Presents a text-linguistic definition of the difference between semantic and pragmatic relations. Shows that the type of context (descriptive, argumentative) appeared not to influence language users' interpretation of clear cases, whereas their judgments of ambiguous relations were influenced by the type of context. Finds informative texts are…

Describes global strategies (such as choosing a consistent text paradigm) and local strategies (such as using sentence chains and creating causal networks) that are characteristic of coherent task instructions. (JAD)

Investigates effects of prior knowledge on learning from high- and low-coherence history texts. Examines participants' comprehension in two experiments. Finds high-knowledge readers performed better on open-ended questions after reading low-coherence text. Indicates that low-coherence text requires more inference processes--these inferences are…

Describes the results of an analysis of 87 non-formulaic abstracts for structures of semantic dependency between sentences. An automatic structural simplification is presented which is based on an assumption about the use of the dependency structure, and the results of an evaluation of the method are discussed. (25 references) (CLB)

Investigates convergent and divergent validity of inferences from selected measures of structure, coherence, and quality for compositions. Finds (1) strong support for validity of inferences from the structure measures, serious questions of inferences from coherence measures, and weak support for quality measures; (2) some evidence for the…

Describes a recursive transition network model that analyzes and represents a story as a causal network of categorized clauses and labeled relations. Reports on two experiments using procedural criteria to identify inferences and the assumptions that inferences operate over distances in the text and are transitive, resulting in a network…

Examines effects on recall and comprehension of a passage from a fourth-grade textbook and versions revised for greater coherence or to exhibit voice. Finds that, immediately after reading, the voiced coherent passage held significant advantage over all other passages in both recall and comprehension. Finds similar, though statistically…

This paper proposes that a metaphor of linguistic levels, similar to that used in general linguistic theory, be applied to the study of levels within an essay. The linguistic conception of levels in a piece of writing is not sentence-paragraph-essay (which might be characterized as a rhetorical division) but rather (or in addition to)…

Adolescents with deafness or partial hearing were assessed on memory for relational and distinctive information when text structure and material concreteness were manipulated. Deaf and hard-of-hearing readers were less likely than hearing readers to integrate text information across idea units, although they may retain as much information from…

A study found that both paradigmatic and syntagmatic aspects of text were important for signifying meaning of text in the reading comprehension of 102 Australian students at 3 age levels (10, 12, and 14 years). Underlying comprehension problems was a lack of prior experience of text topics. Reading preparation through developing shared meanings is…

Research about the interrelationship between reading comprehension and written production is reported that is assumed to contribute to teaching syllabi in these areas, by the nature of the processes that underlie reading and writing. Reading and writing are shown to be two sides of the same cognitive process. (26 references) (LB)

This article discusses how text variables interact with reader, strategy, and task variables to affect readability, including text coherence, text organization, signaling, and text structure. It considers how classic readability formulas, in concert with consideration of text, text reader, and strategy variables, can be used to match texts to…

Investigates the usefulness of using grammatical cohesion to evaluate the macro- or discourse-level, and the micro-level reading comprehension of English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) students. Finds a relationship between anaphora and coherence that contributes to reading difficulty. (MG)

Two experiments investigated the role of text coherence in junior high school students' comprehension of science texts. Found that text coherence improved readers' comprehension, but also that giving readers with sufficient background knowledge an incoherent text that forced them to infer unstated relations engaged them in compensatory processing,…