A Cognitive Pragmatic Approach To Discourse Coherence

This thesis will try to present and explain the main coherence theories. The hypothesis underlying the present research is that coherence is not only the product of the cohesion, is but constructed as a consequence of cooperation between the participants in the dynamic cognitive context. The relation between coherence and cohesion will be discussed. Moreover, the coherence without cohesion will be explained in this frame.Discourse coherence is a complex phenomenon which involves the semantics, pragmatics and cognition. Discourse coherence and cohesion have long been a focus of concern in the field of discourse analysis since it has to do with every aspect of how and why a passage can be considered as a discourse. Previous research on coherence has contributed greatly to our study of this phenomenon. However, that is not the whole story in that it has paid inadequate attention to the cognitive feature of coherence. This article will discuss the relationship between coherence and cohesion, and what's more important is to explore the process of constructing coherence (both explicit and implicit coherence) from pragmatic and cognitive perspectives. It maintains that discourse is a verbal record of a certain communicative event, so it is not a fixed formula, having the same patterns and constructions. We should analyze them by placing it in the dynamic process of interaction, and presents the coherence theories from different points of view.Coherence can be studied in the frame of Relevance Theory, a cognitive pragmatics, proposed by Sperber and Wilson (1986/1995). According to Relevance Theory, human communication can be seen as a process of ostension and inference, and is a cognitive activity from the angle of cognitive linguistics. They formulated a new communication model, Ostensive-Inferential Communication, and a more persuasive inferential model.Coherence theories will be presented from different points of view, it will be introduced from the perspective of semantics, and local coherence and global coherence are explained. Cognitive approaches will also be used to explain the coherence, conceptual blending theory and the speaker involvement are introduced.