Which field studies how stretches of language achieve both cohesion and coherence?

Which field studies how stretches of language achieve both cohesion and coherence?

• A. Discourse analysis
• B. Sociolinguistics
• C. Pragmatics
• D. Semantics

Answer: (A)

Discourse analysis examines language beyond single sentences, focusing on how longer stretches of text are organized to hang together and make sense. It looks at cohesion devices—like pronouns, conjunctions, lexical repetition, and ellipsis—that tie parts of the text together, and at coherence—the overall meaning that emerges from the text’s structure, topic progression, and listeners’ or readers’ background knowledge. This combination of text-level organization and interpretation is exactly what’s being asked about: how stretches of language achieve both cohesion and coherence. Other fields focus more on word meaning (semantics), language use in social contexts (sociolinguistics), or language in particular contexts of use (pragmatics), but not the specific study of how longer discourse pieces knit together into a meaningful whole.