What are the structures of discourse and what are the functions of these structures in the communicative context? This volume explains how and why discourse is organized at various levels. The multidiscplinary contributions illustrate that discourse analysis goes far beyond the linguistic answer of designing grammars. Discourse as Structure and Process covers a huge variety of grammars both written and spoken, and has separate chapters on storytelling and argumentation due to the key roles they play in our personal and professional lives. The chapters illustrate the necessity to examine the mental processes of the language users such as how people--and their minds go about producing, understanding, and remembering text or talk. This cognitive approach also emphasizes the vital role of knowledge in such processes. Similarly, it is stressed that both discourse and its mental processing have a social basis: They can only be fully understood in relation to social interaction.