Asher on discourse topic

《Asher on discourse topic》由会员上传分享，免费在线阅读，更多相关内容在学术论文-天天文库。

1、AsherondiscoursetopicHENKZEEVATNickAsher’spapercontainsaseriesofthought-provokinganalysesanddiscussionsofquestionsinwhichdiscoursetopicmaybeplayingarole.ItisnotveryeasytopinAsherdowntoaglobalpositionontheexistenceofdiscoursetopics,ontheirnatureorontheprecisequestionstowhic

2、hdiscoursetopicshouldcontribute.Thisisverysane,givenourpoorunderstandingofsomeoftheissuesandthetentativenatureoftheex-planationsproposed.ThepaperattheveryleastcontributestoabetterunderstandingoftheroleofdiscoursetopicsinSDRT,bynowthemostdevelopedframeworkfortheunderstandin

3、gofcoherenceintextanddia-loguewheninterpretingtext.Buttomymind,italsoformulatesusefulsuggestionsaboutbadlyunderstoodphenomenaandraisesgoodques-tionsthatneedtobeaddressedinfutureresearch.InthesecommentsIwanttoaddressthequestionwhatdiscoursetopiccouldbe,saysomethingaboutthea

4、nalysisofcontrastivetopics(insomecases),about‘‘or’’andalsosomethingaboutprotagonistsandanaphora.DiscoursetopicUnlikecontrastivetopicsandsentencetopics,discoursetopicsarenottiedtointonationalorsyntacticphenomenainnaturallanguage.Theyariseinthinkingaboutconnectedlargerchunks

5、oftextanddialogue.Whereasequenceofsentencesisconnectedbycoordinatingrelations,itisnaturaltothinkofthosesentencescarryingonthebusinessoftheirpredecessorsanditwouldseemthatdiscoursetopicsareacharacterisa-tionofwhatthatbusinessis.OnewayofconceivingofadiscoursetopicTheoretical

6、Linguistics30(2004),203–2110301–4428/04/0030–02036WalterdeGruyter204HenkZeevatisasaquestionthatthesentencesjointlyanswer,anotherwayofthinkingaboutitisasastatementthatsubsumesalltheinformationthatisstatedinthedi¤erentparts.Inthefirstview,thebusinessofthetextistoanswertheques

7、tion,possiblybysplittingupthequestioninsubquestions,andpossiblybymakingclearthatcertainsubquestionsremainunanswered.Thebusinessincludesansweringfurtherquestionsthatarisewhileanswer-ingthequestionoritssubquestions.Inthesecondview,thebusinessofthetextistheelaborationofthetop

8、ic,i.e.thespecificationofthepartsofthediscoursetopicthatneedtobespecifiedbecausetheyareunkn