The Notion of Discourse Coherence from the Relevance Theory Framework: An Analysis of a Comment Article.

Abstract

The main aim of our paper is the study of the notion of discourse coherence from the Relevance Theory framework (Sperber and Wilson 1995). We will examine how relevance theory works in the analysis of connectivity in an authentic text: a comment article published by a British newspaper. There we will prove that discourse coherence is determined by the relation between the explicit information existing in the text and its contextual assumptions, together with the cognitive effects or conceptual connectivity derived from the interaction between both factors.

In our research we have found two opposing perspectives concerning the relationship between coherence and relevance: the first one considers coherence and relevance as independent notions (Giora 1997, 1998, Alonso 1999, 2005) and the second one sees coherence as a category deriving from relevance: Blakemore (1992, 2001, 2002), Blass (1986, 1990), Sperber and Wilson (1995). We consider that the view of discourse coherence as a pragmatic rather than a semantic factor is responsible for that distinction.