Reference:
Review Excerpts 'In linguistics, macro-structures have been postulated in order to account for
the "global meaning" of discourse such as it is intuitively assigned in terms of the
"topic" or "theme" of a discourse or conversation. The assumption is that these
notions cannot be accounted for in terms of current logical, linguistic, and
cognitive semantics for isolated sentences or sequences of sentences. In
disciplines such as rhetorics and narrative theory, macro-structures may
constitute the semantic basis for specific categories and rules' (3).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | assumption |
basis |
conversation |
discourse |
global |
linguistics |
meaning |
narrative |
theme |
theory |
topic |
'In this paper, we will show that some fundamental problems of cognitive
psychology can be accounted for in terms of macro-processing of complex
semantic information.... Comprehension (as well as production) probably takes
place at several levels, such that lower-level information is organized, reduced,
and represented at higher levels. These processes involve the use of
macro-rules; the input to the macro-rules is the micro-structure, and the output is
the macro-structure. Macro-structures help to explain the ability to summarize
discourse, and in general to use information from discourse for other cognitive
tasks' (4).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | comprehension |
discourse |
macro-structure |
micro-structure |
psychology |
'The phrase the book has an intensional meaning, namely the individual
concept of a book, which may take various extensions, i.e. actual books referred
to, in particular situations. Both intensional and extensional interpretations are
necessary in an account of the semantic structures of discourse' (5).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | concept | discourse |
meaning |
phrase |
'Discourse coherence is not primarily a matter of meaning, but of reference'
(6).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | coherence | discourse |
meaning |
reference |
'The propositions implied by the discourse need not be expressed. Some
propositions may remain implicit, even though they are essential in the
establishment of linear coherence in texts' (7).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | coherence | discourse |
implicit |
'Characteristically, the relation of the macro-structure to the micro-structure
involves notions such as importance or relevance: the macro-interpretation
defines the most important or essential object or event denoted by a sequence of
propositions' (8).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | event | macro-structure |
micro-structure |
relation |
relevance |
The generalization rule: 'a sequence N of propositions may be substituted
by a proposition p if p is entailed by each of the members of N. We see that the
rule is based on an entailment relation' (10).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | entailment | proposition |
relation |
rule |
The irrelevance deletion rule: 'we assume that each proposition expressed
by a discourse should be considered as relatively unimportant if it is not a
condition for the interpretation of another proposition' (11).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | condition | discourse |
interpretation |
proposition |
rule |
The detail deletion rule: 'all detailed information may be deleted which
somehow has been integrated into another proposition of the discourse'
(12).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | discourse | proposition |
rule |
'Another interesting by-product of this rule is that we now have a formal
means to determine that some sentence (or expression) is thematic or topical. A
sentence or clause the thematic if it expresses a macro-proposition of the
discourse' (13).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | clause | discourse |
expression |
rule |
sentence |
The construction rule: 'closely linked to integration, and they might be
considered variants of each other. The interesting difference is that construction
has no input proposition that organizes other propositions. Instead, a sequence
of propositions is directly replaced by a macro-proposition, under the same
conditions as in integration' (14).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | construction |
difference |
proposition |
rule |
'The macro-rule of construction is perhaps most characteristic of all
macro-rules. It organizes micro-information by combining sequences of
propositions that function as one unit at some macro-level; it reduces information
without simply deleting it; and it introduces information at the macro-level that is
"new" in the sense of not being part of the text base or entailed by individual
propositions of the text base' (15).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | construction |
function |
text |
'Thus the connectedness conditions for a sentence like "John bought a
ticket" depends on whether the topic of discourse is "John took the train" or "John
was going to the movies". So, under this constraint we judge (15) to be
acceptable, but not (16): Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | constraint | discourse |
sentence |
topic |
'Super-structures are organizing principles of discourse. The have a
hierarchical character, roughly defining the "global syntax" of the text. By contrast,
the macro-structures define the "content" of the text. In certain kinds of narrative,
such as folktales, this content may be conventional ... What has been said about
the conventional "genre" of narratives also holds ... for other discourse types, e.g.,
arguments, advertisements, newspaper reports, propaganda, and psychological
papers. In all cases the constraints operate globally, both on the global syntax of
the macro-structures and on their specific content' (18).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | content | discourse |
genre |
global |
narrative |
principles |
syntax |
text |
'We propose that frames define units or chunks of concepts which are not
essentially, but typically, related' (21).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | 'Frames and macro-structures are closely related but entirely different
notions. Both organize complex semantic information. Frames, however, are
conventional and general. Most members of a society or culture have
approximately the same set of frames. Macro-structures do not have this
character. Instead, they are ad hoc information, i.e., the particular global content
of a particular discourse' (22).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | content | culture |
discourse |
global |
'We will briefly state a number of hypotheses regarding ... processing
implications....It will be assumed that in discourse comprehension fragments of
the morpho-phonological and syntactic surface structure of the sentence
sequence are stored only in short-term memory to construct a proposition
sequence.... It is assumed that beyond a limited number of propositions, the
proposition sequence of the text base is not fully accessible for recall.... Given a
sequence of assigned propositions, the reader will make hypotheses about the
relevant macro-structure proposition covering the sequence by applying the
macro-rules to the sequence.... Macro-structure formation takes place in the
course of reading the text, not a posteriori. The same holds true for the
assignment of conventional categories to the macro-propositions. Both the
assignment of macro-structures and of conventional super-structures is recursive.
As soon as a first level becomes too complex. a second level is formed, and so
forth. The macro-structure is available when it is necessary to explicitly
summarize a text.... The macro-structure is also the basis for recall of the
discourse immediately after presentation. The macro-structure is directly
available in episodic memory. It then yields, by inverse macro-rule application
and recognition, access to lower-level macro-structures and possibly to some
text base propositions if the discourse was not too long.... Macro-structures may
also constitute "plans for speaking".... Macro-structure formation is a highly
complex process, so it can hardly be expected that effective comprehension
exactly follows the rules formulated above: expedient strategies are used in the
global interpretation of discourse.... Finally, there are strategies based on
contextual cues and knowledge of the general communication situation. We may
know the speaker so well that we may easily predict the main themes of his
discourse, even with very scanty information.... Familiarity with the relevant
macro-structures will certainly facilitate the task of global comprehension'
(27-30).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | basis | communication |
comprehension |
construct |
discourse |
global |
interpretation |
knowledge |
level |
macro-structure |
memory |
proposition |
reader |
reading |
recognition |
sentence |
situation |
speaker |
state |
structure |
text |
'The basic idea in all these cognitive domains is that large and highly
complex amounts of information must be organized and reduced in appropriate
ways, without which processing (storage, control, retrieval) would be impossible'
(30).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | idea | 'We have not provided the details to substantiate the speculative remarks of
this final section. Out intention is merely to suggest that the notions of
macro-structure and macro-rule in discourse processing may be special cases
of more general cognitive principles underlying higher-order processing'
(31).
Domains: Under construction |
Key Terms: | discourse | intention |
macro-structure |
principles |
Last Modified:
July-12-96 13:26:12
Reply to randy_radney@sil.org
'(15) John went to the station and bought a ticket.
'(16) John went to the station and fell asleep' (16).
[A Lexicon of the Humanities |
SIL Home Page | Contributions]