Coherence and Cohesion in English Discourse

5.2 Isotopy as subtype of coherence
Based on our discussion of schema theory, we can say that readers make 
sense of a text by “establishing a coherent schema or script that accounts for 
the meanings of a text” (Goatly 2012: 101). This coherent schema is referred to 
as isotopy – it lies in the 
stability 
of contextual features, whose variations (i.e. 
patterns of repetition or contrast at all levels) help to confirm the unity of the text 
instead of destroying it. The term was originally introduced by Greimas (1966), 
who borrowed the term from nuclear physics, and whose initial definition was 
based on a concept of repetition also termed recurrence or redundancy. An 
analysis of the patterns of repetition and their functions in a literary text shows 
that all the separate patterns of repetition taken together build new and larger 
patterns of thematic coherence. Isotopy is a useful concept for establishing such 
patterns of thematic coherence. Greimas focused on semantics, his concept of 
isotopy only regarded the repetition semes, while his definition stressed the 
role of isotopy in making possible a uniform reading of a story and resolving 
ambiguities. Thus an isotopy is a sequence of expressions joined by a common 
semantic denominator. As noted by 
Nöth
 (1995), when a discourse has only one 
interpretation, its semantic structure is a 
simple
isotopy. For instance, in Example 
(6) the reader will consider the conventional meanings of words which hint at a 
series of commonly recognised scripts (SUNNY DAY/AFTER RAIN, PEOPLE 
WALKING THEIR DOGS, CUSTOMARY LEISURE-TIME ACTIVITIES, 
etc.), instantiating a final schema ‘visitors in a café garden’:
(6)
 Twenty minutes after the rain stopped, the first visitors came into the café 
garden. They were two elderly women and a smiling Labrador, very much 
at home, for they went straight to a certain table at the back,
and the dog 
took his place on the grassy strip there without a command.
(LD: 26)
In a literary discourse this scene plays a role as part of a larger framework 
and additional interpretations are possible; however, figurative or idiomatic 
expressions such as ‘smiling Labrador’ and ‘very much at home’ are easily 
understood via selection restrictions which take place quite spontaneously here. 
The isotopy in this short text sample (i.e. the sequence of semantically related 
expressions) indicates the (one) theme of pleasantly and habitually spent leisure 
time.

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93
The simultaneity of two readings, such as in ambiguities or metaphors, is 
called 
bi
-
isotopy
. The capacity of an average reader to perceive two levels of 
meaning simultaneously is shaped by his or her background knowledge and 
experiences, familiarity with the given social and cultural contexts, and also by 
what is usually referred to as a reader’s maturity or competence. In the examples 
below the narrator is a boy with Asperger’s Syndrome who is thus not able 
to understand abstract, figurative or associative meanings or make sense of 
contextual relations and implied meanings, and he has no capacity to recognise 
humour or irony. He has no capacity to select redundant or repeated semantic 
features, selection restrictions are disabled, and he needs to be given one exact 
and particular piece of data/ information at a time. In Example (7) he explains 
his view of metaphor:
(7)
 I think it should be called a lie because a pig is not like a day and people 
do not have skeletons in their cupboards. And when I try and make a