This analysis seeks to link discourse structure and semantic or lexical systems. The example is given of a Cuna curing chant named "the way of the pepper," in which 53 names for pepper ("kapur") are used in a projection of a paradigmatic axis (the lexical taxonomy) onto a syntagmatic axis. A corollary of the principle of viewing discourse from this perspective is that uses of speech or discourse structures actually serve to define or elaborate certain linguistic sub-systems. This is termed "ecology of language." This and other examples suggest other areas for future research, namely the full range of principles by which paradigmatic systems are projected onto syntagmatic discourse structures, the relation of this principle to other basic principles, and the kinds of linguistic variation (phonological, or lexical, for example) manipulated in the process of discourse organization. (Author/AM)