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Grammar and Cognition: Dualistic models of language structure and language processing
Edited by Alexander Haselow and Gunther Kaltenböck
[Human Cognitive Processing 70] 2020
► pp. 267–308

Chapter 8
Local and global structures in discourse and interaction

Linguistic and psycholinguistic aspects

| University of Münster

Based on the relatively broad evidence for the assumption that language structure and linguistic cognition are organized in a dualistic way, this chapter follows proposals for a distinction between microstructures and macrostructures in language. While the first serve the establishment of morphosyntactic and semantic relationships, the latter are responsible for structuration in terms of discourse structure, interaction management and cognitive alignment. Using “extra-clausal” constituents as an example, it will be shown that there are points in spoken discourse that are highly sensitive for the structuration of language on a macrolevel, namely the beginning and the end of turns, and that expressions serving macrostructure, which tend to cluster in these positions, have a syntax of their own.

Keywords: grammar, discourse structure, spoken language, extra-clausal constituents, turns
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Micro-and macrostructures in language
  • 3.Micro- and macrostructures in spontaneous speech: Psycholinguistic aspects
  • 4.Structural relations on the macrolevel
  • 5.Grammatical principles on the macrolevel of language structure
    • 5.1Turn-initial and -final extra-clausal constituents
    • 5.2Method
    • 5.3Results
  • 6.Discussion
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • Transcription conventions
  • References
Published online: 12 November 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.70.08has
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