Cahiers de linguistique - Asie orientale - Année 1994 - Volume 23 - Numéro 1 - Pages 207-221Koto is studied in context to assess its functional value, in relation to other syntactical processes, such as nominalization with no and citation with to. A statistical count confirms that koto is used mainly to nominalize a clause inside a complex sentence. Permutations show that nominalization or citation can be found with the same value at the end of the clause, or at the end of the sentence. It is shown that these processes imply the use of a limited set of final verbs, and that koto is preferred to no and to when the clause is long or contains new information. The relational value of constructions with koto is further examined in relation with anaphora at the head of sentences. It is argued that koto acts as a clause cohesion mark, inside the sentence, and as sentence cohesion mark, inside the paragraph. 15 pages Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.