ABSTRACT
The quote above from the preface of Millcr and Johnson-Laird 's landmark book, Language and Perception, led me to formulate the theoretical core of this book-that the eognitive principles whieh explain why humans ' sense ' unity in a succession of sounds (wh ich therefore constitute a whole musical piece) or in a configuration of visual shapcs (whieh therefore eonstitute a whoie object) are the basis of principles that explain why we 'sense ' unity in astring of sentenees or a series of computer screens (wh ich thcrcfore eonstitute a whole text or diseourse) . More speeifieally, I will argue that one aspeet of diseourse cohcrcncc, continuity, is analogous to visual and auditory unity, as studicd by the Gestalt school of psychologists. In addition, I argue that Gestalt principlcs like proximity and similarity describe how cohesion is produced through the use of the fuH range of discourse elements (e.g., from white space and typography to beeps and pauses to parallel syntax to synonymous lexical items and deictic tcrms) . Thus , I believe cohesion produccs continuity, one type of cohercnce, in discourse . More generally , then, it is my premise in this book that humans extend the use of eognitive perceptual principles like that of proximity, originally used in response to interaction with visual and auditory phcnorncna, to the more complex , relatively latcdeveloping cognitive task of discoursc eomprehension and produetion.
