SEMINAR 3.

COHESION

8. Determine the type of cohesion:

1. May I give you a slice?’ she said, taking up the knife and fork, and looking
from one Queen to the other. ‘Certainly not,’ the Red Queen said, very
decidedly: ‘it isn’t etiquette to cut anyone you’ve been introduced to.’
Clausal substitution
2. ‘And how many hours a day did you do lessons?’ said Alice, in a hurry to
change the subject. ‘Ten hours the first day,’ said the Mock Turtle, ‘nine
the next, and so on.’
Nominal ellipsis
3. ‘Give your evidence,’ said the King; ‘and don’t be nervous, or I’ll have you
executed on the spot.’ This did not seem to encourage the witness at all.
Nominal demonstratives
4. ‘Tickets, please!’ said the Guard, putting his head in at the window. In a
moment everybody was holding out a ticket.
Temporal conjunction
5. I haven’t finished it yet. – I hope you’re going to have by tomorrow.
Lexical ellipsis
6. Cherry ripe, cherry ripe, ripe I cry.
Full and fair ones – come and buy.
Nominal substitution
7. Apparently Brown resigned, when his proposal was rejected. – I wish he
could have acted less precipitately.
Adversative conjunction
8. ‘Of course you agree to have a battle?’ Tweedledoom said in a calmer tone.
‘I suppose so,’ the other sulkily replied, as he crawled out of the umbrella.
Reported clausal substitution
9. John’s house is beautiful. He had it built last year.
Personal reference (personal pronoun)
10.I like strong tea. I suppose weak is better for you.
Nominal ellipsis
11.But they have their tails in their mouths; and the reason is … that they
would go with the lobsters to the dance. So they got thrown out to sea. So
they had to fall a long way.
 Personal reference (personal pronoun)
12.Does Granny look after you every day? – She can’t do at weekends, because
she has to go to her own house.
Verbal substitution
13.Just ask Janet how to polish the brassware. Hers sparkles.
Personal reference (possessive pronoun)
14.‘I said you liked like an egg, sir,’ Alice gently explained. ‘And some eggs
are very pretty, you know,’ she added.
Non-specific diectics
15.Accordingly, I took leave and turned to the ascent of the peak. The climb is
perfectly easy.
Clausal conjunction

(Brookner 1992: 119)

10.Find examples of lexical cohesion in the following texts:

At 8 p.m. on Wednesday on the following week, Ruth Rawlinson took little notice
when she heard the click and the creak of the north door opening. People often came
in to look around, to admire the font, to light a candle, to pray even; and she silently
wiped her wet cloth over the wooden floor of the pew behind one of the pillars in the
south aisle. The stranger, whoever he might be, was now standing still, for the echo of
his footsteps had died away in the empty, darkening church.
Collocation: church-font-candle-pray-pillars-aisle
Ruth Rawlinson- identical lexical cohesion
The stranger- unrelated lexical cohesion
(Dexter 1979:60)

That was Sunday and now it was Monday; Monday evening, thirty-six hours of
blurred misery. He heaved himself off the bed and to the bathroom, and splashed his
face under the cold tap. His reflection in the mirror was unrecognizable, his face
swollen and bloated like that of a drowned body that had floated to the surface. Two
days growth of beard showed blue.
Repetitions: Monday-2 times, face-2 times, his- 3 times
Synonyms: swollen and bloated
 (Sutherland 1994: 80)

Persse did not immediately approach the noticeboard with his petition, since a young
woman was standing before it in the act of pinning one of her own to the green baize.
Even with her back to him she presented an incongruous figure in this setting: jet-
black hair elaborately curled and coiffed, a short white imitation-fur jacket, the
tightest of tight red needlecord trousers, and high-heeled gold sandals. Having fixed
her prayer to the noticeboard, she stood immobile before it for a moment, then took
from her handbag a silk scarf decorated with dice and roulette wheels, which she
threw over her head.
Collocations:
Hair-curled-coiffed
White-red-gold
Scarf-jacket-trousers-sandals-handbag
(Lodge 1993: 354)