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The Pragmatics of Discourse Coherence: Theories and applications
Edited by Helmut Gruber and Gisela Redeker
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 254] 2014
► pp. 87–119

The coding of discourse relations in English and German argumentative discourse

| University of Saarbrücken, Germany
| University of Augsburg, Germany

This chapter examines contrastively the overt and non-overt coding of discourse relations in British English and German editorials. Particular attention is given to the linguistic coding of discourse relations between adjacently and non-adjacently positioned discourse units, and to the question of granularity. In the data, the discourse relation of Contrast is coded overtly in adjacent and nonadjacent positioning in the two languages, while Continuation, Elaboration, Explanation and Comment are coded differently. In the British data, there is a clear preference for coding discourse relations between adjacently positioned subordinating discourse relations overtly on the level of clause, and in the German data, discourse relations holding between non-adjacently positioned sentences are preferably marked overtly.

Published online: 26 November 2014
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https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.254.04spe
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