Definition:
Discourse coherence is the property of a text or conversation that makes it interpretable as a unified, logically connected whole rather than a random sequence of sentences — arising from a combination of explicit cohesive devices (such as reference, conjunction, and lexical chains) and implicit inferential processes through which readers and listeners recognize how successive propositions are logically, temporally, or causally related to each other. Coherence is fundamentally a cognitive and pragmatic phenomenon: it is constructed in the mind of the reader or listener as much as encoded in the text itself.
Coherence vs. Cohesion
These related but distinct concepts are often conflated:
| Concept | Definition | Level |
|---|---|---|
| Cohesion | Explicit surface-level linguistic ties between sentences | Textual (form) |
| Coherence | The perceived logical connectedness of a text | Cognitive/pragmatic (meaning) |
A text can have high cohesion but low coherence (lots of pronouns and connectors but no underlying logical structure) or high coherence with low cohesion (implied connections that readers infer without surface markers).
Coherence Relations
Hobbs (1979) and Mann & Thompson’s (1988) Rhetorical Structure Theory identified a taxonomy of coherence relations between discourse segments:
- Elaboration: One segment expands on another
- Cause: One segment is the cause of another
- Contrast: Two segments are compared for difference
- Evidence: One segment supports the claim of another
- Background: One segment provides context for another
- Sequence: Events are ordered temporally
Centering Theory
Grosz, Joshi, and Weinstein’s (1995) Centering Theory accounts for local coherence — the degree to which discourse remains focused on the same entities across adjacent utterances. Texts in which the discourse center shifts minimally between sentences are locally coherent; abrupt topic shifts create local incoherence.
Coherence in SLA Writing
Coherence is a key criterion in L2 writing assessment. L2 learners’ texts are frequently assessed as less coherent than native speaker texts due to:
- Insufficient signaling of coherence relations
- Inappropriate use of cohesive devices (overuse, misuse)
- Failure to maintain thematic continuity
Mental Models and Coherence
Cognitive discourse theory (van Dijk & Kintsch, 1983) proposes that comprehension involves building a situation model — a mental representation of the text’s described world. Coherence is achieved when the situation model is consistent and well-structured. This accounts for why background knowledge aids coherence: gap-filling is easier when readers share the text’s world knowledge.
History
Discourse coherence research developed from two traditions: Halliday and Hasan’s (1976) cohesion analysis of textual ties, and Hobbs’s (1979) and Mann & Thompson’s (1988) work on coherence relations in computational linguistics. Van Dijk and Kintsch’s (1983) cognitive model integrated coherence into a psycholinguistic framework that has been highly influential in reading comprehension research.
Common Misconceptions
- “Coherence is achieved by using connectives like ‘firstly,’ ‘however,’ ‘therefore.’” These are cohesive devices that signal coherence; coherence itself is a semantic and pragmatic property — a text can be coherent with none of these markers and incoherent with many of them.
- “Coherence is a property of the text alone.” Coherence is constructed by the reader/listener; the same text may be coherent for a domain expert and incoherent for a novice.
Criticisms
RST (Rhetorical Structure Theory) has been criticized for the subjectivity of coherence relation assignment and for the assumption that all text segments stand in binary single-relation connections. Corpus-based approaches have shown that coherence relation identification varies between annotators.
Social Media Sentiment
Discourse coherence appears in EFL/ESL writing instruction communities, academic writing support, and linguistics education. Discussions of how to improve student writing coherence are common in teaching-focused social media. The concept is widely taught but often confused with cohesion.
Last updated: 2025-07
Practical Application
Writing teachers use coherence theory to diagnose and explain writing problems: incoherence (ideas that seem unrelated or poorly organized) is often more fundamental than surface cohesion errors. Teaching students to make coherence relations explicit — through signaling and paragraph organization — improves academic writing.
Related Terms
See Also
Research
Halliday, M. A. K., & Hasan, R. (1976). Cohesion in English. Longman.
The foundational analysis of cohesive ties in English text — introducing reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction, and lexical cohesion as the mechanisms of textual connectivity, essential for understanding cohesion’s relationship to coherence.
Mann, W. C., & Thompson, S. A. (1988). Rhetorical Structure Theory: Toward a functional theory of text organization. Text, 8(3), 243–281.
The seminal paper on RST, providing a taxonomy of discourse coherence relations and a method for analyzing how text segments connect into hierarchical discourse structures.
van Dijk, T. A., & Kintsch, W. (1983). Strategies of Discourse Comprehension. Academic Press.
A cognitive model of discourse comprehension that integrates propositional coherence with situation model construction — the standard cognitive-psycholinguistic account of how coherence is processed.