Title: Revisiting and Rethinking 25 Years of Research on Textual Coherence in China

Abstract: This study makes a statistical analysis of the important journal publications on textual coherence over the last twenty five years in China, examing their theoretical stance, research focus, research methodology and findings. Results of the study have shown that: 1) Textual coherence studies in China developed rapidly, especially between the years of 2000 and 2009; 2) Cognitive linguistics, together with systemic functional linguistics, has become one of the main theoretical research foundations in this area; 3) There is an imbalance in research topics and research methodology.

Keywords: textual coherence, statistical analysis, revisiting and rethinking

Authors: Hongkun Li, Lecturer, Foreign Studies College, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, Hunan, China; Jiehong Bai, Professor, Foreign Studies College, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, Hunan, China.