Contrasting instructions: from grammar to layout Judy Delin University of Stirling & Information Design Unit John Bateman University of Bremen Ghent, Saturday

Contrasting instructions: from grammar to layout

Judy DelinUniversity of Stirling &

Information Design Unit

John BatemanUniversity of Bremen

Ghent, Saturday 22 September 2001; CoLLaTE

Overview of Talk

• Instructions: a contrastive view and some contrastive discourse-functional results

• But what is the “text”?

• An approach to multimodal text

• Uses

• Outlook

Why instructions?

Instructional texts provide a body of linguistic products where one can be very sure that many similar functional goals will need to be achieved...

regardless of exact content, regardless of language and regardless of culture.

Why instructions?

1994 onwards:

several projects with the goal of producing instructional texts automatically using the technology of

Natural Language Generation

NaturalLanguageGeneration

System

Multilingual Grammars,Semantics and Discourse Strategies

InstructionalTexts

Target language independent

specification of content and

style


System


InstructionalTexts



style

Drafter Project (EU)Gist Project (EU)

Agile Project (EU)Drafter-II (UK EPSRC)


System


InstructionalTexts



style


InstructionalTexts


InstructionalTexts

functional motivationfor the particular grammatical and semantic selections made in any instructional text

?

Method• A collection of instructional texts were

collected in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Japanese...

• ‘Functional’ categories were proposed for utterances in the texts

• The texts were annotated for the functional categories

• The range of linguistic realisations of a category were considered

Directives

Asking/telling the user to perform actions or not perform them

Very widespread and very varied:

English (8page document): 136 tokens / 14 typesJapanese (91page document): 285 tokens / 37 types

Examples (English)(1) Lift at sides of lid and remove. Lift out dust

bag.(2) ...please contact your nearest Electrolux

Service Centre.(3) To check the bag first disconnect the hose

coupling.(4) These warning are provided in the interest of

safety. You must read them.(5) Ensure that the lengths of wire inside the plug

are prepared correctly.(6) The suction control will normally be kept fully

closed to maintain maximum suction.(7) Release the hinged right-hand part of the Grille

by moving the left-hand part a little to the left.

Examples (English)(1) Lift at sides of lid and remove. Lift out dust

bag.(2) ...please contact your nearest Electrolux

Service Centre.(3) To check the bag first disconnect the hose

coupling.(4) These warning are provided in the interest of

safety. You must read them.(5) Ensure that the lengths of wire inside the plug

are prepared correctly.(6) The suction control will normally be kept fully

closed to maintain maximum suction.(7) Release the hinged right-hand part of the Grille

by moving the left-hand part a little to the left.

Directives overview (English)

All directives 136 tokensstraight imperative 59

- please 52+ please 7

ensure/take care/makecertain + passive

14

indirect 40agent deletion (passive) 23presupposed in by-clause 11presupposed in when-clause 9inference from state of affairs 1nominalisation 3

let’s 0

Motivations?Previous work (e.g. Ervin-Tripp) mention:

• face-work• giving the directed room to manoever• power relations• speaker/writer as beneficiary

Motivations?Previous work (e.g. Ervin-Tripp) mention:

• face-work• giving the directed room to manoever• power relations• speaker/writer as beneficiary

But these issues are not relevant in instructions,

... or if relevant, are the same within all instructions and so cannot be source of variation

Directive motivations (English)

All directivesstraight imperative

- please+ please

ensure/take care/makecertain + passiveindirect

agent deletion (passive)presupposed in by-clausepresupposed in when-clauseinference from state of affairsnominalisation

let’s



- please+ please



let’s

Main body of instructions



- please+ please



let’s

Outside main body of task



- please+ please



let’s

Uncertainty about actor



- please+ please



let’s

task logical structure



- please+ please



let’s toopatronising?

Summary of Motivations• sensitive to whether the required action is

considered outside the set of acts that the user is committed to by buying the device

• dependent on location in document structure

–warnings/recommendations–critical instructions–genuine indeterminacy of actor

• interaction of semantic/rhetorical constraints

Directives overview (Japanese)Request

-te kudasai (please V)-o V kudasai (honorific-polite please V)

Gerund / conjunctionV- te (V and ... / by V-ing)V (-masu form) (V and ...)

Declarative-u / -ru ending (plain affirmative)-masu ending (polite affirmative)

Collective/tentative address-shiyou (plain let’s)-shimashou (polite let’s)

Two dimensions

distance/formality

respect(keigo)

Summary of Variation (Japanese)

• interaction of semantic/rhetorical constraints

• dependent on location in document structure

–warnings/recommendations–critical instructions–TEXTUAL SIGNPOSTING

• sensitive to how much of an imposition an action is on the user

Example of very finely balanced estimation of ‘imposition’

• Hoshoukikan-chu wa ... hanbaiten ga shuuri sasete itadakimasuWithin the guarantee period ... the shop will repair it.

• Hoshoukikan-ga sugite iru toki wa ... gokibou ni yori yuuryou shuuri itashimasuWhen the guarantee has expired... if you wish, we will repair it for a charge

Example of very finely balanced estimation of ‘imposition’

• Hoshoukikan-chu wa ... hanbaiten ga shuuri sasete itadakimasu“we will receive the favour of your allowing us to repair it”

• Hoshoukikan-ga sugite iru toki wa ... gokibou ni yori yuuryou shuuri itashimasu“repair[polite] it for you”

Genre-specificy of form/function matches across languages

• -te kudasai : please

–but occurs throughout main body of instructions

• -te itadaki / itashimasu : respect

–in situations of imposition

An interim conclusion...

Contrastive accounts that involve functional motivations of construction use need to be carried our relative to

genre

An interim conclusion...

However,

... we also need to pay close attention to

Language/culture....

The English instructions...

Warning hierarchy: VCR recorder

Warning hierarchy: rice cooker

We consider that it would be a mistake to treat this as some cute feature of Japanese instructions irrelevant for the linguistic analysis.

The information to be presented

differs in its modality assignment

in the two languages in this genre.

“One example will do for thousands, one complex type for hundreds of possible types. I select from Paiute, the language of the Indians of the arid plateaus of southwestern Utah. The word wii-to-kuchum-punku-rügani-yugwi-va-ntü-m(ü) is of unusual length even for its own language, but it is no psychological monster for all that. It means ”they who are going to sit and cut up with a knife a black cow (or bull)”, or, in the order of the Indian elements, ”knife-black-buffalo-pet-cut-up-sit (plur.)-future-participle-animate-plural”. The formula of this word, in accordance with our symbolism, would be (F)+(E)+C+d+A+B+(g)+(h)+(i)+(0). It is the plural of the future participle of a compound verb ”to sit and cut up” – A+B. The elements (g)—which denotes futurity—(h)—a a participle unit—and (i)—indicating the animate plural—are grammatical elements which convey nothing when detached. The formula (0) is intended to imply that the finished word conveys, in addition to what is definitely expressed, a further relational idea, that of subjectivity; in other words, the form can only be used as the subject of a sentence, not in an objective or other syntactic relation. The radical element A (”to cut up”), before entering into combination with the coordinate element B (”to sit”), is itself compounded with two nominal elements or element-groups—an instrumentally used stem (F) (”knife”), which may be freely used as the radical element of noun forms but cannot be employed as an absolute noun in its given form, and an objectively used group—(E)+C+d (”black cow or bull”). This group in turn consists of an adjectival radical element (E) (”black”), which cannot be independently employed..., and the compound noun C+d (”buffalo-pet”). ...

... appended to B alone, but to the whole basic complex as a unit—and that the elements (h)+(i)+(0) transform the verbal expression into a formally well-defined noun.”

(Sapir. Language. 1921:31-32)

Sapir’s analysis into ‘immediate

constituents’ drawn as a tree

wii-knife to-

blackkuchum

buffalopunku

pet

rüganicut up

yugwisit

va-future

ntü-participle

m(ü)-animate-plural

0-subject

(F) (E) C d

(h)

(i)

(0)

A

B

(g)

Research Goal:

to investigate the use of different modes of information presentation across genres and languages

• the GeM project:‘Genre and Multimodality’– http://www.gem.stir.ac.uk

The GeM model

• Content structure• Rhetorical structure• Layout structure• Navigation structure• Linguistic structure

• Canvas constraints• Production constraints• Consumption constraints

Stages in Analysis

• Content analysis: what ‘facts’ are being communicated?

Stages in Analysis


• Rhetorical analysis: what is the RST structure?

Stages in Analysis



• Layout analysis: – what layout elements are there?– what is their hierarchical structure?

Stages in Analysis




• Does the layout support the rhetoric?

Stages in Analysis


Content Analysis

quality of vision how the eye workswhere it is quality of hearingfunction of ear spots appearance of ear spotsappearance of coat function of appearance of coatfunction of canine teeth function of molarsfunction of claws behaviour of claws when walking

Stages in Analysis


RST analysis

Tiger: picbody parts

Tiger: mouth(pic)

canines molars

elaboration

elaboration

back of ears(pic)

white spotsfunction

backgroundhearing

coat

purpose

functionof stripes eyes

means

coating

claws(pic)

claws retract why

purpose

attributes

weightheight

dietlength

maturityseason

lifespanyoung

gestationbodytail

relationships comparisons

elaboration

background background

joint

joint

joint

joint

Stages in Analysis


Layout Structure

A

A1 A2 A3 A6 A7 A8A4 A9

a a a a a ab b b b b b

A5

DrawingIntermediateCaptionTextblock

Types of element:

Stages in Analysis

• Does the layout support the rhetoric?

Layout Structure

A

A1 A2 A3 A6 A7 A8A4 A9


A5


Types of element:

Layout Structure

A

A1 A2 A3 A6 A7 A8A4 A9


A5


eyes ears coat mouth teeth claws

Types of element:

Layout Structure

A

A1 A2 A3 A6 A7 A8A4 A9


A5



Types of element:

Layout Structure

A

A1 A2 A3 A6 A7 A8A4 A9


A5



Types of element:

TEI: Text Encoding Initiative

CES: Corpus Encoding Standard

XCES: XML version

GEM annotation scheme

An XML-compatible annotation scheme consists ideally of...

• a single ‘base’ element annotated file

• several ‘stand-off’ layers of annotation

• a Document Type Definition (DTD) for each layer of annotation

base levelitems

layoutstructure

rhetoricalstructure

navigationstructure

Initial Corpus Target (English)

• 5 newspapers

• 5 website versions of newspapers

• 10 instructional texts

• 10 wildlife guides

Initial Corpus Target (English)

• 5 newspapers

• 5 website versions of newspapers

• 10 instructional texts

• 10 wildlife guides

Further target: the same across languages

Being contrastive...

Contrasts across

Contrastive...

LanguagesContrasts across

Contrastive...Genres

Contrasts across Languages

Contrastive...

Contrasts across

TimeLanguages

Genres

Contrastive...

Contrasts across Languages

Genres

Time

Modalities

Contrastive...

Modalities

Languages

GenresGenresGenres

GenresGenresGenresGenresGenresGenresGenresLanguagesLanguagesLanguagesLanguagesLanguages

TimeTimeTimeTimeTime

Modalities

LanguagesTimeGenres

Contrastivity needs to be considered across:

and:Modalities

A conclusion...For a useful ‘contrastive rhetoric’, not only linguistic resources, but also the social and cultural context of text production and interpretation must be taken into account.


Differences permeate every level of representation, from the knowledge to be communicated right through to its layout and typography.


Differences permeate every level of representation, from the knowledge to be communicated right through to its layout and typography.

Any theory that aims at achieving pragmatic equivalence between two languages must include both text and graphics within its semiotic resources

Documents

Contrasting instructions: from grammar to layout Judy Delin University of Stirling & Information Design Unit John Bateman University of Bremen Ghent, Saturday