Cognitive Interpretation Of Discourse Coherence

As an essential concept of discourse analysis, coherence is a hot topic for linguists. Past studies have contributed various approaches to the analysis of discourse coherence. This thesis will further explore this subject with four major theories of cognitive linguistics: the Idealized Cognitive Model (ICM), the Cognitive Reference Point (CRP), conceptual metaphors and iconicity.ICM can be used to analyze discourse coherence from a micro-semantic perspective. It is quite helpful to seek a deep connection between different information in a discourse by filling missing information, and it is also workable for interpreting grammatical coherence.The other three approaches all take a macro-structural perspective. CRP dominates the interpretation of discourse coherence with the viewpoint of a discourse, which determines the mental process of information organization. Conceptual metaphors are useful for the analysis of discourse coherence for they involve two sets of information that is closely linked through the mapping relationship. The essence of iconicity lies in that our linguistic expressions reflect our cognition of the objective world. Therefore, if a discourse is constructed in a way that accords with our experience with the world, it should be judged as a coherent one.All the four approaches discussed in this thesis establish a close relation between the surface linguistic forms and the underlying meanings at a deep structure, so they provide us with a dynamic way to interpret discourse coherence. Besides, the interpretation of discourse coherence with these approaches all involves our cognitive activities, which are carried out in our mental world. Thus, they actually lead us to construct a mental coherence. These two aspects constitute a good complement and development of past studies. This thesis hopes to shed some light on the construction of a comprehensive and systematic theory for discourse coherence.