ABSTRACT
Accessibility is one of the most important challenges at the intersection of linguistic and psycholinguistic studies of text and discourse processing. Text and discourse processing are dynamic processes during which the reader or listener constructs a cognitive representation of the information in the text or discourse. This chapter illustrates the principles of referential coherence and accessibility in text linguistics and discourse processing. Experimental research on text and discourse processing has demonstrated the psychological reality of linguistic indicators of referential coherence. The chapter discusses the relevance of linguistic signals of accessibility and the dynamic process of incremental text and discourse comprehension. Many functional and cognitive linguists have argued that the grammar of referential coherence can be shown to play an important role in the mental operations of connecting incoming information to the existing mental representations. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
