Rhetorical Structure Theory and Its Applications
Past, Present and Future
Bo Wang [+–]
Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Macau
Bo Wang received his doctoral degree from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His research interests include systemic functional linguistics, translation studies, discourse analysis, and language description. He is co-author of Lao She’s Teahouse and Its Two English Translations (Routledge), Translating Tagore’s Stray Birds into Chinese (Routledge) and Systemic Functional Insights on Language and Linguistics (Springer). He is Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Macau, China.
Yuanyi Ma [+–]
Yuanyi Ma received her doctoral degree from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Her research interests include systemic functional linguistics, translation studies, discourse analysis, and language description. She is co-author of Lao She’s Teahouse and Its Two English Translations (Routledge), Translating Tagore’s Stray Birds into Chinese (Routledge) and Systemic Functional Insights on Language and Linguistics (Springer). She is an independent researcher in China.
This book offers an introduction to Rhetorical Structure Theory (RST) and its applications in different areas. Originally developed by William C. Mann, Sandra A. Thompson and Christian M.I.M. Matthiessen in the early 1980s in the context of computational text generation, RST has served as a tool of exploring the resources of text organisation in the semantic system of English. Through the work of Matthiessen RST has been further revised and incorporated in systemic functional linguistics (SFL) as a semantic system of Rhetorical Relations.
Rhetorical Structure Theory and Its Applications provides a brief account of both the classical RST developed by Mann, Thompson and Matthiessen (e.g. 1992) and Matthiessen’s (forthcoming) revised version of RST. The authors locate RST in the overall architecture of SFL, apply RST to analyse texts from different registers, and report on the contributions of RST in its applications of different areas, such as translation studies, computational modelling, and multimodal studies. Finally, they report on the criticism of RST and suggest some possibilities of future research.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Macau
Bo Wang received his doctoral degree from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His research interests include systemic functional linguistics, translation studies, discourse analysis, and language description. He is co-author of Lao She’s Teahouse and Its Two English Translations (Routledge), Translating Tagore’s Stray Birds into Chinese (Routledge) and Systemic Functional Insights on Language and Linguistics (Springer). He is Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Macau, China.
Yuanyi Ma received her doctoral degree from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Her research interests include systemic functional linguistics, translation studies, discourse analysis, and language description. She is co-author of Lao She’s Teahouse and Its Two English Translations (Routledge), Translating Tagore’s Stray Birds into Chinese (Routledge) and Systemic Functional Insights on Language and Linguistics (Springer). She is an independent researcher in China.
In Chapter 1, we relate RST to Systemic Functional Linguistics by locating RST in the various dimensions of SFL. In terms of stratification, RST serves as a semantic resource for realizing fields of activity within context, and it is in tern realized by the lexicogrammatical systems that are used in clause complexing (cf. Halliday 1985; Halliday & Matthiessen 2014: Chapter 7; see Matthiessen for explorations of fields of activity). In terms of metafunction, RST is located within the logical mode of the ideational metafunction, and it is closely related to the textual system of PROGRESSION and the experiential system of CONFIGURATION. RHETORICAL RELATIONS is a logical system. It has the properties of logical systems in general, and it involves both the systemic options from the system (paradigmatic property) and iterative relational structure (syntagmatic structure). In terms of instantiation, RST on the one hand deals with text analysis and investigates text ¬– a semantic unit located at the instance pole of the cline of instantiation. On the other hand, it is extended to the potential pole of the cline of instantiation as systems of rhetorical relations. Also, it involves the intermediate registerial patterns along the cline by taking registerial variation into consideration (see Chapter 4).
Chapter 2
Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Macau
Bo Wang received his doctoral degree from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His research interests include systemic functional linguistics, translation studies, discourse analysis, and language description. He is co-author of Lao She’s Teahouse and Its Two English Translations (Routledge), Translating Tagore’s Stray Birds into Chinese (Routledge) and Systemic Functional Insights on Language and Linguistics (Springer). He is Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Macau, China.
Yuanyi Ma received her doctoral degree from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Her research interests include systemic functional linguistics, translation studies, discourse analysis, and language description. She is co-author of Lao She’s Teahouse and Its Two English Translations (Routledge), Translating Tagore’s Stray Birds into Chinese (Routledge) and Systemic Functional Insights on Language and Linguistics (Springer). She is an independent researcher in China.
From Chapter 2 to Chapter 3, we examine the development of the theory through two main phases, i.e. the classical RST developed in the 1980s and Matthiessen’s (forthcoming) Rhetorical System and Structure Theory. In Chapter 2, we discuss the historical background of the classical RST, provide an overview of the rhetorical-relational resources, introduce the key concepts of classical RST such as nucleus and satellite, and illustrate how analysis can be carried out with the help of classical RST (see Mann 2002a, 2002b, 2003; Taboada 2001, 2004 for Mann and Taboada’s extension of classical RST; see Taboada & Mann 2006a, 2006b for reports on the developments and applications of classical RST).
Chapter 3
Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Macau
Bo Wang received his doctoral degree from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His research interests include systemic functional linguistics, translation studies, discourse analysis, and language description. He is co-author of Lao She’s Teahouse and Its Two English Translations (Routledge), Translating Tagore’s Stray Birds into Chinese (Routledge) and Systemic Functional Insights on Language and Linguistics (Springer). He is Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Macau, China.
Yuanyi Ma received her doctoral degree from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Her research interests include systemic functional linguistics, translation studies, discourse analysis, and language description. She is co-author of Lao She’s Teahouse and Its Two English Translations (Routledge), Translating Tagore’s Stray Birds into Chinese (Routledge) and Systemic Functional Insights on Language and Linguistics (Springer). She is an independent researcher in China.
By integrating classical RST with the logico-semantic relations in SFL, Matthiessen (forthcoming) has developed the Rhetorical System and Structure Theory. Such an integration considers RST relations as extensions of the rather broad logico-semantic relations, providing a more elaborate system useful for both text analysis and the application of RST in different contexts. In this chapter, we elaborate on the choices in the system of RHETORICAL RELATIONS, involving choices made in various subsystems such as NUCLEARITY (TAXIS), LOGICO-SEMANTIC TYPE, ORIENTATION and RECURSION. Also, we will illustrate how the system of RHETORICAL RELATIONS can be viewed trinocularly in terms of the various semiotic dimensions in SFL. For instance, from the perspective of stratification (see Chapter 1), rhetorical relations can be viewed (i) from above, i.e. be approached from context in relation to the three contextual parameters of field, tenor and mode, (ii) from roundabout, i.e. be considered systemically in terms of the system of RHETORICAL RELATIONS, and (iii) from below, i.e. be considered in terms of lexicogrammar and see how rhetorical relations are realized in wording in systems such as CLAUSE COMPLEXING and CONJUNCTION.
Chapter 4
Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Macau
Bo Wang received his doctoral degree from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His research interests include systemic functional linguistics, translation studies, discourse analysis, and language description. He is co-author of Lao She’s Teahouse and Its Two English Translations (Routledge), Translating Tagore’s Stray Birds into Chinese (Routledge) and Systemic Functional Insights on Language and Linguistics (Springer). He is Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Macau, China.
Yuanyi Ma received her doctoral degree from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Her research interests include systemic functional linguistics, translation studies, discourse analysis, and language description. She is co-author of Lao She’s Teahouse and Its Two English Translations (Routledge), Translating Tagore’s Stray Birds into Chinese (Routledge) and Systemic Functional Insights on Language and Linguistics (Springer). She is an independent researcher in China.
Chapter 4 associates the use of RST with texts of different registers (cf. Matthiessen & Teruya 2015). We will categorize texts of different registers according to Matthiessen’s (e.g. Matthiessen 2014, 2015a, 2015b; Matthiessen & Teruya 2016) categorization of register in terms of the eight fields of activity and their subtypes. In this way, we approach register from above in terms of stratification from the three parameters of field, tenor and mode. Then, we analyse representative texts selected in accordance with the different registers and point out the choices of rhetorical structures and their lexicogrammatical realisations.
Chapter 5
Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Macau
Bo Wang received his doctoral degree from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His research interests include systemic functional linguistics, translation studies, discourse analysis, and language description. He is co-author of Lao She’s Teahouse and Its Two English Translations (Routledge), Translating Tagore’s Stray Birds into Chinese (Routledge) and Systemic Functional Insights on Language and Linguistics (Springer). He is Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Macau, China.
Since its birth in the 1980s, RST quickly became a valuable tool for the semantic analysis of texts in a wide range of contexts, including discourse analysis of different kinds of texts, such as argumentative texts (e.g. Azar 1999; Trail & Hale 1995), instructional texts (e.g. Vander Linden & Martin 1995), biographies (e.g. Mwinlaaru 2017), and academic discourse (Benwell 1999). Also, RST has been applied to various areas that are associated with discourse analysis, such as translation studies (e.g. da Cunha & Iruskieta 2010; Wang 2015; Károly 2017), computational modelling (e.g. Marcu 1997, 2000), multimodal analysis (e.g. Bateman 2008; Zhang 2018) and language teaching (e.g. Vorvilas, Karalis & Ravanis 2011; Demirgünes 2015). In this chapter, we introduce some important studies in different areas and illustrate how RST can be applied to solve the problems in different areas.
Chapter 6
Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Macau
Bo Wang received his doctoral degree from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His research interests include systemic functional linguistics, translation studies, discourse analysis, and language description. He is co-author of Lao She’s Teahouse and Its Two English Translations (Routledge), Translating Tagore’s Stray Birds into Chinese (Routledge) and Systemic Functional Insights on Language and Linguistics (Springer). He is Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Macau, China.
Yuanyi Ma received her doctoral degree from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Her research interests include systemic functional linguistics, translation studies, discourse analysis, and language description. She is co-author of Lao She’s Teahouse and Its Two English Translations (Routledge), Translating Tagore’s Stray Birds into Chinese (Routledge) and Systemic Functional Insights on Language and Linguistics (Springer). She is an independent researcher in China.
In Chapter 6, we first introduce the criticisms and challenges to RST, such as Cloran, Stuart-Smith and Young’s (2007) comparison of RST with other discourse analytical tools and their criticisms of RST. In addition, we point out some possibilities of RST research in the future by answering some questions such as (i) How to carry out reliable analysis based on RST? (ii) In which areas are applications of RST needed? (iii) What are the pedagogical implications of RST? (iv) What further works on systemicizing RST in SFL are needed (see Matthiessen, Wang & Ma forthcoming)?
