Definitions of Conjunction and Disjunction

Wed Sep 13 15:39:37 UTC 2006

Hi all,

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.

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.

If there's consensus in the list about definitions, I'd be happy to post 
them again on the site with examples.

- Maite

---------------------------------------------------------
Examples:

Disjunction
He either had Langdon flashback to a lecture he gave in a class somewhere 
(yawn)
or he had two or more characters discuss the issue to death.

Will Peter ever get out,
or will he die in the tower?

She can't get a good night's sleep,
[disjunction, nucleus1] because either Grandma is snoring
[disjunction, nucleus2] or somebody is breaking into her house [sat., 
result] and waking her up.

either that,
or he was specifically looking for a movie contract for this story,

Apparently he just liked the name Betsey
or kept forgetting he'd already used it.

Conjunction
This didn't make me like the story any less
nor did I find it hard to follow-

Disney provides great access to transportation
and every cast member is ready to provide detailed directions and tips for 
getting to your desired destination quickly.

---------------------------------------------------------

At 19:20 12/09/2006 +0200, Gisela Redeker wrote:
>I have been using the following definitions, which I am pretty sure I got 
>from Bill Mann's page in 2003:
>
>Relation
>
>Constraints on each pair of N
>
>Intention of W
>
>Conjunction
>
>The items are conjoined to form a unit in which each item plays a 
>comparable role
>
>R recognizes that the linked items are conjoined
>
>Disjunction
>
>An item presents a (not necessarily exclusive) alternative for the other(s)
>
>R recognizes that the linked items are alternatives
>
>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).
>
>I've only now discovered that the current list of definitions on the RST 
>site no longer includes these -- does anyone know why?
>
>Best regards,
>Gisela
>
>
>Gisela Redeker, Professor
>Department of Communication and Information Sciences
>Faculty of Arts, University of Groningen
>P.O.Box 716, NL-9700 AS Groningen
><mailto:g.redeker at rug.nl>g.redeker at rug.nl tel: +31-50-3635973 fax: 
>+31-50-3636855
><http://www.let.rug.nl/~redeker>http://www.let.rug.nl/~redeker
>
>Mick O'Donnell wrote:
>>Hi Chris, Jelisaveta,
>>
>>   The original document describing was RST:
>>
>>William C. Mann and Sandra A. Thompson 1987 "Rhetorical Structure Theory: 
>>A Theory of Text Organization". ISI Technical Report ISI/RS-87-190.
>>(available from: 
>><http://www.sfu.ca/rst/05bibliographies/report.html>http://www.sfu.ca/rst/05bibliographies/report.html) 
>>
>>
>>It mentions disjunction under multinuclear relations (p73). However,
>>from a quick look, I don't think any details are given of this
>>relation.
>>
>>Conjunction is not mentioned.
>>However, there is a Joint relation (p76), which I think is too weak
>>for conjunction: Joint asserts no relation between nuclei, while
>>Conjunction should assert some relation amongst the nuclei.
>>
>>Note however that Bill Mann did add Conjunction
>>to the relation sets for both classical and extended RST.
>>
>>Mick
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>Jelisaveta Safranj wrote:
>>>Dear Chris,
>>>
>>>I have found something in Discourse Tagging Reference Manual written by 
>>>Lynn Carlson and Daniel Marcu.
>>>
>>>Disjunction is a multinuclear relation whose elements can be listed as 
>>>alternatives, either positive or negative.
>>>
>>>Examples:
>>>[Call it a fad.] [Or call it the wave of the future.]
>>>
>>>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.
>>>
>>>Conjunction is not mentioned at all.
>>>
>>>Hope it helps
>>>Jelisaveta
>>>
>>>
>>>___________________________________________________________
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_____
Maite Taboada
Assistant Professor
Department of Linguistics
Simon Fraser University
8888 University Dr.
Burnaby, B.C. V5A 1S6
Canada

Tel: 604-291-5585  Fax: 604-291-5659
mtaboada at sfu.ca - http://www.sfu.ca/~mtaboada
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