Integrating relational and intentional theories of discourse coherence

Abstract

This paper explores the ways in which insights from the two influential formal pragmatic theories of discourse coherence, namely, Question Under Discussion (QUD) and Rhetorical Relation (RR) models, can be integrated to build a more inclusive theory of discourse coherence. It proposes a simple and concrete procedure to derive the hierarchical structure of discourse from the subquestion relations between implicit QUDs reconstructed using informational structural principles (Riester, 2019; Reyle & Riester, 2016) and contextual entailment relations (Roberts, 2012). It applies the procedure to discourse examples involving various RRs to determine subordinating and coordinating relations and to create a parsimonious feature-based inventory of RRs with formal definitions. The resulting theory shows that establishing the QUD-RR correspondence is possible, contrary to what has been claimed (Hunter & Abrusán, 2017; Onea, 2019; Riester, 2019).