From Description to Assessment: An RST-Based Framework for Measuring Discourse Coherence

Abstract

Since Thirty-nine years of its publication in 1987, Rhetorical Structure Theory (RST) by Mann and Thompson has established itself as one of the most influential frameworks for describing the rhetorical organization of discourse. However, the practical application of this theory has not gone beyond the qualitative analysis of discourse structure without providing a standardized framework for the evaluation of discourse organization quality. To address this gap and advance the theory, the present study proposes a practical RST- based framework for measuring and assessing discourse organization in written texts. This framework draws upon both the four principles of rhetorical structure theory, namely completedness, connectedness, uniqueness and adjacency along with the discourse coherence principles of Elementary Discourse Unit segmentation. Accordingly, the present article aims at bridging the gap between discourse description and discourse assessment, showing how RST cannot serve only as a descriptive theory of discourse organization but also as a foundation for evaluating its quality.