Context and coordination in discourse

Abstract

Sentences including their deictic information are elementary discourse units linked in constituent structures. They are bound to information from their discourse contexts, and their linking produces rhetorical effects. Discourse is a sequence of linked sentences bound to their discourse contexts. Each sentence or elementary discourse unit is linked to others by means of the information it requires to be interpreted, obtained from its discourse context and its deictic information. Discourse context is the source for the additional information needed for the linking of discourse units and their interpretation in discourse constituent structures, producing the intended intentional rhetorical effects in texts. Subordination in discourse relations between units is analyzed in terms of their topics and frames. Coordination with sentence-initial and has subordination-to-the-left properties in the discourse constituent structure. These properties of discourse coordination, including focus and wider scope, are shown to be effective tools to build and organize, by means of discourse coordination, complex discourse units that represent rhetorical moves in texts.