ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how semantic matching and the structuring process converge on the comprehension of an utterance. It concerns the temporal relationship between these processes. Semantic matching may come before or after the structuring process, or be carried out simultaneously with it. These should not be viewed as mutually exclusive alternatives. The first strategy to be considered here is a sequential one: structuring is first carried out for the whole utterance and thereafter semantic matching sets in. Alternatively, semantic matching may take the form of a postmatch, which checks the result of previously performed structuring. Semantic matching and structuring may interleave in several alternative ways, depending on the material analyzed and on other momentary factors. Cognitive structures are not necessarily reconstructed only after the I-marker has been retrieved: the hearer may already begin to recover them when one engages in coalescing, or else he may recover them directly through merging.
