Abstract
This paper is aimed at identifying the discourse structure of scientific and technical papers, for use as a database for an on-line Technical Japanese learning system. We focused on sentence predicates in analyzing papers relating to engineering fields, so as to observe the textual means used by authors to portray attitudes towards objects, and describe the technical methodology used and the results of observations. We classify predicates into (1) those used to state author observations, (ex.aru) (2) those used to convey the procedural actions of the authors (ex.sekibunsuru), (3) and those used to describe the thoughts or attitudes of authors to the results of their method (ex.kangaeru, juuyoodearu). Finally, we present important predicates for learners to be able to comprehend the discourse structure of scientific papers.
