ABSTRACT
A theoretical puzzle that is achieving increasing prominence in the field of communication is the problem of coherence (Craig & Tracy, 1983; Ellis, 1982; Jacobs, 1985; McLaughlin, 1984). How can utterances or sentences fit together in meaningful ways? Coherence in discourse generally has been discussed in terms of the relevance of an utterance or sentence to prior discourse. Coherence is a global property of a whole unit; relevance is a property attributed to the elements composing the whole (McLaughlin, 1984, pp. 36–38). This much granted, just what is it that makes conversations or texts coherent and utterances or sentences relevant?
