A Comparative Study On Elaboration And Correction From The Perspective Of Segmented Discourse Representation Theory

This paper studies rhetorical relations,one of the most crucial parts of Segmented Discourse Representation Theory(SDRT).A significant amount of research on rhetorical relations has been analyzed by scholars,among which Elaboration and Correction are the hot topics from a single perspective respectively,but few studies have been studied on them based on comparative analysis.In light of the foregoing,this paper applies SDRT to the discourses connected by Elaboration and Correction,and makes a comparative study on the similarities and differences of their functions.The following three questions are discussed:(1)What are the similarities between Elaboration and Correction in Chinese discourses?(2)What are the differences between Elaboration and Correction in Chinese discourses?(3)How to explain these phenomena from the perspective of SDRT?The author discovers that these questions can be answered within Chinese and foreign discourses through SDRT and makes the following findings:(1)The similarities between Elaboration and Correction are primarily the situations,symmetry,and implicit discourse markers.(2)The differences are primarily the discourses’ structures;One is subordination and another is coordination;temporal relations;explicit discourse markers.(3)The principle of Maximal Discourse Coherence,rhetorical relations and Availability of SDRT can provide an explanation.In this paper,guided by the SDRT and concrete examples,the similarities and differences of Elaboration and Correction have been discussed and tries to find explanations for these similarities and differences,in the hopes of further exploring the semantic and pragmatic functions of rhetorical relations of SDRT,and providing an idea for subsequent research on rhetorical relations.