In works historically recognized in Textual Linguistics, coherence, in general, has been conceived as a message or content of the text, or as a network of conceptual relations established in the textual texture, and has been studied as the property of the text or as a textual process. However, from Eugênio Coseriu's (1980, 2007) theory of language, in which he proposes the existence of three levels of language (universal, historical and textual), it is possible to review the multiplicity of imputed (not always reconcilable) features to coherence. In this paper, we aim to present a proposal for understanding coherence based on the theory of language levels, unraveling the relationship between the concepts of coherence, meaning and sense. Regarding the methodology, it is a theoretical and exploratory research, which uses the procedures of bibliographic survey and analysis of examples that stimulate understanding (Gil, 2007). The basic theoretical framework is the work of Coseriu (1980, 2007), which is opposed to works that deal with the phenomenon of coherence, with wide repercussions in Textual Linguistics, such as Charolles (1978, 1995), Beaugrande and Dressler (1997 ), Travaglia (1994, 1999) and Bernardez (1982, 2003). As a result, we consider that coherence is not a single and homogeneous phenomenon. On the contrary, coherence is a tripartite phenomenon from which three theoretical objects emerge, each of them aligned to a level of language.
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Coserian theory; Levels of language; Textual coherence.