Towards a discourse theory of abstracts and abstracting
This Ph.D. thesis investigates the extent to which certain linguistic variables affect the perceived success of an abstract. In his opening chapter, the author situates the work as a contribution to discourse theory and formulates a set of seven basic research questions the study seeks to answer. Chapter 2 considers the most satisfactory design for the research. Part Two provides a survey of the relevant source material, consisting of reviews of: the Linguistics and Psychology literature; Artificial Intelligence computational summarising systems; and standards and guidelines taken from Information and Library Science. Part Three discusses the data collection: first, the collection of naturally occurring abstracts from a teaching establishment; second, the collection of judgements elicited by means of a set of questionnaires. The remainder of the thesis constitutes an attempt to reconcile these two types of data, words and opinions. The author draws a distinction between the qualitative and quantitative opinions of the judges (which he refers to as 'external measures') and the linguistic features present in the different abstracts ('internal measures') which determine these subjective opinions. Part Four discusses
Gibson, Timothy Robin
PE English
Towards a discourse theory of abstracts and abstracting. This Ph.D. thesis investigates the extent to which certain linguistic variables affect the perceived success of an abstract. In his opening chapter, the author situates the work as a contribution to discourse theory and formulates a set of seven basic research questions the study seeks to answer. Chapter 2 considers the most satisfactory design for the research. Part Two provides a survey of the relevant source material, consisting of reviews of: the Linguistics and Psychology literature; Artificial Intelligence computational summarising systems; and standards and guidelines taken from Information and Library Science. Part Three discusses the data collection: first, the collection of naturally occurring abstracts from a teaching establishment; second, the collection of judgements elicited by means of a set of questionnaires. The remainder of the thesis constitutes an attempt to reconcile these two types of data, words and opinions. The author draws a distinction between the qualitative and quantitative opinions of the judges (which he refers to as 'external measures') and the linguistic features present in the different abstracts ('internal measures') which determine these subjective opinions. Part Four discusses
towards discourse theory abstract abstract phd investigates_extent certain_linguistic variable affect perceive success abstract opening author situates work discourse theory formulates set basic_question study_seek answer considers satisfactory design research part_two provide survey relevant source_material consist review linguistics_psychology literature artificial_intelligence computational summarise system standard guideline take information library science part_three discuss data_collection first collection naturally_occur abstract teach establishment second collection judgement elicit mean set questionnaire remainder constitutes attempt_reconcile two_type data word opinion author draw_distinction qualitative_quantitative opinion judge refers external measure linguistic_feature present different abstract internal measure determine subjective opinion part discus