ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the studies which have been motivated by the realization that there is a linguistic space beyond sentence boundaries governed by narrow syntax, which imposes different demands on language users and obeys different principles. It explains three areas of research the comprehension of wh-questions, the comprehension of pronominals, and the production of reference to time. Discussion of research into these three topics is expected to clarify further how discourse operates still a somewhat uncharted area for the study of language impairments in agrammatism. Research concentrated, therefore, on pronouns. The reason for the complexity of pronouns is that, unlike reflexives, pronouns are not bound locally; the referent of a pronoun can only be identified outside clause boundaries, in discourse. The processing of pronouns in Exceptional Case Marking (ECM) sentences revealed additional constraints to co-reference relations between pronouns and antecedents. Several studies have shown that the interpretation of pronouns in ECM structures is difficult for agrammatic patients.
