This volume makes the case for the founding of a new science of text and discourse, in the context of contributions from communication and cognitive science and the paramount concept of freedom of access to information, knowledge and society. It is part of a series which provides a forum for the cross-fertilization of ideas from diverse disciplines that share a mutual interest in discourse. A variety of approaches to the topic are represented: sociolinguistics; psycholinguistics; ethnomethodology and the study of language; educational psychology; and computational linguistics.