Coherence:
It concerns the way in which the components of the textual world, i.e the configuration of concepts and
relations underlying the surface text are mutually accessible and relevant. A text “makes sense” because
there is a continuity of sense among the knowledge active by the expressions of the text. We define this
continuity of sense as the foundation of coherence.
Coherence connectedness at the level of sense/meaning (signatum)
Cohesion connectedness at the level of expression/form (signans)
• The following texts are coherent but not very cohesive:
“arrived in LA at noon. Hotel ok. No appointment with Tilly so far. Prospective for success meagre. Love”
“gone to pub with the girls. Dinner’s in the fridge. Don’t wait me up. Love, Sue”
• The following one, instead is neither coherent nor cohesive. Therefore it cannot be considered a text
“I bought a Ford. The car President Wilson drove was black. Black English is a widespread variety of
English. Variety is not always an asset in the case of car production. Italy produces great quantities of fruit
and vegetables.”
Coherence: local and global
Local coherence (microstructure) deals with the relations between sentences or propositions in a linear
sequence:
a. We want to an expensive restaurant
b. John ordered salmon with champagne
c. *John ordered Mercedes
Interpretation based on world knowledge. The meaningfulness of discourse also rests on what we assume to
be the normalcy of the facts, episodes or situation described
Some typical coherence relations
• Cause/effect
sorry, I’m late. I took the wrong bus (effect/cause)
it has rained a lot this winter. We won’t have water shortages next summer (cause/effect)
• Reason/consequence
you don’t work hard enough, you won’t go far in your career (reason/consequence)
• Plan/purpose
“I went to Florence yesterday” “shopping?” “no, to visit grandpa” (plan/action)
• General/particular; “whole/part”; “container/content”
In the room was a big table. On the table was a big vase. In the vase were red roses (general to particular)
In the corner there was some beer. It was in a glass under which stood a brown table (??) (correct but it is an
odd description
• Temporal proximity/ordering
(A): when he arrived, (B) John was making some fresh coffee (A-B contemporary events)
(A) when he arrived, (B) John made some fresh coffee (A-B sequential events)
(A) when he arrived, (B) John was in front of the fridge (A-B contemporary events)
(A) when he arrived, (B) John had gone and the fridge was empty (B-A sequential events)
(A) when he arrived, (B) John was watching TV. (C) He went off right away (A-B contemporary events, C is
possibly something sequential and consequential)
Principle of iconic coding
• Semantic principle of linear order:
the order of clauses in coherent discourse will tend to correspond to the temporal order of the occurrence of
the event described. Event tend to be narrated in an chronological way. This principle is not a rule, but it was
extract by looking at how conversation are structured.
He opened the door, came in, sat and ate
*He hat, sat, came in..
She shot him and he died (frequent)
He died. She had shot him (infrequent and also need more cognitively processes)
• Pragmatic principle of linear order:
