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Rhetorical Structure Theory: Description and Construction of Text Structures

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Natural Language Generation

Part of the book series: NATO ASI Series ((NSSE,volume 135))

Abstract

Rhetorical Structure Theory (RST) is a theory of text structure that is being extended to serve as a theoretical basis for computational text planning. Text structures in RST are hierarchic, built on small patterns called schemas. The schemas which compose the structural hierarchy of a text describe the functions of the parts rather than their form characteristics. Relations between text parts, comparable to conjunctive relations, are a prominent part of RST’s definitional machinery. Recent work has put RST onto a new definitional basis. This paper details the current status of descriptive RST, along with efforts to create a constructive version for use as a basis for programming a text planner.

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© 1987 Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Dordrecht

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Mann, W.C., Thompson, S.A. (1987). Rhetorical Structure Theory: Description and Construction of Text Structures. In: Kempen, G. (eds) Natural Language Generation. NATO ASI Series, vol 135. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3645-4_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3645-4_7

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-8131-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-009-3645-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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