An Empirical Methodology for Determining a Set of Coherence Relations

Coherence relations have proved a useful tool in recent computational models of discourse. However, there is much disagreement between theorists about which set of relations to use, and also between analysts working within a particular theory as to how to analyse individual texts. These difficulties arise from the fact that present conceptions of relations lack a solid empirical basis. This paper describes a new methodology for determining a set of relations, whose starting point is a conception of relations as modelling psychological constructs. It is argued that evidence for these constructs can be sought in a study of the cue phrases that can be used to signal them in surface text. Introduction: Coherence Relations Many recent computational treatments of discourse make use of the notion of coherence relations to model the structure of text. Coherence relations have names like EVIDENCE, ELABORATION and SEQUENCE; they are taken to apply between two (typically adjacent) text segments, and they represent what must be understood by a reader over and above what is contained in each individual segment. For instance, consider the text in Figure 1: in addition to understanding