Coherence in Spoken and Written Discourse

1982

The article discusses two types of discourse coherence, propositional coherence and interactional coherence. These two types are related to the mode of discourse as well as to the level of style in the discourse. It takes up the concept of frame as an organised subsystem of knowledge shared by human beings, and suggests ways in which this concept could be used in studies of coherence in everyday conversations, prose texts and lyrical poetry. The article also suggests a way of describing discourse coherence in terms of the discourse topic and considers the relationship of the two types in different kinds of texts.