Page 47 - A GRAMMAR OF BHOJPURI _ PhD Dissertation 2020 TU

external physical world, the mental-internal world, the culturally-mediated world, or
to various combinations thereof" (Givón 2001a:8).

Givón (2001a:8) quotes Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) and Squire (1987) as
mentioning episodic-declarative memory that cognitive psychologists have long
recognized our capacity to process and store propositional information.

iii) Multi-propositional discourse
The third component of human cognitive representation system is the level of

multi-propositional discourse. It is obvious the individual state and event clauses are
simply combined into coherent discourse. Besides, human discourse is predominantly

multi-propositional, i.e., its coherence transcends the bounds of its component
clauses. Givón (2001a:8) quotes Loftus (1980), Gernsbacher (1990), and Ericsson &

Kintsch (1995) as describing multi-propositional discourse being processed and stored
in episodic-declarative memory.
Givón (2007:31) notes that early childhood and primate communication are

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almost absolutely mono-propositional. In contrast, well developed human
communication is, at the use-frequency level, overwhelmingly multi-propositional.

This is mirrored in the fact that most of the grammatical system is dedicated to code
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multi-propositional (cross-clausal) coherence. Grammar-coded discourse coherence
is primarily involved with mental models of the interlocutors' current epistemic and
deontic states. Furthermore, individual states or events may be combined into

coherent discourse. Its coherence exceeds the limits of its component clauses. Multi-
propositional discourse is also processed and stored in episodic declarative memory.
The immediate speech situation is mentally represented in the working

memory/attention system. Such representation shifts from one moment to the next,
and is thus temporally unstable. In contrast, displaced referents are more likely to be

represented in episodic memory. Compared to working memory, "episodic
representation is a much more stable mental representation and this temporal stability
may have contributed toward the objectivization of verbally-coded referents,

including mental predicates" (Givón 2007:30).

3. Further, Givón (2002b:5-6) elaborates that individual propositions may be combined together into
coherent discourse. Human discourse is predominantly multi-propositional, in that its coherence
transcends the bounds of isolated propositions. The lowest multi-propositional unit of coherence
discourse is coded grammatically as a clause-chain.
4. Coherence may be taken to mean continuity, connectivity or grounding (Givón 2005:126).
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