Theoretical Approaches to Textual Coherence

テクストの首尾一貫性（coherence）は英語教育におけるリーディングやライティングの研究・指導上基本的概念ではあるが、関連領域の複雑性や概念の曖昧さの為、なかなかその実体が捉にくい概念でもある。本稿では、理論研究および文献研究の形をとり、首尾一貫性について3つのアプローチ、すなわちテクストに基礎をおく研究・読み手の心的表象に基礎をおく研究・関連性理論に基づく研究から諸特徴を浮かび上がらせ、首尾一貫性の全体像を捉えることを目的とする。The purpose of this paper is to sharpen the amorphous concept of textual coherence.l The notion of coherence should be given more significance in reading and writing instruction because of its fundamental concept in comprehending and producing a text. The paper discusses aspects of coherence from three theoretical perspectives,namely,from (1) a text-based approach, (2) a reader-based approach, and (3) a relevance theoretic approach. In the second ,the author shows the school which regards coherence as a mental phenomenon rather than a property of the written text. In the last,the author discusses coherence from a relevance theoretic perspective. The paper proposes how these well-balanced approaches may lead to a better understanding of textual coherence