Synergetic Mechanisms of Discourse Organization: Insights from the Distributions and Interactions of Cohesive Chain Distance

Cohesive chains offer a sequential view of how dispersed cohesive resources are integrated, and chain distance further links discourse organization to processing constraints. However, the distributional regularities of chain distance remain under-described, obscuring debates about the relative status of referential and lexical chains. Based on long English abstracts, this study combines distribution fitting and sensitivity analysis to model chain-distance distributions and their interaction patterns. Results show that (1) referential-chain distances follow an extended logarithmic distribution, where θ indexes the trade-off between distances 1 and 2, and α reflects the mass beyond distance 3; lexical-chain distances follow a right-truncated negative binomial distribution, with k and p primarily governing the relative weights of distances below versus above 4. (2) A stable crossover threshold occurs around distances 4 ± 1, with referential chains dominating before and lexical chains after. Sensitivity analysis identifies p and θ as primary drivers of threshold shifts, k as the regulator of handover abruptness, and α as the main controller of balance-band width. Overall, these patterns indicate that chain distance is self-organized to balance informational demands and cognitive load and that distribution parameters can act as control parameters characterizing the dynamic organization of discourse effectively.