Coherence (linguistics)

Coherence in linguistics is what makes a text semantically meaningful. It is especially dealt with in text linguistics. Coherence is achieved through syntactical features such as the use of deictic, anaphoric and cataphoric elements or a logical tense structure, as well as presuppositions and implications connected to general world knowledge.

Beaugrande/Dressler define coherence as a “continuity of senses” and “the mutual access and relevance within a configuration of concepts and relations”. Thereby a textual world is created that does not have to comply to the real world. But within this textual world the arguments also have to be connected logically so that the reader/hearer can produce coherence. The purely linguistic elements that make a text coherent are subsumed under the term cohesion.

Sources:

De Beaugrande, Robert /Dressler, Wolfgang: Introduction to Text Linguistics. New York, 1996. P. 84 – 112

Bußmann, Hadumod: Lexikon der Sprachwissenschaft. Stuttgart, 1983. S. 537


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