The ‘assumption of coherence’ (Brown and Yule 1983: 192), or how a text (as a discursive
event) “makes sense”, is often described as a ‘property of interpretations’ (Fairclough, 1992,
p.83; Charteris-Black, 2014, p.55). In this paper I argue that discourse coherence is an
emergent property of conceptual relations structured by an integrated network of conceptual
domains. The working hypothesis is that if we view coherence as the effect of an integrated
conceptual network (Fauconnier, 2009) framed by a discourse space (Langacker, 2002) then
we can begin to resolve the ‘assumption of coherence’. I argue that it is the assumed
coherence of integrated conceptual networks which constitutes not only the formation of
meaning at a meta-textual level but also the ‘entrenchment’ of ideological construals, a
matter which is of significant import to cognitive linguistic approaches to critical discourse
analysis (Hart, 2014, inter alia). In this paper I build upon the integrated model of discourse
processing proposed in McDonough (forthcoming) by establishing a correlation with the
relational network model of neurocognition (Lamb, 1999) so that we can begin to develop a
“fully cognitive” account of discourse coherence. I demonstrate this by mapping a selected
discourse practice, namely, the development of ‘austerity’ as a concept in texts produced
between 2009 and 2011. By mapping emergent conceptual properties, I demonstrate that
coherence is generated as the result of the sum totality of conceptual relations rather than as
a formal property of textual structure. Furthermore, I claim that it is the proliferation of
recurrent conceptual networks in speech communities, and the recurrent commonality of
their production, that leads to the entrenchment of coherent ideological narratives.