Inference and coherence

A theory of text inferences is outlined, introducing some of the notions from a more complete treatment of text structure developed elsewhere. Three broad classes of natural inferences are distinguished: propositions, proposition elements, and proposition connectives. Within each class a number of types is proposed and exemplified, using short illustrative texts. Throughout, the emphasis is on the general formulation rather than on elaborating all of the detailed knowledge needed to fully justify any particular inference. Hence the framework offers a language for talking about and representing text inferences, without in any way denying the essential role that a rich and detailed knowledge base plays in making individual natural inferences. Further, it is proposed that the notion of text coherence or cohesion offers a useful criterion for deciding which of the inferences do belong at the text level of representation. Relative to current text research in psychology and artificial intelligence, the structur...

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