THE GRAMMAR OF REFERENTIAL COHERENCE AS MENTAL PROCESSING INSTRUCTIONS

Referents ("topics") serve as file labels in the episodic memory for stored text. The grammar of topic marking is a set of processing instructions that cue two major cognitive systems: attention and episodic memory. The cataphoric elements in the grammar tell the hearer/reader whether the referent is important and thus needs to be activated and then used as file label for a newly opened storage file in the episodic memory. Unimportant referents are not activated but rather are filed as new information in the currently active memory file. The anaphoric elements in the grammar tell the hearer/reader where to search for the topic in the existing storage structure of episodic memory. Coding a referent by zero or unstressed pronoun signals that it is the currently active topic, that it should retain its activation, and that incoming information should continue to be filed under its label. When a currently inactive referent is coded as definite and important, various grammatical devices tell the hearer/reader where to search for it in episodic memory. Following search and retrieval, the referent is then activated, and new incoming information is filed under its label.