Foundational Course

This class is an introduction to the QUD-tree framework (Riester, Brunetti and De Kuthy 2018). Determining the so-called *questions under discussion* of a discourse is a means to analyze both the information structure (i.e. focus-background divide) of the discourse segments, as well as the overall topical organization of the discourse itself. QUD trees are, therefore, a means to represent discourse structure, different from but compatible with rhetorical relations. The class is also devoted to the practical task of annotating information-structural categories in texts from different languages, and to distinguish at-issue from non-at-issue segments.

Requirements/Preparation

In the class we will make use of the QUDA Tool. Participants are kindly asked to install this tool on their laptops prior to the class, which should be possible based on the installation guidelines. The process is a bit cumbersome, and some people might experience technical problems. In this case, do not worry: we will address technical problems during the practice session. But please give it a try!

Organizers

Kordula De Kuthy (Universität Tübingen)
Arndt Riester (Universität Bielefeld)