Linguistic Element of Discourse

Cohesion

Cohesion is the grammatical and lexical relationship within a text or sentence. Cohesion can be defined as the links that hold a text together and give it meaning. It is the first standard of textuality; it refers to the surface relations between the

sentences that create a text and  to create connected sentences within a sequence. The formal surface of the text components works according to grammatical forms and conventions .It helps the reader /hearer to sort out the meaning and uses.

We can identify type of cohesion to be five : reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction, and lexical cohesion.

* Referential Cohesion

§  The term reference is traditionally used in semantics to define the relationship between a word and what it points to in the real world, but in Halliday and Hasan’s model it simply refers to the relationship between two linguistic expressions.

 

§  In the textual sense, though, reference occurs when the reader/listener has to retrieve the identity of what is being talked about  by referring to another expression in the same context.

§ References to the outside a text are called exophoric references.

    References to elements in the text are called endophoric references.

Type of Reference:

1. Exophoric Reference { situational }

2  Endophoric Reference, { textual }, we can divide Endophoric Reference into     two : anaphoric reference { to preceding text }  ,and cataphora { to following text}

Anaphoric reference points the reader or listener “ back ward “ to a previously mentioned entity, proses or state of affairs.

Cataphoric reference points the reader or listener forward – it draws us further into the text in order to identify the elements to which the reference items refer.

Example of anaphoric reference:

Text 2a

Martin Scorsese is killing me, waiting for the sun to go behind a cloud so the next shot will match the last one. He is near the end of the Cape Fear shoot, in front of a grocer’s stand just outside Fort Lauderdale, Florida. With him are Nick Nolte, Jessica Lange and Juliette Lewis, playing a married couple and their daughter fleeing from a psycho. Scorsese’s hand rarely leaves the side pocket of his custom – made jeans, where he works his watch chain like worry beads. He used to have Armani make his jeans, but he felt guilty wearing them.

Example of cataphoric reference :

Text 2b

“Jane, this is Allice. Listen, I just got a call from Betty, and she said she heard something’s happened out there. Have you heard anything?’’That was the way they phrased it, call after call. She picked up the telephone and began relaying this same message to some of the others.

We can identify three sub -  types of referential cohesion – personal, demonstrative and comparative.

Personal Reference

Personal reference, such as those in text 2a, are expressed through pronouns and determiners. They serve to identify individuals and objects that are named at some other point in the text.

Personal reference keeps track of function through the speech situation using noun pronouns like “he, him, she, her”, etc. and possessive determiners like “mine, yours, his, hers”, etc.

.Example:

*The prime minister has resigned. He announced his decision this morning.

 

 Wash and core six cooking apples. Put them into a fireproof dish.

 

*Mikhail Gorbachev didn’t have to change the world. He could have chosen to rule much as

his predecessors did.

 

These are both cases of endophoric reference which signals to the reader that he or she needs to look back in the text to find its meaning.

Demonstrative Reference

Demonstrative reference is expressed through determiners and adverb. These items can represent a single word or phrase, or much longer chunk of text – ranging across several paragraphs or even several pages.

Demonstrative reference keeps track of information through location using proximity references like “this, these, that, those, here, there, then, and the”.

* Recognizing that his country had to change, Gorbachev could have become a cautious modernizer in the Chinese fashion, promoting economic reform and sponsoring new technology while holding firm against political change. This did not happen.

 

*I always drink a lot of beer when I am in England. There are many lovely pubs there.

 

  This is not acceptable.

 

Comparative Reference

Comparative reference keeps track of identity and similarity through indirect references using adjectives like “same, equal, similar, different, else, better, more”, etc. and adverbs like “so, such, similarly, otherwise, so, more”, etc.

 

     -A similar view is not acceptable.

    

     We did the same.

     So they said.

-

     - A: Would you like these seats?

       B: No, as a matter of fact, I’d like the other seats.

Substitution and Ellipsis

§  There are three general ways of substituting in a sentence: nominal, verbal, and clausal.

§  In nominal substitution, the most typical substitution words are “one and ones” .

 

There are some new tennis balls in the bag. These ones’ have lost their bounce.

§  In verbal substitution, the most common substitute is the verb “do” which is sometimes used in conjunction with “so” as in “do so”.

 

   - Let's go and see the bears. The polar ones are over on that rock.

  

   A: Is it going to rain?

   B : I think so.

    Inclausal substitution, an entire clause is substituted.

 

   If you’ve seen them so often, you

     get to know them very well.

   I believe so.

 

     Everyone thinks he’s guilty. If so, no doubt he’ll resign.

 

     We should recognise him when we see him.

     Yes, but supposing not: what do we do?

Ellipsis

§  Ellipsis (zero substitution) is the omission of elements normally required by the grammar which the speaker/writer assumes are obvious from the context and therefore need not be raised.

If substitution is replacing one word with another, ellipsis is the absence of that word, "something left unsaid". Ellipsis  requires retrieving specific information that can be found in the preceding  text.

Marry: I prefer the green.

Question: Select the correct alternative : Marry prefers the green:(a) hat, (b) dress, (c) shoes.

As it stands, the question is impossible to answer. However, if we know what was said before, it becomes relatively straight forward.

Sylvia: I like the blue hat.

Marry: I prefer the green.

There are three types of ellipsis too: nominal, verbal, and clausal.

Nominal Ellipsis:

My kids play an awful lot of sport. Both (0) are incredibly energetic.

Verbal Ellipsis

A: Have you been working?

B: Yes, I have (0).

Clausal Ellipsis

A: Why do you only set three places? Paul is staying for dinner, isn’t he?

B: Is he? He didn’t tell me (0).

Conjunction

Conjunction is achieved to have grammatical cohesion in texts which show the relationship

between sentences. They are different from other cohesive, ties that they reach the meaning by

using other features in the discourse. Because as Nunan (1993) points out, they use features to

refer to the other parts of the text in order to make relationship between sentences extremely

understood. Halliday and Hassan describe it as fellows:

In describing conjunction as a cohesive device, we are focusing attention not

on the semantic relation as such, as realized throughout the grammar of the

language, but on one particular aspect of them, namely the function they have of

relating to each other linguistic elements that occur in succession but are not

related by other, structural means.

(Halliday and Hassan, 1978: 227)

Williams (1983) summarized the different kinds of conjunctions in a text, based on the work

of Halliday and Hassan (1976) in the following table:

Family	External relationship	Examples
Additive Adversative Causal	Additive ‘proper’ Negative Expository Exemplification Similar Adversative ‘proper’ Avowal Correction of meaning Dismissal Causal general Reversed causal Reason Result Purpose Conditional (direct) Conditional (reversed polarity ) Respective (direct) Respective (reversed polarity )	And, in addition, moreover Or, else, alternatively, that is, in other words, for instance, for example, such as, likewise, similary, in the same way. Yet, though, but, however, nevertheless, whereas. In fact, actually, as a matter of part, contrary. In any / either case. So ,then ,hence, consequently,for,because,for this reason .it follows As a result ,in consequence, for this purpose ,to this end, then , that being the case , under the circumstances Otherwise ,under other circumstances , therefore In this respect /regard otherwise, in other respects
Temporal	Reversed causal Reason Result Purpose Conditional (direct) Conditional (reversed polarity ) Respective (direct) Respective (reversed polarity ) Sequential Summarizing Past Present Future Durative Interrupted Simultaneous	So ,then ,hence, consequently,for,because,for this reason .it follows As a result ,in consequence, for this purpose ,to this end, then , that being the case , under the circumstances Otherwise ,under other circumstances , therefore In this respect /regard otherwise, in other respects (at) first ,to start with ,next , finally ,in conclusion To sum up , in short ,briefly Previously ,before this /that, hitherto ,at this point, here From now on ,hence forward meanwhile , in the meantime Soon, after a time just then, at the same time.

Adversative

I’m afraid I’ll be home late tonight. However, I won’t have to go in until late tomorrow.

I quite like being chatted up when I’m sitting in a bar having a drink. On other hand , I hate it if………you know…..if the guy starts to make nuisance of himself.

( The relationship signaled by however and on the other hand are adversative because the information in the second sentence of each text moderates or qualifies the information in the first.)

Additive

From a marketing view point, the popular tabloid encourage the reader to read the whole page instead of choosing stories. And isn’t that what any publisher wants?

( Here And signals the presentation of additional information.)

Temporal

Brick tea is a blend that has been compressed into a cake. It is taken mainly by the minority groups in China. First, it is ground to a dust. Then it is usually cooked in milk.

( Temporal relationship exist when the events in a text are related in terms of the timingof their occurrence.)

Causal

Chinese tea is becoming increasingly popular in restaurants, and even in coffee shops. This is because  of the growing belief that it has several health – giving properties.

(In this type of conjunction, the relationship is one of cause and consequence.)

Lexical cohesion

Lexical cohesion occurs when two words in a text are semantically related in some way – in other words, they are related in terms of their meaning. In Halliday and Hasan (1976), the major catagories of lexical cohesion are reiteration and collocation.

Reiteration

Reiteration includes repetition, synonym or near synonym, super-ordinate, and general word. Examples of each follow. The second underlined word or phrase in each of the texts refers back to the previously mentioned entity. Reiteration thus fulfils a similar semantic function to cohesive reference.

Repetition

What we lack in newspaper is what we should get. In a word, a ‘popular’ newspaper  may be the winning ticket.

Synonym

You could try reversing the car up the slope. The incline isn’t all that steep.

Superordinate

Pneumonia has arrived with the cold and wet conditions. Then illness is striking everyone from infants to the elderly.

General word

A: Did you try the steamed buns?

B: Yes, I didn’t like the things much.

                                                    

Collocation

Collocation can cause major problem for discourse analysis because it includes all those items in a text that are semantically related. Martin (1981b: 1) points out, while there are problems in defining collocation, ‘its contribution to coherence in text is so significant that it cannot be ignored’. The problems arise because collocation is expressed through open rather than closed class items. ‘’Closed’’ lexical items include all grammatical words – such as pronouns, conjunctions and preposition – membership of which is finite. In contrast, there is no limit to the items that can be used to express collocation. This means that it is difficult to establish set of regularly co- occurring word and phrases.

 We can see the underlined words in the example below. We can say that those are examples of lexical collocation, because they all belong to the scientific field of biology:

Plants characteristically synthesise complex organic substances from simple from inorganic raw materials. In green plants, the energy of this process is sunlight. The plants can use this energy because they posses the green pigment chlorophyll. Photosynthesis or ‘ light synthesis is a self feeding ‘ or aoutotrophic process.

Animals on the other hand, must obtain complex organic substances by eating plants and other animals. The reason for this is that they lack chlorophyll. Among these “other feeder” or phagotrophs,  are “liquid feeder” or osmotrophic ones absorb or suck up liquid food. This is usually from dead or rotting organisms.

An additional problem is the fact that many lexical relationship are text – as well as context bound. This means that words and phrases that are related in one text may not be related in another. For example, the word neighbour  and scoundrel are not related at all. However, in the following text they are synonyms.

My neighbour has just let one of his trees fall into my garden.  And the scoundrel refuses to pay for the damage he has caused.

One problem that arise in analyzing these relation in text has to do with how many ‘step’ away an item can be in a word class and still contribute to cohesion. For example, rose and flower seem more closely than rose and plant.

Hoey (1991) argues that lexical cohesion is the single most important form of cohesion, accounting for something like forty per cent of cohesive ties in text. His work is too complex to deal with any detail here. However, it is worth looking briefly at his central idea.

            Hoey argues that various lexical relationship between the different sentence making up text provide a measure of the cohesiveness of the text. The centrality and importance to text fo any particular sentence  within the text will be determined by the number of lexical connections that sentence has to other sentences in the text. He illustrates his point with an analysis of the following text.

DRUG CRAZED GRIZZLIES

A drug know to produce violent reaction in humans has been used for sedating grizzly bears Ursus arctos in Montana,USA, according to a report in The New York Times. After one bear, know to be a peaceable animal, killed and ate a camper in an unprovoked attack, scientist discovered it have been tranquilized 11 times with phencyclidine or ‘angel dust’ , which cause hallucinations and sometimes gives the user an irrational feeling of destructive power. Many wild bears have become ‘garbage junkies’, feeding from dumps around human developments. To avoid potentially dangerous clashes between them and humans, scientist are trying to rehabilitate the animals by drugging them releasing them in uninhabited areas. Although some biologist deny that the mind – altering drug was responsible for uncharacteristic behaviour of this particular bear, no research has been done into the effects of giving grizzly bears or other mammals repeated doses of phencyclidine.(BBC Wildlife,1984,2,3:160)

Hoey’s analysis consist, first , of counting the number of repetition links between the different sentences in the text. Sentence 1 has four links with the sentences 2,3,4 and 5. These are listed below:

1.    produce       humans        used     sedating grizzly bears

2.    bear      tranquilized       user

3.    bears       human

4.    them      humans     animals       drugging

5.    drug      responsible for       grizzly bears 

(Note that while known to appears in both sentences 1 and 2, they are not treated as repetition as they refer to different events.)