When Do We Leave Discourse Relations Underspecified? The Effect of Formality and Relation Type

Speakers have several options when they express a discourse relation: they can leave it implicit, or make it explicit, usually through a connective. Although not all connectives can go with every relation, there is one that is particularly frequent and compatible with very many discourse relations,...

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Main Authors: Ludivine Crible, Vera Demberg
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Presses universitaires de Caen 2020-11-01
Series:Discours
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/discours/10848
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author Ludivine Crible
Vera Demberg
author_facet Ludivine Crible
Vera Demberg
author_sort Ludivine Crible
collection DOAJ
description Speakers have several options when they express a discourse relation: they can leave it implicit, or make it explicit, usually through a connective. Although not all connectives can go with every relation, there is one that is particularly frequent and compatible with very many discourse relations, namely and. In this paper, we investigate the effect of discourse relation type and text genre on the production and perception of underspecified relations of contrast and consequence signalled by and. We combine a corpus study of spoken English, a production experiment and a perception experiment in order to test two hypotheses: (1) and is more compatible with relations of consequence than of contrast, due to factors of cognitive complexity and conceptual differences; (2) and is more compatible with informal than formal genres, because of requirements of recipient design. The three studies partially converge in identifying a stable effect of relation type and genre on the production and perception of underspecified relations of consequence and contrast marked by and.
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spelling doaj-art-2c8d7a351eff49e48c0fb6f84f321edb2025-01-30T09:53:10ZengPresses universitaires de CaenDiscours1963-17232020-11-012610.4000/discours.10848When Do We Leave Discourse Relations Underspecified? The Effect of Formality and Relation TypeLudivine CribleVera DembergSpeakers have several options when they express a discourse relation: they can leave it implicit, or make it explicit, usually through a connective. Although not all connectives can go with every relation, there is one that is particularly frequent and compatible with very many discourse relations, namely and. In this paper, we investigate the effect of discourse relation type and text genre on the production and perception of underspecified relations of contrast and consequence signalled by and. We combine a corpus study of spoken English, a production experiment and a perception experiment in order to test two hypotheses: (1) and is more compatible with relations of consequence than of contrast, due to factors of cognitive complexity and conceptual differences; (2) and is more compatible with informal than formal genres, because of requirements of recipient design. The three studies partially converge in identifying a stable effect of relation type and genre on the production and perception of underspecified relations of consequence and contrast marked by and.https://journals.openedition.org/discours/10848discourse relationsunderspecificationproductionperceptionexperimental
spellingShingle Ludivine Crible
Vera Demberg
When Do We Leave Discourse Relations Underspecified? The Effect of Formality and Relation Type
Discours
discourse relations
underspecification
production
perception
experimental
title When Do We Leave Discourse Relations Underspecified? The Effect of Formality and Relation Type
title_full When Do We Leave Discourse Relations Underspecified? The Effect of Formality and Relation Type
title_fullStr When Do We Leave Discourse Relations Underspecified? The Effect of Formality and Relation Type
title_full_unstemmed When Do We Leave Discourse Relations Underspecified? The Effect of Formality and Relation Type
title_short When Do We Leave Discourse Relations Underspecified? The Effect of Formality and Relation Type
title_sort when do we leave discourse relations underspecified the effect of formality and relation type
topic discourse relations
underspecification
production
perception
experimental
url https://journals.openedition.org/discours/10848
work_keys_str_mv AT ludivinecrible whendoweleavediscourserelationsunderspecifiedtheeffectofformalityandrelationtype
AT verademberg whendoweleavediscourserelationsunderspecifiedtheeffectofformalityandrelationtype