Discourse structure is a central research topic in the
`Discourse and Communication' group. We investigate how
monologic or dialogic discourse is constructed from
smaller, utterance-level elements, how such discourse
structures influence utterance meaning, and how they
contribute to the
achievement of specific communicative goals in concrete
contexts. This line of research is based on corpus
analysis and psycho- and neurolinguistic experimentation
with methods such as ERP-registration and fMRI. It
involves semantic and textual (e.g. Rhetorical Structure
Theory) analysis, as well as the investigation of
language- and genre-specific variations of discourse
structure. In the near future, eye-tracking studies will
be used to investigate the processing of the visual
organisation of multimodal discourse (e.g. magazines,
tv-spots). Our insights in the processing and use of
discourse structures contribute to the development of
methods for the evaluation and optimisation of texts.
We invite project proposals within the domain of discourse
structure that pertain to any of the above-mentioned
research questions.
For further information, contact Markus Egg (K.M.M.Egg at rug.nl).