ABSTRACT
Thesentencewastraditionallyregardedastheupperlimitofgrammaticalanalysis.Forexample,Bloomfield(1935:170)citesthe followingshorttext:
Howareyou?It'safineday.Areyougoingtoplaytennis thisafternoon?
anddeclaresthat"whateverpracticalconnectiontheremaybe betweenthesethreeforms,thereisnogrammaticalarrangement unitingthemintoonelargerform".Bloomfieldchoseanexample whichlacksanyconjunctionsorsentenceadverbssuchasso,thereforeoranypronounsthatreferbacktoanearliersentencesuchas he;butevensotheveryfactthatthethreesentencesaresaidin(uninterrupted)sequencebythesamespeakermeansthatthey formpartofahigherunitinthediscourseortextinwhichthey occur.ThetermsDISCOURSEandTEXTarebothusedforthewider context(e.g.aconversation,aschoollesson,anewspaperarticle,a letter,anovel)inwhichasentenceoccurs.Theformertermsuggests thespokenmediumandthelatterthewritten,butweshallNOTuse themwiththisrestriction.Sentencesareveryoftenmeantbythe speakertobeinterpretedintermsofprecedingand/orfollowing sentences:forinstance,inBloomfield'sexamplethereisasuggestionthatfineweatherprovidesoneoftherightconditionsfor playingtennis.Butinter-sententiallinksarenotpurelysemantic: therearealsorelationsofco-occurrenceandsequencebetween sentences,sothat,forinstance,aquestionlikeBloomfield'slast sentenceneedstobefolloweddirectlybyaresponse(typicallyyes orno)bythelistener.
