Explores four views of the role of interclausal connectives as a set of linguistic devices that help the reader interpret a narrative text. Finds that interclausal connectives carry meaning, connect textual meaning at both local and global levels, and mark discourse continuity and discontinuity both in the text and as inferred by the reader. (SR)

Discusses the ellipsis of major sentential elements as a pervasive grammatical phenomenon in Japanese conversation and demonstrates its relevance for current theories of discourse or text analysis. (FL)

Concludes that children could attend to texts selectively when reading or listening to expository prose, and when reading, but not in listening to narrative prose. (FL)