Readability Formulae and the Structure of Text

Present readability formulae are subject to numerous criticisms. One problem is that they are generally calculated on factors at sentence and sub‐sentential level. However, in linguistics, factors above the level of the sentence are being increasingly recognised as important in language, whether spoken or written. In this article one aspect of the problem of supra‐sentential complexity is considered. Information structures and their realisations are used to elucidate such complexity, and the problems that occur, when attempting to formalise and quantify these, are outlined.