Cohesion & coherence

grammatical cohesion

- reference devices, especially pronouns (it) and some determiners (this, that) - substitution of previously mentioned clause elements, with 'do'/'does', or 'so'/'not' - ellipsis of clause elements - linkers such as 'therefore', 'what's more', 'then' - parallelism (sentences that echo the structure of previous sentences)

cohesion

The rules that give both structure and meaning to units of discourse beyond the sentence level; it gives "textuality" to a text - the feeling that something is a text, and not just a random collection of sentences. The elements of a text (spoken or written) are connected by grammatical and lexical means. Cohesion is a stable property of texts. The main types of cohesion are: - *lexical cohesion* (repetition of words, chains of words of the same lexical set) - *grammatical cohesion* (tense agreement, pronoun reference, article reference, substitution, ellipsis, linkers)

deixis

This refers to the context, rather than the co-text (as with referents above). It points outside the text to refer to the "here and now". There are 3 types: - personal, e.g. using pronouns such as 'I', 'you' - spatial, e.g. 'here/there', 'this/that', as well as verbs like 'come' and 'go', 'bring' and 'take' - temporal, e.g. 'today', 'yesterday', 'now', 'then'

lexical cohesion

- repetition of words (by hyponymy, synonymy or antonymy, ie. the words that are "in play") - words from the same word family (coherent, cohesive, cohesion) - use of synonyms - use of general words (the place, the girl, the facility) to refer to something more specific that is mentioned elsewhere - use of words from the same thematic field (texts, readers, written) - substitution of previously mentioned words with 'one'/'ones' - ellipsis of previously mentioned words (leaving a word out because it can be recovered from the previous text) - nominalization: use of particular nouns to signal overall patterns in the text or to nominalize certain actions and events

theme and rheme

What we decide to bring to the front of the clause is a signal of what is to be understood as the framework within which what we want to say is to be understood. The 'theme' is given front-place; the rest of the clause is the 'rheme'. I (theme) 'm sitting here (rheme) Outside my window (theme) is a big lawn (rheme)

conjunction

Conjunctions presuppose a textual sequence, and signals a relationship between segments of the discourse. They can be categorised as: - additive (and, in addition) - adversative (but, however) - causal (because, consequently) - temporal (then, subsequently) Of course some (and, but, so, then) are overwhelmingly frequent.

ellipsis & subsitution

Ellipsis 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; in other words, structures are only fully realized when they need to be. There are 3 types: - nominal (often involves omission of a noun headword), e.g. 'Nelly liked the green tiles, whereas I preferred the blue' - verbal (either echoing or contrasting), e.g. 'Will anyone be waiting? - Jim will, I think', and 'Has she remarried? -No, but she will one day, I'm sure' (where the auxiliary is changed) - clausal (individual clause elements are omitted), e.g. 'He said he would take early retirement as soon as he could and he has' Substitution also operates at the same 3 levels, and usually uses 'one(s)', 'do', 'so/not', 'same'.

coherence

If a text is coherent, it makes sense. Coherence is achieved when: - the text follows certain textual conventions - when it is relevant to its context - when it is relevant to other texts (intertextuality) - when its sentences have a logical relation - when there is a consistent topic Coherence is less a formal property of texts (like cohesion), but more a relation between the text and its context, and between the reader and writer (or speaker and listener).

tense and aspect

- Conveying news, expressing experiences, relating to present effects of changes and accomplishments: present perfect is either dominant or in regular contrast with the past simple. e.g. 'The government has announced a multi-million pound scheme to retrain the unemployed, but union chiefs have pledged all-out opposition to it. - Specialist and academic texts, scientific articles: regular use of passives to emphasis the process and not the subject. e.g. 'Johnson has suggested that...' - Stories, jokes, anecdotes: the "historic" present (using present tense to describe actions and events in the past); anecdotes: orientation (establishing time, place, characters), complicating actions (the main events), resolution (how the story reaches its end), evaluation (comments on the events).

common text types

-> how is it laid out? (paragraphs, numbered paragraphs, bullet points? photos, larger font headlines, bold or italic print?) -> what language is used? (see below) - news article (to inform): information ordered chronologically; the second sentence anticipates the reader's (mental) question; causal linkers are avoided in order not to be seen to prejudge the case; past simple and past perfect. - error message (to explain): the cause comes first, then the effect. This answers the predicted order of the computer user's questions, 'What's wrong?', 'So what?' - biography (to inform): the information is presented in chronological order; involves narrative, so past simple and past perfect - advertisements, websites, websites involving membership (to persuade): the reader is expected to identify with a problem (which is made to sound very serious), so that he/she is disposed to consider the solution offered; promotional purpose, so will personalize with pronouns. - dosage directions (to explain): the order follows the sequence of activities and goes from the general to the specific; often lacks articles for brevity, but also because the medicine is known; lots of imperatives. - shopping lists: a sequence of noun phrases. - recipes: lots of imperative verbs. - poems: devices such as rhyme, assonance, alliteration. - novels/narratives: past simple and past perfect. - science/academic articles: lots of use of passives to emphasise the process (rather than the agent). - report: present tenses and connecting words. - discursive essay: facts first, opinion at end; lots of connecting words, clear organisation. - short story: direct speech, past-tense verbs, lots of adjectives, varied vocabulary and idioms. - cover letter: formal, no contractions, formulaic language, present simple, past simple, present perfect. In terms of cohesion, also look for the "general pattern" of a text: - problem -> solution - claim -> counterclaim - question -> answer - general -> specific

reference

Referents in English include pronouns (he, she, it, him, they), demonstratives (this, that, these, those), the article 'the', and items like 'such as'. They are: - anaphoric reference (looking back in the text) - cataphoric reference (looking forward in the text) - exophoric reference (looking outside the text, typically to shared knowledge with the reader)