cannot digest milk. 5. In populations that drink milk the adults have more lactase, perhaps through natural selection. (contrast)

  If we're looking at writer's purpose, is it possible that the relation between spans 4 and 5 is non-volitional result? The situation in which most adults can't digest milk has resulted in a process of natural selection in milk drinking populations. The 'contrast' relation doesn't seem to express the implicit connection which gives these two spans coherence.
  Thank you,
  Aliza Yahav 
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