In this paper we present an overview of recent developments in discourse theory and parsing under the Linguistic Discourse Model (LDM) framework, a semantic theory of discourse structure. We give a novel approach to the problem of discourse segmentation based on discourse semantics and sketch a limited but robust approach to symbolic discourse parsing based on syntactic, semantic and lexical ru...

This paper analyzes O.A Bushnell’s the Return of Lono from postcolonial perspective, focusing on ambivalence colonial discourse and resulting contradiction which ultimately undermine Western claim superiority. novel dramatizes arrival Captain Cook’s expedition Hawai’ian isles first-person perspective Jonathan Forrest as he reminiscences their prior expedition. The Westerners’ view an idealized ...

Recent interest amongst critical human geographers in postcolonial theory has been framed by a concern for the relationship between ‘politics’ and ‘theory’. This paper addresses debates in the field of colonial discourse analysis in order to explore the connections between particular conceptions of language and particular models of politics to which oppositional academics consider themselves re...

Originating from a disenfranchisement with the contemporary definition and realisation of Westernised architecture as a commodity and product, this thesis seeks to explore alternative examples of positive socio-spatial practice and agency. These alternative spatial practices and methodologies are drawn from participatory and grass-roots development agency in informal settlements and contexts of...

This commentary on the Editorial ‘The politics and analytics of health policy’ by Professor Calum Paton focuses on two issues. First, it points to the unclear links between ideas, ideology, values, and discourse and policy, and warns that discourse is often a poor guide to enacted policy. Second, it suggests that realism, particularly ‘programme theory’ are useful tools for health policy analys...

Recent scholarship has explored the dynamics between families and colonial lunatic asylums in the late nineteenth century, where families actively participated in the processes of custodial care, committal, treatment and release of their relatives. This paper works in this historical field, but with some methodological and theoretical differences. The Foucauldian study is anchored to a single c...

Meghnad Saha occupies a special role in the history of Indian science, having been a pioneer in its organization already from the oppressive colonial period and having left important legacies to post-colonial India like the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics. He is famous for his research in astrophysics, and has also made important, but less well-known contributions to magnetic monopole theory....

Litman and Allen are concerned with the relationship between plan recognition in discourse and the underlying commonsense structures that are necessary to support the discourse. Building around a train-trip scenario, they demonstrate the importance of commonsense understanding of plans to the ability to analyze a discourse revolving around this plan. In this capacity they make the distinction b...

Discourse Representation Theory is a specific name for the work of Hans Kamp in the area of dynamic interpretation of natural language. Also, it has gradually become a generic term for proposals for dynamic interpretation of natural language in the same spirit. These proposals have in common that each new sentence is interpreted in terms of the contribution it makes to an existing piece of inte...

This paper is about the flow of inference between communicative intentions, discourse structure and the domain during discourse processing. We augment a theory of discourse interpretation with a theory of distinct mental attitudes and reasoning about them, in order to provide an account of how the attitudes interact with reasoning about discourse structure. INTRODUCTION The flow of inference be...