The reason for being interested in regularities of • discourse structure, particularly regularities which hold across a number of discourse types, is that they suggest universals of what
Trang 1A N D S E M A N T I C D O M A I N
C h a r l o t t e L i n d e ~ J.A G o g u e n + *
I T H E S T A T U S OF D I S C O U R S E S T R U C T U R E
T r a d i t i o n a l l y , l i n g u i s t i c s has b e e n c o n c e r n e d w i t h u n i t s
at the level of the s e n t e n c e or b e l o w , but r e c e n t l y , a
b o d y of r e s e a r c h has e m e r g e d w h i c h d e m o n s t r a t e s the
e x i s t e n c e and o r g a n i z a t i o n of l i n g u i s t i c u n i t s l a r g e r
than the s e n t e n c e (Chafe, 1974; Goguen, L i n d e , and
Weiner, to appear; Grosz, 1977; H a l l i d a y and H a s a n , 1976;
Labov, 1972; Linde, 1974, 1979, 1 9 8 0 a , 1 9 8 C b ; L i n d e and
G o g u e n , 1978; L i n d e and Labov, 1975; Folanyi, 1978;
W e i n e r , 1979.) E a c h s u c h s t u d y r a i s e s a q u e s t i o n a b o u t
w h e t h e r the s t r u c t u r e d i s c o v e r e d is a p r o p e r t y of the
o r g a n i z a t i o n of Language or w h e t h e r it is e n t i r e l y a
p r o p e r t y of the s e m a n t i c domain T h a t is, are we d i s c o v -
e r i n g g e n e r a l facts about the s t r u c t u r e of l a n g u a g e at a
level b e y o n d the s e n t e n c e , or are we d i s c o v e r i n g
p a r t i c u l a r facts a b o u t a p a r t m e n t l a y o u t s , w a t e r p u m p
repair, W a t e r g a t e p o l i t i c s , etc? S u c h a c r u d e q u e s t i o n
does not a r i s e w i t h r e g a r d to s e n t e n c e s A l t h o u g h m u c h
of the last twenty y e a r s of r e s e a r c h in s e n t e n t i a l
s y n t a x and s e m a n t i c s has b e e n d e v o t e d to the i n v e s t i g a t -
ion of the d e g r e e to w h i c h s y n t a c t i c s t r u c t u r e can be
d e s c r i b e d i n d e p e n d e n t l y of s e m a n t i c s , to our k n o w l e d g e ,
no one has a t t e m p t e d to a r g u e that all o b s e r v a b l e
r e g u l a r i t i e s of s e n t e n t i a l s t r u c t u r e are a t t r i b u t a b l e to
the s t r u c t u r e of the real w o r l d plus g e n e r a l c o g n i t i v e
a b i l i t i e s Yet this c l a i m is o f t e n m a d e about r e g u l a r -
ities of l i n g u i s t i c s t r u c t u r e at the d i s c o u r s e level
In o r d e r =o d e m o n s t r a t e that at leas= s o m e of the
s t r u c t u r e found at the d i s c o u r s e level is i n d e p e n d e n t
of the s t r u c t u r e of the s e m a n t i c d o m a i n , we m a y s h o w
that there are d i s c o u r s e r e g u l a r i t i e s a c r o s s s e m a n t i c
d o m a i n s As p r i m a r y data, we w i l l u s e a p a r t m e n t layout
d e s c r i p t i o n , small g r o u p p l a n n i n g , and e x p l a n a t i o n
T h e s e h a v e all b e e n found to be d i s c o u r s e units, that
is, b o u n d e d l i n g u i s t i c u n i t s o n e level h i g h e r than the
s e n t e n t i a l level, and h a v e all b e e n d e s c r i b e d w i t h i n
the s a m e formal theory It s h o u l d be n o t e d that we do
not c l a i m that the s t r u c t u r e s found in these d i s c o u r s e
u n i t s is e n t i r e l y i n d e p e n d e n t of s t r u c t u r e of the
s e m a n t i c domain, b e c a u s e of c o u r s e the s t r u c t u r e of the
d o m a i n has s o m e effect
2 T R E E T R A N S F O R M A T I O N S IN D I S C O U R S E P R O D U C T I O N
The d i s c o u r s e units m e n t i o n e d a b o v e h a v e all b e e n found
to be tree s t r u c t u r e d T h i s is a c l a i m that any s u c h
d i s c o u r s e can be d i v i d e d into parts s u c h that there
are s i g n i f i c a n t r e l a t i o n s of d o m i n a n c e a m o n g these parts
T h e s e trees can be v i e w e d as b e i n g c o n s t r u c t e d by a
s e q u e n c e of t r a n s f o r m a t i o n s on an i n i t i a l e m p t y tree,
w i t h e a c h t r a n s f o r m a t i o n c o r r e s p o n d i n g to an u t t e r a n c e
by p a r t i c i p a n t s , w h i c h m a y add, d e l e t e , or m o v e n o d e s
of the tree The s e q u e n c e of t r a n s f o r m a t i o n s e n c o d e s
the c o n s t r u c t i o n of the d i s c o u r s e as it a c t u a l l y
p r o c e e d s in time
We now turn to a d i s c u s s i o n of the d i s c o u r s e u n i t s
w h i c h h a v e b e e n a n a l y s e d a c c o r d i n g to this model
* S t r u c t u r a l S e m a n t i c s , P.O Box 707, Palo Alto,
C a l i f o r n i a 94302
+ SRI I n t e r n a t i o n a l , 333 R a v e n s w o o d Ave., M e n l o Park,
C a l i f o r n i a 94025
2.1 S P A T I A L D E S C R I P T I O N S AS T O U R S
In an i n v e s t i g a t i o n of the d e s c r i p t i o n of s p a t i a l
n e t w o r k s , s p e a k e r s w e r e a s k e d to d e s c r i b e the layout of their a p a r t m e n t The v a s t m a j o r i t y of s p e a k e r s u s e d a
"tour s t r a t e g y , " w h i c h takes the h e a r e r on an i m a g i n a r y tour of the a p a r t m e n t , b u i l d i n g up the d e s c r i p t i o n of the layout by s u c c e s s i v e m e n t i o n of e a c h r o o m and its
p o s i t i o n T h i s tour forms a tree c o m p o s e d of the e n t r y
to the a p a r t m e n t as root w i t h the rooms and their
l o c a t i o n s as nodes, and w i t h an a s s o c i a t e d p o i n t e r
i n d i c a t i n g the c u r r e n t focus of a t t e n t i o n , e x p r e s s e d by
u n s t r e s s e d you
It m i g h t be a r g u e d that the tree s t r u c t u r e of these
d e s c r i p t i o n s is a c o n s e q u e n c e of the s t r u c t u r e of
a p a r t m e n t s r a t h e r than of the s t r u c t u r e of d i s c o u r s e
H o w e v e r , there are a p a r t m e n t s w h i c h are not tree
s t r u c t u r e d , b e c a u s e s o m e rooms h a v e m o r e than one
e n t r a n c e , thus a l l o w i n g m u l t i p l e routes to the s a m e point; but in t h e i r d e s c r i p t i o n s , s p e a k e r s t r a v e r s e o n l y
o n e route; that is, loops in the a p a r t m e n t are a l w a y s cut in the d e s c r i p t i o n s [ Thus, a l t h o u g h s o m e of the tree s t r u c t u r e may be a t t r i b u t a b l e to the p h y s i c a l
s t r u c t u r e b e i n g d e s c r i b e d , s o m e of it is a c o n s e q u e n c e
of the e a s e of e x p r e s s i n g tree s t r u c t u r e s in l a n g u a g e , and the d i f f i c u l t y of e x p r e s s i n g g r a p h s t r u c t u r e s The tree s t r u c t u r e of a p a r t m e n t d e s c r i p t i o n s is c o n s t r u c - ted u s i n g o n l y a d d i t i o n t r a n s f o r m a t i o n s , and p o i n t e r
m o v e m e n t t r a n s f o r m a t i o n s (called " p o p s " in t i n d e and
G o g u e n (1978)) w h i c h b r i n g the focus of a t t e n t i o n b a c k
f r o m a b r a n c h w h i c h has b e e n t r a v e r s e d to the point of
b r a n c h i n g T h e c o n s t r u c t i o n of the tree is e n t i r e l y
d e p t h first
2.2 S P A T I A L D E S C R I P T I O N S AS M A P S
In d e s c r i b i n g a p a r t m e n t l a y o u t s , there is a m i n o r i t y
s t r a t e g y , u s e d by 4% of the s p e a k e r s (3 out of 72 cases
of the d a t a of L i n d e (1974)) d e s c r i b i n g the layout in the form of a map The s p e a k e r first d e s c r i b e s the
o u t s i d e shape, then s k e t c h e s the i n t e r n a l s p a t i a l
d i v i s i o n s , and finally l a b e l s e a c h i n t e r n a l d i v i s i o n
T h i s s t r a t e g y can also be d e s c r i b e d as a tree
c o n s t r u c t i o n , in this case, a b r e a d t h first t r a v e r s a l
w i t h the root b e i n g the o u t s i d e shape, the i n t e r n a l
d i v i s i o n s the n e x t layer of nodes, and the names of these d i v i s i o n s the t e r m i n a l nodes B e c a u s e there are
so few e x a m p l e , it is not p o s s i b l e to g i v e a d e t a i l e d
d e s c r i p t i o n of the rules for c o n s t r u c t i o n 2.3 P L A N N I N G
We h a v e a r g u e d that the s t r u c t u r e of a p a r t m e n t l a y o u t
d e s c r i p t i o n s is not e n t i r e l y due to the s t r u c t u r e of the
s e m a n t i c d o m a i n ; h o w e v e r , a q u e s t i o n remains as to
w h e t h e r it is the r e s t r i c t i o n to a l i m i t e d d o m a i n w h i c h
p e r m i t s p r e c i s e d e s c r i p t i o n To i n v e s t i g a t e this, let
us c o n s i d e r the W a t e r g a t e t r a n s c r i p t s , w h i c h o f f e r a
s p e c t a c u l a r l y u n r e s t r i c t e d s e m a n t i c domain, s p e c i f i c a l l y those p o r t i o n s in w h i c h the p r e s i d e n t and his a d v i s o r s
e n g a g e in the a c t i v i t y of p l a n n i n g (Linde and Goguen, 1978) P l a n n i n g s e s s i o n s f o r m a d i s c o u r s e unit w i t h
"[ In m o r e m a t h e m a t i c a l l a n g u a g e , the l i n e a r s e q u e n c e of rooms is the d e p t h first t r a v e r s a l of a m i n i m a l s p a n n i n g tree of the a p a r t m e n t graph
Trang 2internal structure Although we can not furnish any
detailed d e s c r i p t i o n of the semantic domain, we can be
extremely precise about the social a c t i v i t y of plan
construction
Because the cases we have examined involve planning by a
small group, the tree is not constructed exclusively by
addition, as are the types d i s c u s s e d above Deletion,
substitution, and m o v e m e n t also occur, as a plan is
c r i t i c i s e d and altered by all members of t h e g r o u p
Z.4 E X P L A N A T I O N
A d i s c o u r s e unit similar to p l a n n i n g is explanation
(Weiner, 1979; Goguen, Linde and W e i n e r to appear.) (By
explanation we here include only the d i s c o u r s e unit of
the form d e s c r i b e d below; we exclude d i s c o u r s e units
such as n a r r a t i v e s or q u e s t i o n - r e s p o n s e pairs w h i c h m a y
e x p l a n a t i o n is that d i s c o u r s e unit w h i c h consists of a
p r o p o s i t i o n to be demonstrated, and a s t r u c t u r e of
reasons, often m u l t i p l y embedded reasons, w h i c h support
it The data of this study are accounts given of the
c h o i c e to use the long or short income tax form,
e x p l a n a t i o n s of career choices, and m a t e r i a l from the
W a t e r g a t e transcripts in w h i c h an e v a l u a t i o n is given
of how likely a plan is to succeed, w i t h c o m p l e x
reasons for this evaluation
Like apartment d e s c r i p t i o n s and small group plan-
ning, e x p l a n a t i o n can be d e s c r i b e d as the t r a n s f o r m a -
tional c o n s t r u c t i o n of a tree structure Since in the
casesexauLined, a single p e r s o n builds the explanation,
there are no r e c o n s t r u c t i v e t r a n s f o r m a t i o n s such as
deletion or m o v e m e n t of subtrees; the t r a n s f o r m a t i o n s
found are a d d i t i o n and pointer movement P o i n t e r
movement is p a r t i c u l a r l y com~lex in this d i s c o u r s e unit
since e x p l a n a t i o n permits embedded a l t e r n a t e worlds,
which require m u l t i p l e pointers to be maintained
Explanation s t r u c t u r e appears to be the same in the
three d i f f e r e n t semantic domains, s u g g e s t i n g that the
d i s c o u r s e s t r u c t u r e is due to genral rules plus a
p a r t i c u l a r social context, rather than being due to the
structure of the semantic domain
3 C R I T E R I A FOR E V A L U A T I N G D I S C O U R S E STRUC%~/RES
The c r i t i c i s m m i g h t be made of these tree structures
that an analyst can impose a tree s t r u c t u r e on any
discourse, w i t h o u t any proof that it is related to
what the speaker himself was doing We w o u l d c l a i m that
a l t h o u g h we have, of course, no direct access to the
c o g n i t i v e processes of speakers, there are two related
criteria for e v a l u a t i n g a proposed d i s c o u r s e structure
3 I T E X T M A R K I N G
One c r i t e r i o n for J u d g i n g t h e relative n a t u r a l n e s s of a
p a r t i c u l a r a n a l y s i s i s t h e d e g r e e t o w h i c h t h e t e x t
b e i n g a n a l y s e d c o n t a i n s m a r k e r s o f t h e s t r u c t u r e b e i n g
p o s t u l a t e d T h u s , we h a v e some c o n f i d P - c e t h a t t h e
s p e a k e r h i m s e l f i s p r o c e e d i n g i n t e r m s o f a b r a n c h i n g
s t r u c t u r e when we f i n d m a r k e r s l i k e "Row as y o u ' r e
c o m i n g i n t o t h e f r o n t o f t h e a p a r t m e n t , i f y o u go
s t r a i g h t r a t h e r t h a n go r i g h t o r l e f t , y o u come i n t o a
l a r g e l i v i n g room a r e a , " o r " O n t h e one h a n d , we c o u l d
t r y " The o p p o s i t e c a s e w o u l d be a t e x t i n w h i c h
t h e d i v i s i o n p o s t u l a t e d by an a n a l y s t on t h e b a s i s o f
some a p r i o r i t h e o r y had no s e m a n t i c o r s y n t a c t i c
m a r k i n g i n t h e t e x t
3.2 F R U I T F U L N E S S OF THE ANALYSIS
A second criterion is w h e t h e r some postulated
s t r u c t u r e is fruitful in g e n e r a t i n g further suggestions
for how to explore the text Thus, the tree a n a l y s e s of
apartment layout descriptions, planning, and explanation,
are turned into trees, h o w trees are ~raversed, the social
c o n s e q u e n c e s of p a r t i c u l a r transfoz~l~ions, the a p p a r e n t
p s y c h o l o g i c a l ease or d i f f i c u l t y of v a r i o u s t r a n s f o r m a t i o n s , the r e l a t i o n of d i s c o u r s e s t r u c t u r e to syntactic structure, etc (see Linde and Goguen, 1978) By contrast, an
u n f r u i t f u l a n a l y s i s w i l l give rise to few or no i n t e r e s t i n g
r e s e a r c h questions, and w i l l not p e r m i t the analyst to
i n v e s t i g a t e q u e s t i o n s about the d i s c o u r s e unit w h i c h he or she has r e a s o n to b e l i e v e are in,cresting
4 G E N E R A L P R I N C I P L E S OF D I S C O U R S E S T R U C T U R E Given that ~hese p o s t u l a t e d s t r u c t u r e s are u s e f u l m o d e l s
of what speakers do, we m a y a s k h o w it is that speakers produce texts w i t h these structures It is k n o w n that
c h i l d r e n m u s t learn to p r o d u c e w e l l - f o r m e d narratives
It m i g h t be h y p o t h e s i z e d that each d i s c o u r s e unit must
be s e p a r a t e l y learned, and that each has its o w n u n r e l a t e d set of rules However, there is evidence that there are
v e r T g e n e r a l rules for d i s c o u r s e construction, w h i c h h o l d across d i s c o u r s e units, and w h i c h can be u s e d ~o c o n s t r u c t
n o v e l d i s c o u r s e units The test case for such a
h y n u t h e s l s is the p r o d u c t i o n of a d i s c o u r s e unlt w h l c h
is not a part of speakers' o r d i n a r y repetolre, but rather, is m a d e up for the o c c a s i o n of the experiment Such an experiment was p e r f o r m e d by a s k i n g p e o p l e to
d e s c r i b e the process of getting themaelves and their husbands and c h i l d r e n off to w o r k in the morning (Linde,
in preparation) These "morning r o u t i n e s " are t y p i c a l l y
w e l l - s t r u c t u r e d and regular; e v e r y o n e appears to do them the same way We k n o w that the speakers had never produced such d i s c o u r s e s before, since we never in
o r d i n a r y d i s c o u r s e hear such extended discussions of the details of daily llfe (Even bores have their limits.) Therefore, the r e g u l a r i t i e s must be the product of the i n t e r s e c t i o n of a p a r t i c u l a r real w o r l d domain, in this case, m u l t i p l e parallel activities, w i t h very general rules for d i s c o u r s e construction 2
4.1 M E T A - R U L E S OF D I S C O U R S E S T R U C T U R E
We are by no means ready to offer a single general theory of d i s c o u r s e structure; that must wait until
a s u f f i c i e n t l y large n u m b e r of d i s c o u r s e types has been
i n v e s t i g a t e d in detail However, the following rules have been o b s e r v e d in two or more d i s c o u r s e units, and
it is rules of this type that we w o u l d llke to investl- gate in other d i s c o u r s e units
[ The most frequent s u b o r d i n a t o r for a given
d i s c o u r s e unit will have the most m i n i m a l
m a r k i n g in the text, most frequently being
m a r k e d w i t h lexical and Moreover, it w i l l not
be n e c e s s a r y to e s t a b l i s h this node b e f o r e
b e g i n n i n g the first branch, but only w h e n the return to the b r a n c h point is effected
2 A l l other n o d e types w h i c h s u b o r d i n a t e two or
m o r e branches, such as e x c l u s i v e or or conditional, must be i n d i c a t e d by m a r k e r s in the text b e f o r e the first b r a n c h is begun
3 Depth-first traversal is the most usual strategy
4 Pop m a r k e r s are a v a i l a b l e to indicate return to
a b r a n c h point or h i g h e r node; it is never
n e c e s s a r y to r e c a p i t u l a t e in reverse the e n t i r e traversal of a branch
Z This is i n t e r e s t i n g for the light w h i c h it sheds on natural structures for the d e s c r i p t i o n of concurrent activities
Trang 3The reason for being interested in regularities of
• discourse structure, particularly regularities which hold
across a number of discourse types, is that they suggest
universals of what is often called "mind," and, more
practically, they also suggest features which might be
part of systems for language understanding and production
Indeed Welner (to appear) has constructed a system for the
production of explanations of U.S income tax law based
on the transformational theory of explanation discussed
designing meta-systems, which might be programmed to
handle a variety of discourse types
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to thank R M Burstall and James Weiner
for their help throughout much of the work reported in
this paper We owe our approach to discourse analysis
to the work of William Labor, and our basic orientation
to Chogyam Trungpa, Rinp~che
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Linguistics dissertation
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Discourse and Syntax~ ed Talmy Givon, Academic Press,
New York
in The English Language in its Social and Historical
Context ed Timothy Shopen, Ann Zwlcky and Peg Griffen,
Winthrop Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Discontinuous Discourse Type, in Papers From the Kassel
Workshop on Psycholingulstic Models of Production
of the Description of Concurrent Activity
of Planning Discourse, Journal of Social and Biological
Structures, Vol [, 219-251
Networks as a Site for the Study of Language and Thought,
Michigan Department of Linguistics dissertation
Development Corporation, SP-4035
tO appear in Artificial Intelli~ence