Compares three theories of coherence relations that differ in formality, broadness of coverage, and linguistic detail. Applies them to the concrete task of text analysis. Organizes the information according to principles of linguistic "stratification,""metafunction," and "paradigmatic/syntagmatic axiality," providing a three-way classification…

Proposes a taxonomy that classifies coherence relations in discourse in terms of four cognitively salient primitives, such as the polarity of the relationship and the pragmatic or semantic character of the link between the units. Finds experimental support for the relevance and psychological salience of the taxonomic primitives. (SR)

Analyzes three Dutch connectives. Argues that the crucial distinction between the pragmatic nature of causal and contrastive connectives should be made on an underlying level, the so-called Basic Scheme, and its relationship to the surface utterance. Establishes a relation between semantic and pragmatic use of a connective, and the ideational and…

Presents a text-linguistic definition of the difference between semantic and pragmatic relations. Shows that the type of context (descriptive, argumentative) appeared not to influence language users' interpretation of clear cases, whereas their judgments of ambiguous relations were influenced by the type of context. Finds informative texts are…

Outlines an attempt to use artificial intelligence formalisms as a formal language of description for the complex conversational behavior that occurs in ethnographic interviews. Discusses three kinds of coherence and uses them to analyze the text of an interview. (FL)

Discusses three experiments conducted to determine whether inferences that function so as to preserve the coherence of a passage are drawn in the course of comprehension. (Author/FL)

Analyzes different strategies used by speakers/writers and hearers/readers to deal with underspecified coherence relations, phrased in terms of Horn's (1984) Q- and R- principle. Presents data from the psycholinguistic literature on the interpretation of underspecified relations and data from language-acquisition research suggesting that both…

Explains rhetorical structure theory's conception of relations and why it has appeal in the domain of text generation. Outlines problems resulting from the widespread adoption of the relational concept. Surveys suggestions about how a standard set of relations could be motivated. Presents a new methodology consisting of gathering and classifying a…

Investigates the relevance of a Gricean model for accounting for coherent discourse in courts of law. Identifies 19 rules of discourse congruent with Grice's Cooperative Principle in transcripts of eight trials. However, finds courts must coerce participants to be cooperative. Concludes that Grice's theory does not account adequately for coherent…

Demonstrates that (1) in a theory of comprehension, global coherence must refer not just to the availability of a macrostructure, but also to its ease of construction; and (2) the topic-comment assignment at the sentence level can be an important influence on the reader's perception of the passage topic. (FL)

Describes a recursive transition network model that analyzes and represents a story as a causal network of categorized clauses and labeled relations. Reports on two experiments using procedural criteria to identify inferences and the assumptions that inferences operate over distances in the text and are transitive, resulting in a network…

Describes three experiments that explored the informational roles of emphasis and word order in active sentences. The results, when considered together, strongly implicate recentness, but not emphasis, as an important means of linking temporally contiguous sentences. (HTH)

Offers an introduction to the theory and implementation of Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA), a theory and method for extracting and representing the contextual-usage meaning of words by statistical computations applied to a large corpus of text. Gives an overview of applications and modeling of human knowledge to which LSA has been applied. (SR)

Investigates the effects of breakdowns in referential and factual coherence on text comprehension and reveals that the processing of factually inconsistent information hindered other information in passages. (FL)

Demonstrates the value of quantitative analysis of discourse options by focusing on two discourse options for the representation of cause and effect. (HTH)