Limitations in communication modality and interactivity influence the use of language in an online environment, and conversely, language may be adapted to compensate for the online constraints. This is significant for participants in online learning environments (OLEs) who rely on written verbalization to achieve their educational objectives. Discourse analysis provides a means for understandin...

This article aims to analyze how agreement regarding the central unit (macrostructure) influences agreement when establishing rhetorical relations (microstructure). To do so, the authors conducted an empirical study of abstracts from research articles in three domains (medicine, terminology, and science) in the framework of Rhetorical Structure Theory (RST). The results help to establish a new ...

This paper examines the hypothesis that all public policies are based, at least in part, on rhetorical strategies. By analysing public policies implemented in the context of sustainable development, this article emphasises the need for and the challenges of providing legitimate foundations for the rhetorical means used to encourage change; it is these foundations that determine a given policy’s...

during recent decades publishing articles in academic journals has become a worldwide urge for all members of academia. there is, however, a widespread belief according to which more value is given to the articles published in internationally-recognized, high standard journals. an issue raised in this regard is whether the articles published in highly prestigious journals are remarkably differe...

Abstract Rhetorical structure is helpful in improving how the writers maintain cohesion in their writings. This study examines how the Iraqi writers maintain cohesion in the text by analyzing the various rhetorical moves in Azzaman, an online Iraqi newspaper. To this purpose, twelve opinion articles from Azzaman Iraqi newspaper, published from January 2013 to June 2013 were analyzed. The findin...

Rhetorical structuring is field approached mostly by research in natural language (pragmatic) interpretation. However, in natural language generation (NLG) the rhetorical structure plays an important part, in monologues and dialogues as well. Hence, several approaches in this direction exist. In most of these, the rhetorical structure is calculated and built in the framework of Rhetorical Struc...

This paper takes a close look at the ways Brahmins are portrayed in one sutta of the Pāli canon that explains the ‘five ancient principles of Brahmins that today are seen in dogs, but not in Brahmins’. The paper analyses the method of comparing Brahmins with dogs and discusses the rhetorical purpose of this comparison by juxtaposing the respective statements with data from Brāhmaṇical law texts...

This paper describes a pedagogical agent that helps children to learn to author structured presentations about explanations of concepts. Using a Rhetorical Structure Theory analysis of a source Web page, the agent performs pedagogical tasks to support the user's understanding of rhetorical relations, stimulates reflection about the relations between the structure of the original text and the st...