does not seem to depend on its having a macropredication any more than it depends on its having any other particular kind of theme. Its coherence depends on having some theme and a head for its schema,
whether it be propositional a macropredication, referential a topic, a situation, or a goal.
2.2.7 Provisional schemas, heads, and themes
In real-time text processing, addressees begin with initial notions of discourse organization and modify them as the discourse proceeds, gradually building up their mental representation for the text. In
comparison with the final, consolidated discourse organization, what the addressee “sees” at intermediate stages is only partial and tentative. Coherence itself can only be partial until the entire text is assimilated.
This is also true in regard to what addressees “see” of the discourse schema at a given point, hence of what they “see” as the head of the schema and as nonhead themes. In the discussion in previous sections,
we have generally considered only discourse structures that are final for a discourse unit; the schemas, heads, and themes have been
FINAL SCHEMAS
,
HEADS
, and
THEMES
. But these may be quite different from
PROVISIONAL SCHEMAS
,
HEADS
, and
THEMES
that the addressee “sees” at earlier stages. These intermediate structural elements are necessary to give the discourse unit provisional coherence and
organization. Some kinds of themes are generally established early on; topics especially are of this type. Other
themes, such as situations and goals, often seem to be longer in developing. In genres such as mystery stories and even traditional narratives, the resolving macropredication, as a propositional theme, is only
manifest late in the text, hence can have little effect in integrating the discourse space in earlier stages, unless as one possible outcome that addressees could be considering. Although certain aspects of
coherence can be deferred for long periods, addressees do not wait for everything to be complete in order to work on coherence, but utilize intermediate forms of coherence, intermediate heads of incomplete
schemas, and intermediate themes.
As we shall see, some intermediate themes are subsumed into more inclusive final themes and do not persist as final themes themselves. Other intermediate themes do become final themes. Since that is so,
when we talk about the themes of a particular text, it is pertinent to know whether we mean intermediate or final themes and for which parts of the text they function as themes. A theme which functions as such
for the major part of a text may not turn out to be a final theme at all, and a final theme may only be available as the text approaches closure. It would be linguistically satisfying to assume that the part of the
text for which a particular theme functions will always be a recognizable discourse unit, and that there are no switches of theme within discourse units. However, as we shall soon see, that is not always the case:
even the head of the global schema can be switched in the middle of a discourse unit. Not only that, but such switches are extremely common, even though they generate linguistic upheaval. Before we examine
that, we consider an illustrative text.
“Stone soup” Appendix D has two themes which are established quite early: the poor man as topic and the goal of his obtaining food. That goal is the topic’s goal, so it is the more inclusive of these two
themes. They serve well as provisional themes for most of the story. The text has two paragraphs, each of which has its own specific goal theme: for the poor man to get inside the house lines 01–04 and for the
poor man, once inside the house, to obtain food lines 05–10. Each of these two goal themes is a provisional theme for its paragraph; the final theme for each paragraph is a propositional theme indicating
the fact that the goal is achieved and how it is done: the poor man gains entrance into the house lines 01– 04 and he obtains food by using his wits lines 05–10. For the major part of the text, the poor man does
not achieve his goal of obtaining food; the macropredication that he succeeds in obtaining food using his wits is not available until the story approaches closure. Therefore, for most of the story, the emerging but
incomplete global schema has as a provisional goal head. It is only when the story is “resolved” that the final macropredication becomes available. It then becomes the final head of the global schema.
What happens to the provisional themes when the text is finalized? Since in “Stone soup” the goal theme of the poor man obtaining food does not turn out to be the final head of the global schema, its
persistence as a final theme would need to have clear construal. While arguably this goal is a point of integration for both steps in the global schema—those which correspond to the two paragraphs—after it is
“resolved” it does not seem to have intrinsic interest as a final theme. That is, this goal is neither final
head of the global schema nor is there any apparent construal of it as a final nonhead theme. In contrast, the poor man seems to be just as much of a final topic as he was a provisional topic; final intrinsic interest
in him can perhaps be inferred by the fact that he is the subjectagent of the macropredication which is the final global head and certainly from the cook’s evaluative comment about him line 10. Whereas the
poor man seems to retain the speaker’s intrinsic interest until the end, interest in his goal seems naturally to fade after it is achieved. In this sense, it appears likely that certain provisional themes are
DISCARDABLE
while others are
PERMANENT
. Once a text is finalized and consolidated, permanent themes can be expected to be more accessible
than discardable themes. Although the version of “Stone soup” cited in Appendix D has no moral, it seems likely that a narratively faithful moral would encourage listeners to emulate the poor man’s
resourcefulness; that is, the poor man would be accessed in the moral.
35
His situation of need or the goal he once had would seem to be less likely to be accessed in a moral. A moral, then, would show a greater
accessibility of the permanent theme. In §3.5.1 we will consider reasons why narrative participants are not only easy to establish early as topics and to serve as provisional themes, but also to persist as final
themes.
The linguistic reality of provisional and final heads is seen in the Mankanya Bak, Senegal text “Two wives” Appendix G. The sentence-initial connective kë hënk di ‘so then’ apparently indicates the head
of an episode: at the end of the orientation episode lines 01–10 it occurs with a final situational head, as a summary line 10, and in each of the two narrative episodes lines 11–20, 21–30 it occurs at the onset
of a provisional goal head which the episode’s main participant begins at that time to pursue lines 13, 24.
The switch between the provisional and final head of the global schema can be especially significant in discourse structure. The
PEAK
or climax in a narrative, and in some other genres as well, has been defined as “any episodelike unit set apart by special surface structure features and corresponding to the
climax or denoument in the notional structure” Longacre 1996:37. In terms of the present discussion, peak is a discourse unit in which the global schema switches heads, trading a provisional head for a final
head. In “Stone soup,” the second paragraph lines 05–10 is apparently the peak; in that paragraph, the global schema begins with a provisional head, the goal of the theme of the man obtaining food, and ends
with the newly manifested final head, the macropredication that the poor man obtained food by using his wits.
At a peak, then, a discourse “changes horses in midstream.” It is therefore not suprising if it results in conceptual and formal upheaval. According to Longacre loc. cit., “Peak…essentially is a zone of
turbulence in regard to the flow of the discourse…. Routine features of the storyline may be distorted or phased out at peak.” “One of the simplest and most universal devices” found with peak is “rhetorical
underlining,” in which the speaker “may employ parallelism, paraphrase, and tautologies of various sorts to be sure that you don’t miss…the important point of the story” op. cit., p. 39. This “most important
point” is apparently the final head of the global schema as it displaces a provisional head. For other examples, the reader is referred to Longacre 1996, ch. 2.
In subsequent sections we will entertain the possibility that lower levels of structure in discourse, particularly the internal structure of “micro-levels” steps in paragraph schemas, do not persist into the
final, consolidated mental representation. Even if that is true, internal micro-level structure, which generally comprises sentences, can still be considered as provisional conceptual structure in discourse
spaces.
2.3 Conceptual functions in discourse processing
