coherence relations between large spans of text

[Michael O'Donnell]

Hi Ken,

> I am intrigued (again) by Mick's comment about modeling the schemas for
> texts. So, mononuclear relations may not be a good way of modeling. Mick, are you
> saying that multinuclear relations are more appropriate?

To clarify what I said: mononuclear relations are just one form of structuring
a text. They are appropriate where you have some nuclear bit of text, and
other text which in some way elaborates on that nucleus (e.g., giving
an example, evidence, result, etc.).

Not all text is structured in this way, and Mann and Thompson
explicitly include
multinuclear schemas in their 1987 article.  They say:

"The multinuclear schemas are used to represent portions of text ...
in which another pattern of organisation is used instead of organization
around a single nucleus".

The schemas they define are CONTRAST, SEQUENCE and JOINT.
With these relations however the elements have the same relation
to the whole (e.g., each element of a Sequence is equal).

There are other approaches to schemas where each element of the schema
has a unique function in the whole (e.g., Orientation, Complication, etc.).
Each element of the schema is thus given a unique function label.
The Generic Structure Potential of Ruqiaya Hasan for instance
takes this approach.

Mann and Thompson (1987, p36) say explicitly that RST is not
so good at handling the openings and closings of letters
(e.g., "Dear John...Yours faithfully..."), which is well handled
by functionally differentiated schemas.

More on the rest of your email after I feed the kids...

Mick


> Recently, I have been looking at Psalms in EHB (following in the the steps
> of our esteemed colleague, Robert Longacre). According to Bruce Waltke, this
> genre of poetry has a definite schema that was fixed much earlier than the
> Psalms themselves, as evidenced by texts excavations at Ras Shamra.
>
> Sometimes, I analyse these as mononuclear. Here is an off-the-cuff analysis
> of Psalm 18.
>
> Superscription (preparation)
> Declaration of Praise (preparation)
> Description of Distress - may compare with Complication, Rising Tension
> (background)
> Report of Deliverance (solutionhood)
> Personal Reflection on Deliverance (elaboration? denoument?)
> Concluding Praise - coda (summary)
>
> What do you think of this? Am I confusing schema, relations and implicature?
>
> Ken
>