Rhetorical Structure Theory: limites e possibiliades de representação da organização textual

Abstract

In this master’s degree paper work, I aim to show the contribution of some conceptions of textual organization to the text representing process carried out by Rhetorical Structure Theory – RST (Mann; Thompson, 1988). RST is a theory that explains the text structure by postulating a model of relations which recursively hold between parts of text labeled nucleus or satellite by the analyst. However, even accounting for the rhetorical relational coherence, RST, as a theory, doesn’t include other conceptions to account for the complex process of textual organization. Thus, as a model, it produces a limited text representation. In this paper work, I investigate the possibility of associating RST with some conceptions of textual organization, like the relationship between text and context and the top-down strategic process of text construction. To do so, I carry out an investigation in two parts: a theoretical one and an analytical one. In the theoretical part, I show a theoretical framework that supports the conce