1、,COHERENCE & COHESIONYang Xueqian,Introduction:,Cohesion and coherence are terms used in discourse analysis and text linguistics to describe the properties of written texts. Advertising language tends not to use clear markers of cohesion, but is interpreted as being coherent. How about “语音室使用有关规定”？,
2、Definitions:, Coherence: The ways a text makes sense to readers & writer through the relevance and accessibility of its configuration of concepts, ideas and theories. Cohesion:The grammatical and lexical relationship between different elements of a text which hold it together.,Coherence vs. Cohesion
3、,Coherence: very general principle of interpretation of language in context fewer formal linguistic features e.g vocabulary choice relationships deal with text as a whole based on primarily semantic relationships,Cohesion: formal linguistic featurese.g repetition,reference semantic relationships bet
4、ween sentences and within sentences determined by lexically and grammatically overt intersentential relationships,Is it coherent or not?,The ancient Egyptians were masters of preserving dead peoples bodies by making mummies of them. Mummies several thousand years old have been discovered nearly inta
5、ct. The skin, hair, teeth, fingernails and toenails, and facial features of the mummies were evident. It is possible to diagnose the disease they suffered in life, such as smallpox, arthritis, and nutritional deficiencies. The process was remarkably effective. Sometimes apparent were the fatal affli
6、ctions of the dead people: a middle-aged king died from a blow on the head, and polio killed a child king. Mummification consisted of removing the internal organs, applying natural preservatives inside and out, and then wrapping the body in layers of bandages.,Below is the same paragraph revised for
7、 coherence. Italics indicates pronouns and repeated key words, bold indicates transitional tag-words, and underlining indicates parallel structures.,The ancient Egyptians were masters of preserving dead peoples bodies by making mummies of them. In short, mummification consisted of removing the inter
8、nal organs, applying natural preservatives inside and out, and then wrapping the body in layers of bandages. And the process was remarkably effective. Indeed, mummies several thousand years old have been discovered nearly intact. Their skin, hair, teeth, fingernails and toenails, and facial features
9、 are still evident. Their diseases in life, such as smallpox, arthritis, and nutritional deficiencies, are still diagnosable. Even their fatal afflictions are still apparent: a middle-aged king died from a blow on the head; a child king died from polio.,Cohesive tie,A text is a semantic unit whose p
10、arts are linked together by explicit cohesive ties. Cohesive tie: a semantic and/or lexico-grammatic relation between an element in text and some other element that is crucial to interpretetion of it.Cohesive ties across sentence boundariesare those which allow sequences of sentences to be understoo
11、d as text.Cohesion therefore defines a text as text.,Reference Substitution Ellipsis Conjunction Lexical Cohesion,cohesive devices that signal coherence in texts:,Grammatical Cohesion,Reference,Reference :Replacement of words and expressions with pro-forms.e.g pronouns,pro-modifiers.Three types of r
12、eference: Personal Demonstrative Comparative,Personal (communication goal of referent)Demonstrative (proximity of referent)Comparative ( similarity to preceding referent),REFERENCE,Reference,Types of reference: Personal Reference,a reference by means of person, includes; Personal pronouns (e.g., I,
13、he, she) Possesive pronouns (e.g., mine, hers, his) Possesive determiners (e.g., my, your, her) e.g. English is considered an international language. It is a spoken by more than 260 million people all over the world. They told me you had gone by her car,Demonstrative Reference,essentially a form of
14、verbal pointingthe speaker identifies the referent by locating it on a scale of proximity.In general, this, these and here imply proximity to the speaker; that, those and there imply distance from the speaker.,Demonstrative Reference,Like personals, the demonstratives regularly refer exophorically t
15、o something within the context of situaiton.e.g. How do you like a cruise in that yacht?Pick these up!,Comparative Reference,contributes to textual cohesion by setting up a relation of contrast expressed by such adjactives as same, identical, equal, adjectives in a comparative degree such as bigger,
16、faster and adverbs such as identically, likewise, so, such etc. e.g. She has a similarly furnished room to mine.The little dog barked as noisily as the big one.They asked me three equally difficult questions.,Halliday and Hasan call within text cohesive ties endophoric, and references, items outside
17、 the text exophoric :,OUT(SIDE),IN(SIDE),Halliday and Hasan call within text cohesive ties endophoric,e.g. Wash six apples. Put them into a dish. an example of an endophoric reference when them referred back to apples. Reference signals to the reader what kind of information is to be retrieved. Them
18、, therefore, signals to the reader that he or she needs to look back in the text to find its meaning.,Endophora,e.g. We went to Devon for a holiday. The people we stayed with had four children.The eldest girl was about nine. The first the is cataphoric since there is no lexical relation between peop
19、le and anything in the preceding sentence.The second the is both cataphoric and anaphoricCataphoric: eldest defines girl,Anaphoric: girl is related to children,Anaphora (to preceding text)Cataphora (to following text),Halliday and Hasan call references, items outside the text exophoric :,e.g. For he
20、s a jolly good fellow And so say all of us. As readers outside of this environment, we are unfamiliar with who the he is that is being referred to, But, most likely, the people involved are aware of the he. When the meaning is not explicit from the text itself, but is obvious to those in a particula
21、r situation. This is called exophoric reference.,Substitution,Substitution :Replacement of one item by another.A relation in the wording rather than in the meaning. somewhat different from reference in that another word takes the place of the thing that is being discussed. Types of Substitution:Nomi
22、nalVerbalClausal,Types of Substitution Nominal Substitution:,Nominal substitutes ; for noun head : one/ onesfor nominal complement : the samefor attribute : soe.g. John seems to be intelligent.Is he really so?, Nominal Substitution:,The pronoun one is often used in nominal references.e.g. Lets go an
23、d see the bears. The polar ones are over on that rock. In this sentence, ones is taking the place of bears in the previous sentence. e.g. Winter is often so damp. The same is true for the summer.,The verbal substitute in English is do. Verbal substitutes ; for verb : do, be , have for process : do t
24、he same /likewise for proposition : do so, be soe.g. The words did not come to the same as they used to do.e.g. I finally called on him. I have wanted to do (so) for a long time., Verbal Substitution:, Clausal Substitution:,The clausal substitutes ; for positive : so for negative : notIn clausal sub
25、stitution the entire clause is presupposed, and the contrasting element is outside the clause., Clausal Substitution:,e.g. Is there going to be an earthquake?It says so.so presupposes the whole of the clause theres going to be an earthquake and contrastive environment is provided by the says which i
26、s outside it. e.g. Has everyone gone home?I hope not.,Ellipsis,Ellipsis : Deletion of words, expressions or phrases,Simply substitution by zero. Types of Ellipsis:NominalVerbalClausal,Types of Ellipsis Nominal Ellipsis :,ellipsis within the nominal group. e.g. Here are thirteen cards.Take any (-).No
27、w give me any three (-). e.g. Some say one thing, others say another (-). e.g. Which hat will you wear ?This is the best (-). e.g. Have another chocolate.No thanks; that was my third (-). e.g. Smith was the first person to leave. I was the second (-).,Verbal Ellipsis :,ellipsis within the verbal gro
28、up.e.g. Have you been swimming? Yes, I have. e.g. What have you been doing? Swimming. e.g. Is he complaining? He may be; I dont care. e.g. I havent finished it yet. I hope youre going to have by tomorrow. e.g. Some were laughing and others cyring. e.g. Were you laughing? No I wasnt. e.g. John came,
29、did not he? NO, but he will.,Clausal Ellipsis :,ellipsis in which an entire clause is elided from a sentence.e.g. Smith was going to take part but somebody telephoned and asked to see him urgently so he had to withdraw.- Who ? e.g. I kept quiet because Mary gets embarrassed if anyone mentions about
30、Johns name. I dont know why. e.g. Who could have broken those tiles?- I cant think who.,Conjuctions,Conjunctions :a word or group of words used to connect words, phrases, or clauses. mark certain relationsips between clauses and sentencesFour categories: Additive AdversativeCausalTemporal,Categories
31、 of Conjunction Examples :,For the whole day he climbed up the steep mountainnside, almost without stopping. And in all this time he met no one. Additive Yet he was hardly aware of being tired. Adversative So by the night time the valley was far below him. Causal Then, as dusk fell, he sat down to r
32、est. Temporal,Types of Conjunction Additive type,The additive is a kind of conjunctive relation which is closer to coordination. Additive words are such as and, also, nor, or else, moreover, in addition, besides, by the way, that is, likewise, similarly, conversely, thus, for instance. e.g. My clien
33、t says he does not know his witness. Further, he denies ever having seen her. e.g. Perhaps she missed her train. Or else shes changed her mind and isnt coming.,Types of Conjunction Adversative type,The basic meaning of the adversative relation is contrary to expectation.Adversative words are such as
34、 yet, but, however, despite this, on the other hand, in fact, instead, either way, anyhow, nevertheless, rather etc. e.g. All the figures were correct; theyd been checked. Yet the total came out wrong. e.g. We maybe back tonight; Im not sure. Either way, just make yourself at home.,Types of Conjunct
35、ion Causal type,Causal relation involves primarily reason, result and purpose relations between the sentences. Causal words are such as so, thus, hence, therefore, arising out of this, in that case, otherwise, because, as a result (of this), on this basis, accordingly. e.g. You are not leaving, are
36、you? Because Ive got something to say to you. e.g. I was not informed. Otherwise I should have taken some action.,Types of Conjunction Temporal type,The relation between two successive sentences.Conjunctions of this type are such as then, next, afterward, previously, finally, at last, meanwhile, nex
37、t day, first, from now on, to sum up, in short, henceforward, hitherto, up to now, this time etc. e.g. The weather cleared just as the party approached the summit. Until then they had been nothing of the panaroma around them. e.g. At last, he finished the rehersal for his role.,CONJUNCTIONS,Coordina
38、ting conjunctions connect words, phrases, or clauses of equal grammatical rank. For, and, nor, but, or, yet, so e.g. I used phonics in learning to read, and so did you. e.g. Though he seemed to be tired, he did not refused to go out.,Subordinating conjunctions connect clauses that are of subordinate
39、 importance to the independent clause or to some element in the main clause. although, except, though, while, if, whether as, as if, where, wherever, in order that, so that, after, as long as, as soon as, before, since, when etc.,Coordination Subordination,Lexical Cohesion,Lexical Cohesion :achieved
40、 by the selection of vocabulary. Types of Lexical Cohesion :ReiterationCollocation,Types of Lexical Cohesion Reiteration :,a form of lexical cohesion which involves repetition, synonym or near synonym,superordinate and a general noun. e.g. Pollution of our environment has occurred for centuries, but
41、 it has become a significant health problem only within the last century. Atmospheric pollution contributes to respiratory disease, and to lung cancer in particular. Other health problems directly related to air pollutants include heart disease, eye irritation and so on. Repetition, Reiteration :,e.
42、g. Henrys has bought a new Jaguar. He practically lives in the car. Superordinate e.g. I turned to the ascent of the peak.The climb is perfectly is easy. Synonym e.g. I turned to the ascent of the peak. The thing is perfectly is easy. General noun e.g. There is a boy climbing that tree. The lad is g
43、oing to fall if he doesnt take care. Near -Synonym, Collocation :,Cohesion that is achieved through the association of lexical items that regularly co-occur.These lexical items or words tend to occur in similar environments. For instance; hair/comb, reader/writer, door/window, chair/table, north/sou
44、th, peace/war, bee/honey etc.e.g. Why does this little boy wriggle all the time? Girl dont wriggle.,Analysis of Coherence,“Hello, James Gleick,“ said A the other day (click here if youre someone else). “Take a peek at your brand new music recommendations.“I peeked. Amazons computers predicted that I
45、 would like the Beastie Boys, Adiemus, Frank Sinatra, Harvey Danger, and the Dave Matthews Band. What an impressive list! All right, I dont actually care for any of these, but still. It was quite a shot in the dark, considering Id never been to Amazons music department before. This is the way its go
46、ing on the Internet: if marketers want your money and your time and your “eyeballs,“ they feel they should figure out who you are and what you like.,Analysis of Coherence:,Repetition of : Repetition of pronoun: Pronoun reference: Transitional tag: Pronoun reference: Repetition and parallel form : Pr
47、onoun reference : Parallel form:,Analysis of Coherence:,Repetition of : peek Repetition of pronoun: IPronoun reference: theseTransitional tag: but stillPronoun reference: it , thisRepetition and parallel form : your money and your time and your eyeballsPronoun reference : they and youParallel form: who you are and what you like,References:,Halliday & Hasan (1976). Cohesion in English. Longman. London & Newyork. Hyland, K. (2006). English for Academic Purposes. Routledge, Great Britain. Reid, J.M. The Process of Composition. Second Edition. Prentice Hall Regents.,
