Analysis of the role of paraphrase in the cohesion of everyday oral discourse suggests that combining two methodological approaches to discourse analysis, using distribution of specific discourse elements and sequential relationships within discourse, creates a more empirical foundation for analysis, leading to a more accurate formulation of the process of producing a cohesive discourse, and eventually to resolution of more general and abstract questions. The discussion is based on 255 paraphrase sequences, discourses in which a speaker paraphrases an already presented proposition after some other discourse material. It is suggested that paraphrases have four functions (intensification, subordination, transition marking, and conversational indexing), and the functions concern very different levels of discourse organization. It is also proposed that a single paraphrase may be used in more than one way, and that the functions cannot always be defined as mutually exclusive, suggesting that the customary practice of separating different sources of cohesion in discourse may not reflect speakers' own methods for producing and understanding orderly discourse, and hence that there is a need to focus more on the relationships between sources of cohesion. (MSE)