ON THE NOTION ‘BEYOND THE SENTENCE’

There is a small, but growing, interest among linguists in the 'upward extension' of linguistics, that is, in the extension of linguistics 'beyond the sentence'. Although several studies have appeared whose express purpose is such an extension, there has not been any systematic examination of the very notion itself. It is the purpose of this paper to consider just what is meant by the expression 'beyond the sentence'. The discussion will, for the most part, not be theoretical in the sense of propounding a theory of what SHOULD be involved in such an extension of linguistics — though some attention will be given to the problem of determining the limits, or restrictions, on what may be validly called an extension of linguistics. Rather, the paper as a whole attempts to determine the logical possibilities for extension and to discuss briefly published research which exemplifies these possibilities. Such an approach, which in effect yields a sort of taxonomy, is both useful and necessary, for as will be seen, the one expression 'beyond the sentence' covers an extremely wide range of analytic techniques and modes of description. These diverse approaches do have, nevertheless, certain features in common. First and foremost, there is a concern for linguistic'perform-