Re: RT list: relevance theory and discourse?

Hi Mai,

a lot of early research in RT up to the present has been devoted to
pursue the idea that discourse structure is a consequence of
processing a text for relevance: cohesion and local coherence have
been shown to be consequences of relevance. I have looked at paragraph
structure and found it, too, follows from relevance rather than being
due to seperate discourse principles. In my 2006 book (Genre, Global
Coherence and Relevance; Palgrave) I have looked at global coherence in
particular (which has received relatively less attention in RT than
local coherence), including theories of discourse topic and
focus. My conclusion is that these phenomena can be best explained as
a by-product from the on-line processing of a complex ostensive
stimulus in search for relevance. I have also looked at claims about
differences between written and oral discourse, and have found no
convincing evidence that these different modes employ different
cognitive processes (sure, the different mediums do affect how
communicators form their ostensive stimuli, and there are statistical
differences, but that is a different matter). So I would firmly answer your first
question: we can and should use RT on its own to account for writer
strategies.

Christoph

On Tue, Jan 27, 2009 at 04:12:33PM +0000, Mai Zaki wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> Following from my question about the inferences speakers/writers make in the
> encoding phase, I would like to ask about what relevance theory has to say
> about discourse structure. In dealing with written texts, do we need to refer
> to a theory of discourse structure to account for writers strategies in using
> specific linguistic items or can we use RT on its own for this purpose? On the
> other hand, what are the theories of discourse structure that could be said to
> be compatible with RT? For example, Grosz and Sidner Theory of Global Focus?
>
> Thanks a lot.
>
> Mai Zaki

-- 
Dr. Christoph Unger
SIL International 
Hammerhof 23
67308 Albisheim
Germany
Phone: +49 6355 989939