208 Advances in spoken discourse analysis
The above data samples are presented as examples of the types of occurrences
that should be included in an examination of the level of lexis in discourse.
They are significant both as realizations of the negotiability of lexical meaning
and as manifestations of the existential paradigms from which lexical selections
are made in real time. Brazil’s view of prominence as the phonological
system that realizes the paradigms is an indispensable background to a
discourse theory of lexis and as such is a major advance in the study of the
relationship between semantic, formal and substantial levels of linguistic
encoding.
‘Interactive lexis: prominence and paradigms’ was first published in Coulthard
(1987a) Discussing Discourse, 236–48.