Here 1 show how professors at a major American university use asides, local breaks in topicality, to increase global semantic coherence and pragmatic consistency, as well as to evoke in students a variety of interpretive frames. My findings indicate a need for analysis re-evaluating basic concepts of discourse unity and the use of interpretive frames, and my analysis provides a rigorous explanatory model. Other areas in which my findings suggest further research are the structure of multiple-strand discourse, where one component of the discourse provides a running commentary on another, and the devices for creating simultaneous clear demarcation of and strong cohesion between discourse episodes. Finally, my findings call for revision of current materials for teaching academic listening comprehension and for less immediate goalorientation in applied analysis.