Search

This article seeks to explore the possibility of minimizing the role of discourse topic (DT). Nick Asher states that discourse topics for narration in SDRT should summarize and abstract away from the logical structure of the constituents they are topics of. For a variety of purposes they are also needed as constituents in the discourse structure. Asher thus cites two traditional roles for DT, and expands another one. The traditional roles are in the semantics of Narration, to explain the incoherence of discourses containing Narration; and in constraining attachment, to explain how some parts of discourse are closed off for attachment. The expanded role is in plural anaphora, explaining resolution possibilities. The rest of this paper discusses these roles in turn, arguing in each case that DT's role could be reduced still further.