DISCOURSE ANALYSIS Chapter II.

Linguistic Elements (Các đơn vị ngôn ngữ) in

Discourse (part 1)
I.Cohesion (Liên kết hình thức, liên kết bề nổi) Activity 6.a. (p.23) Do texts have a
“grammar’? Are there rules that determine their structure? Try putting the jumbled text in the
correct order. What clues help you unjumble the sentences? a-Inside its round fruits, called
bolls, are masses of white fibres. b-But, in the cotton fields, the bolls are picked before this
can happen. c-Pure copper is very soft. d-Cotton grows best in warm, wet lands, including
Asia, the southern United States, India, China, Egypt and Brazil. e-Cotton is a very useful
plant. f-When the fruits ripen, they split and the fibres are blown away. (Thorney, 1997) The
correct order is: e, a, f b, d; c does not belong in the text because it is not about the topic
cotton It is about pure copper. The text is as follows: Cotton is a very useful plant. Inside its
round fruits, called bolls, are masses of white fibres. When the fruits ripen, they split and
fibres are blown away. But in the cotton fields, the bolls are picked before this can happen.
Cotton grows best in warm, wet lands, including Asia, the southern United States, India,
China, Egypt and Brazil. The clues which help us unjumble the sentences are the following: a-
Lexical field: the sentence about copper does not fit into the topic that is suggested by words
like cotton, plant, fruit, fibres, fields, etc. b-Repetition: e.g . Inside its round fruits…… when
the fruits ripen…. c-Use of referring devices: -Pronouns: Cotton is a very useful plant. Inside
its round fruits….. -Articles + repeated noun:….masses of white fibres….. The fibres are
blown away. d-Use of linkers: But in the cotton fields… Activity 6.b: Read the following and
rearranged the sentences in correct order. Point out what linguistic devices help you rearrange
the sentences: 1- In England, however, the tungsten-tipped spikes would tear the thin tarmac
surfaces of our roads to pieces as soon as the protective layer of snow or ice melted. 2- Road
maintenance crews try to reduce the danger of skidding by scattering sand upon the road
surface. 3- We therefore have to settle for the method described above as the lesser of two
evils. 4- Their spikes grip the icy surfaces and enable the motorist to corner safely where non-
spiked tyres would be disastrous. 5- Its main drawback is that if there are fresh snowfalls
continue, it becomes increasingly ineffective in providing some kind of grip for tyres. 6-
These tyres prevent most skidding and are effective in the extreme weather conditions as long
as the roads are regularly cleared of loose snow. 7- Such a measure is generally adequate for
our very brief snowfalls. 8- Whenever there is snow in England, some of the country roads
may have black ice.
9- In Norway, where there may be snow and ice for nearly seven months of the year, the law
requires that all cars be fitted with special spiked tyres. 10-Motorists coming suddenly upon
stretches of black ice may find themselves skidding off the road. The order is: 8-10-2-7-5-9-6-
4-1-3 8-Whenever there is snow in England, some of the country roads may have black ice.
10-Motorists coming suddenly upon stretches of black ice may find themselves skidding off
the road. 2-Road maintenance crews try to reduce the danger of skidding by scattering sand
upon the road surface. 7-Such a measure is generally adequate for our very brief snowfalls.5-
Its main drawback is that if there are fresh snowfalls continue, it becomes increasingly
ineffective in providing some kind of grip for tyres.9- In Norway, where there may be snow
and ice for nearly seven months of the year, the law requires that all cars be fitted with special
spiked tyres.6- These tyres prevent most skidding and are effective in the extreme weather
conditions as long as the roads are regularly cleared of loose snow.4- Their spikes grip the icy
surfaces and enable the motorist to corner safely where non-spiked tyres would be
disastrous.1- In England, however, the tungsten-tipped spikes would tear the thin tarmac
surfaces of our roads to pieces as soon as the protective layer of snow or ice melted.3- We
therefore have to settle for the method described above as the lesser of two evils. The
linguistic devices which help us to rearrange the sentences are the text-forming devices (các
phương tiện tạo lập văn bản) (cohesive devices: phương tiện liên kết). They are formal
linguistic devices (phương tiện ngôn ngữ hình thức) for making multiple references (liên kết,
quy chiếu) to entities (các thực thể), events and states of affairs. Some of the linking devices
are: 1-S 8: black ice 2-S 10: black ice skidding 3-S 2 :skidding scattering sand... 4-S7: such a
measure 5-S5: Its 6-S9: tyres 7-S6: these tyres 8-S4: Their spikes 9-S1: spikes 10- S 10:
method described above These linguistic devices create ties (các liên kết) which link different
parts of a text together. They create texture (kết cấu) of the text / discourse. They brings
cohesion (liên kết hình thức) to the text. They are cohesive means (phương tiện liên kết).
“Cohesion (Liên kết hình thức) is the formal links (các liên kết hình thức) that mark various
types of inter-clause and inter-sentence relationships within discourse” (Nunan, 1993).
Cohesion is defined as “the grammatical and / or lexical relationships between the different
elements of a text.”(Richards, Platt &Webber, 1985, p.45). The concept of cohesion is
semantic; it refers to relations of meanings that exist within the text, and thus define it as a
text (Halliday and Hasan (1991). II.Cohesive Devices (Các phương tiện liên kết):
As defined above, “Cohesion (Liên kết hình thức) is the formal links (các liên kết hình thức)
that mark various types of inter-clause and inter-sentence relationships within discourse”
(Nunan, 1993). It includes “the grammatical and / or lexical relationships between the
different elements of a text.”(Richards, Platt &Webber, 1985, p. 45). Cohesion occurs where
the interpretation of some element in the discourse is dependent on that of another, in the
sense that it cannot be effectively decoded except by recourse to it. When this happens, a
relation of cohesion is set up, and the two elements, the presupposing (thành tố tiền giả định)
and the presupposed (thành tố được tiền giả định), are, thereby, at least potentially integrated
into a text. Between the parts of a text / discourse, there are ties (các liên kết): the linguistic
means which link the parts together. Take, for example: Wash and core six cooking apples.
Put them into a fireproof dish. The word them in the second sentence refers (quy chiếu / hàm
chỉ) back to the six cooking apples in the first sentences. The tie (relation) between them and
six cooking apples gives cohesion to the two sentences, so that we interpret them as a whole.
The two sentences together form part of the same text. Ties / links of these types brings
cohesion to a text / discourse. They link parts of a text together and they create the texture (kết
cấu) of a text. The concept of texture is used to express the property of being a text. A text has
texture (kết cấu), and this is what distinguishes it from something that is not a text. It derives
this texture from the fact that it functions as a unity with respect to its environment. The
resources that English has for creating texture are the ties between sentences. They are called
cohesive devices (các phương tiện liên kết). The texture is provided by cohesive relations.
These cohesive relations create ties (các liên kết). The ties are examples of cohesion. The
concept of tie makes it possible to analyse a text / a discourse in terms of its cohesive
properties, and give it a systematic account of its patterns of structures. The cohesive devices
in a text make up the cohesion of the text. The concept of cohesion is set up to account for
relations in discourse. Cohesion refers to the range of possibilities that exist for linking
something with what has gone before. Since this linking is achieved through relations in
meaning, what is in question is a set of meaning relations which function in this way: the
semantic resources which are drawn on for the purposes of creating texts. We can interpret
cohesion as the set of semantic resources (phương tiện ngữ nghĩa) for linking a sentence with
what has gone before or after.
Cohesion is part of the system of a language. The potential for cohesion lies in the systematic
resources of cohesive devices. Cohesion is expressed partly through the grammar and partly
through the vocabulary. We can, therefore, refer to grammatical cohesion and lexical
cohesion. There are 5 types of cohesion: a-reference (liên kết bằng phép quy chiếu), b-
substitution (liên kết bằng phép thế), c-ellipsis (liên kết bằng phép lược), d-conjunction (liên
kết bằn liên từ) and e-lexical cohesion (liên kết bằn từ vựng) (Halliday and Hasan (1976). In
Halliday (1985a) five types have been reduced to four: a-Reference, b-Substitution, c-
Conjunction and d-Lexical cohesion. These are five main types of cohesive devices / cohesive
types. 1. Reference Reference refers to the cohesive devices in a text that can only be
interpreted with reference either to some other part of the text or to the world experienced by
the sender and receiver of the text. Reference is a semantic relation, in which a meaning is
specified through the identification of a referent. It is defined by Halliday and Hasan (1976)
as “a semantic relation that ensures the continuity of meaning in a text.” In English, reference
as a cohesive device includes: personals (đại / tính từ nhân xưng, demonstratives (đại /tính từ
chỉ định) and comparatives (các từ so sánh). Look at the following examples: E.g.1. Three
blind mice, three blind mice See how they run! See how they run! E.g.2. Doctor Foster went
to Gloucester in a shower of rain. He stepped in a puddle right up to his middle and never
went there again. In e.g.1, they refers to three blind mice, in e.g.2, He refers to doctor Foster
and there refers to Gloucester. Those items (they, He and there) are directives indicating that
information is to be retrieved from elsewhere. They are cohesive devices which bring
cohesion to text. The cohesion lies in the continuity of reference, whereby the same thing
enters into the discourse a second time. Reference, in general, may be of two kinds: exophoric
and endophoric reference (quy chiếu ngoài ngôn ngữ và quy chiếu trong ngôn ngữ): a-
Exophoric reference (or situation reference) (Liên kết ngoài văn bản): reference outside the
text to the situation. E.g. It needs a coat of paint. (Ità the house, the door..) Look at that (That
àthe sun, the moon…) It and that in the above examples are used to refer to the things outside
language in the situations. b-Endophoric reference (or text reference) (Liên kết trong văn
bản): reference to items within the text. There are two types of endophoric refence: cataphoric
and anaphoric. +Cataphoric reference: forward pointing reference (liên kết quy chiếu xuôi)
E.g. I simply won’t put up with this. All this fighting and bickering. In the example, the word
this is used to refer forward and link to the phrase fighting and bickering. It means fighting
and bickering.
Demonstrative reference is reference by means of location, on a scale of proximity (near or
far distance). E.g. You entered into a tiny little hallway and the kitchen was off that. This,
that, these, those, the, here, there, now and then are the forms of verbal pointing and indicate
proximity in text to the sentence in which they occur. In the case of the demonstratives, there
is a tendency to use this to refer to something the speaker has said and that to what the other
person has said. This and that may also be used like it to refer to extended text. E.g. They
broke a Chinese vase. a-That was valuable. b-That was careless. In (a), that refers to Chinese
vase (the thing). In (b), that refers to the fact that They broke a Chinese vase, an extended
text. In their cohesive (text reference / endophoric reference) function they can be used with
nouns, as in examples (a-b), or without nouns, as in examples (c-d) (from Salkie, 1995)
(pp.27-28): a. During the First World War, he told me, after he had returned to South Africa,
he set up a corrugated tin roof in an alley off Smith Street. He ordered a small quantity of
drugs from England and then sold them to the local retail chemists…His orders got bigger and
bigger and eventually he ordered a large shipment of supplies from England. When this
shipment was underway, the Second World War broke out and the drug companies could not
send further supplies to South Africa. b. Basically I play what we call tuned percussion, which
really entails xylophone, marimba - which is like a xylophone except lower in pitch -
vibraphone, glockenspiel, tubular bells, and then you've got the timpani or kettle drums and a
vast amount of other drums - and so basically the job of a percussionist is to try and attempt
all those instruments. In (a-b), this and those are used with nouns. c. Employees at the
Guardian are hoping a meeting next Wednesday between management and national officers of
the National Union of Journalists, Sogat and the National Graphical Association will be
successful. If not, the dispute will go to conciliation. If that fails, the chapel will ballot on
industrial action, probably in early March. d. ln the final year, a number of special option
courses allow specialisation in areas of particular interest to the student. These normally
include Syntax, Semantics and Pragmatics; Second Language Acquisition; Experimental
Phonetics.... In (c-d) that and these are used without nouns: we have reference and ellipsis.
In (c) we have reference plus ellipsis: the text could have said these options. In (c), we can
understand that in two different ways: either as short for that conciliation, in which case we
have reference and ellipsis; or as 'the fact that the dispute will go to conciliation…’ In this
interpretation, that refers back to an extended section of preceding text, rather than one word.
In (d) these is also a reference and ellipsis. It means these courses. Table 3: Demostrative
Reference The is originally a reduced form of that, functioning only as a modifier, in the same
way that a is a reduced form of one likewise restricted to the modifier function. The definite
article has no content. It merely indicates that the item in question is specific and identifiable,
that somewhere the information necessary for identifying it is recoverable. The definite article
the has important similarities with a whole group of other items, so that we need not hesitate
to classify it with the determiners, and more particularly, with the specific determiners, the
class of which includes the demonstratives and the possessives. Hence, the in many ways
function as the demonstratives, from one form of which it is derived. It originally a reduced
form of that, functioning as a modifier. 1.3.Comparative reference: Comparative reference
may be either general, expressing identity, similarity or difference between things or
particular, expressing a qualitative or quantitative comparison. Diagram 2. Comparative
reference (Halliday and Hasan, 1976, 76): E.g.1. “I see nobody on the road,” said Alice. “I
only wish I had such eyes, “ the king remared…. E.g.2. A: Would you like these seats? B: No,
as a matter of fact, I’d like the other seats. We can distinguish two types of comparison. In
general comparison, two things are said to be the same or different. Examples (a-b, pp.28-29)
from Salkie (1995) illustrate sameness: same, such, and (c, p.29) illustrate the difference:
different (person). a.In our homes we associate the small screen with entertainment. We
expect to enjoy the experience of viewing. Learners bring the same expectations to the
experience of viewing video in the classroom .... b.House prices in the South are now 5 to 10
per cent below their peak of late last year, which reflects the fact that sellers are accepting
more realistic prices for their properties. Such realism will be necessary to stimulate house
sales over the next few months, Halifax comments.
c.After a pointless discussion, in which I continued to give the fullest details I could, but no
road name, since there isn't one, the woman hung up on me. I cannot believe that an employee
of a Rescue Service can treat its customers in this way. I telephoned again ten minutes later
and got a different person who was most helpful and arranged for someone to come out and
see to my car. In specific comparison, two things are compared with respect to a specific
property. One of the two things will be said to have more (a): more difficult or less (b): less,
not enough (p.29). In language teaching we are accustomed to using dialogues which present
very restricted examples of language. This is acceptable in the textbook, and can even be
made to work on audio, but it is more difficult when we can see real people in a real setting on
video. b.The making and breaking of chemical bonds is associated with an energy barrier. At
normal temperatures most molecules jostle with enough thermal energy to overcome this
barrier. Near absolute zero, however, molecules have much less thermal energy. Therefore,
even if two reactive fragments were side by side in a solid argon matrix, there would not
necessarily be enough thermal energy to overcome the barrier and reform the precursor. The
following table will sum up items of comparative reference Table 4. Comparative reference
Exercises 1 & 2 (pp.29-31). 1-Pick out all the instances of text reference (endophoric
reference) in these examples from Salkie (1995, pp. 69-70): a.At one point the Brundtland
report states that 'The loss of plant and animal species can greatly limit the options of future
generations; so sustainable development requires the conservation of plant and animal
species'. What, all of them? At what price?... At another point the Brundtland report says that
economic growth and development obviously involve changes in the physical ecosystem.
'Every ecosystem everywhere cannot be preserved intact.' Well, that's a relief. But how can it
be made consistent with the earlier objective? Does it mean that it is all right to deprive some
people in some parts of the world of a piece of their ecosystem but not others? What
justification is there for this discrimination? Answer The reference items are: them in all of
them; that in that ‘s a relief; it in can it be made; it in does it mean; their in their ecosystem;
this in this discrimination, others in not others.
b.We asked Ruby to describe for us what life was like in the African Rift Valley some 1500
generations ago. She replied that she had lived with a small group of about ten people: she
indicated the number by holding up both hands with the fingers spread. They wandered the
savanna during the day, looking for food, and sometimes met and socialised by the lake with
other groups of hominids. It was during one such encounter that she met her mate, Klono. He
wooed her by sharing with her a delicious baobab fruit. Answer: The reference items are: we,
us, she, the, they, other, her, he. c.On the 29th December Daniel Deronda knew that the
Grandcourts had arrived at the Abbey, but he had had no glimpse of them before he went to
dress for dinner .... 'I fancy there are some natures one could see growing or degenerating
every day, if one watched them,' was his thought. 'I suppose some of us go on faster than
others; I am sure Gwendolen is a creature who keeps strong traces of anything that has once
impressed her. That little affair of the necklace, and the idea that somebody thought her
gambling wrong, had evidently bitten into her. But such impressionability tells both ways: it
may drive one to desperation as soon as to anything better.' Answer: The reference items are:
the, he, them, I, his, us, others, her, it. d.The friction involved in rolling is less than the
friction involved in sliding. Hence it is much easier to roll a log along the ground than to drag
it. This explains why the wheel forms a useful part of practically all land vehicles. For the
same reason ball-bearings and roller-bearings serve to make movement easier and to reduce
wear in machinery. Answer: The reference items are: the, he, them, his, us, others, her, it,
same. 2-Explain how the demonstratives are used in the following examples from Salkie
(1995, pp. 70-71) a.Ayleen pushed the woman into the room, trying unsuccessfully to hide
behind her. There was a long silence. Finally, the child stuck her head round and said: 'This is
my mother.' Answer: This in this is my mother is a demonstrative pronoun. It is the elliptic
form of this woman. This is a demonstrative pronoun used as a reference item and an ellipsis
item. b.I found out about people like Marx and Lenin. Lenin was a great humanist, both a
thinker and an activist. I found his writing quite easy to understand. He explained society -
how the motivation in our society is profit and how this means most people will live in
poverty. He showed how to change this for the benefit of the majority. He explained that real
power is concentrated with those who control finance. It was fascinating. We didn't hear about
him at school.
Answer: This in how this means is a demonstrative pronoun. It stands for the thought that
motivation in our society is profit. It is a reference item. Those in those who control finance is
also a demonstrative pronoun. It stand for those people.This and those are reference items and
ellipsis items. c.'You see the man over there - the one with the wavy hair? Next to the woman
with the laptop computer. That's the professor of chemistry. Answer: That in That’s professor
of chemistry. It is a demonstrative pronoun used as a reference item and ellipsis item. That
means that man. d.Journalists on the Daily Telegraph received a 5 per cent rise, while those
on The Times and the Independent have been given 8 per cent and 10 per cent respectively.
Answer: Those in those on refers to those journalists on The times. It is a demonstrative
pronoun used as a substitution item and an ellipsis. e.Everyone always said I could have been
a famous painter, like Rembrandt - I think he's the one that painted all those dark pictures, and
they called those cigarettes after him because he was so famous. I liked painting flowers and
pretty things, but Daddy wouldn't let me study it. He couldn't stand bohemians and people like
that. I always felt I'd missed a big chance in life. Answer: Those in those dark pictures and
those cigarettes refers to the dark pictures painted by Rembrant and cigarettes called after
him. Those is a demonstrative adjective used as areference item. f.Although neglected in
England, Walras obtained influential followers in Europe, the most important being Pareto
and Wicksell. It was Pareto who removed the theory's dependence on utility, arguing that the
essence of the problem of economic equilibrium was 'the opposition between men's tastes and
the obstacles to satisfying them'. Answer: That is arguing that the essence is not a cohesive
device. 2.Substitution: a grammatical relation, where one linguistic item substitutes for a
longer one. The items commonly used for substitution in English are one(s), do, so / not,
same. Substitution is the replacement of one item by another. The distinction between
substitution and reference is that substitution is a relation in the wording rather than in the
meaning. Substitution is a relation between linguistic items, such as words or phrases;
whereas reference is a relation between meanings. In terms of linguistic system, reference is a
relation on the semantic level, whereas substitution is a relation on the lexicogrammatical
level: the level of grammar and vocabulary, or linguistic form. E.g.1. My axe is blunt. I must
get a sharper one. E.g.2. A:You think Joan already knows? B: I think everyone does. One and
does are both substitutes: one substitutes for axe, and does for knows.
It follows that, as a general rule, the substitute item has the same structural function as that for
which it substitutes. In e.g. 1 & 2 above, one and axe are both heads in the nominal group and
does and knows are both heads in the verbal groups Since substitution is a grammatical
relation, a relation in the wording rather than in the meaning, the different types of
substitution are defined grammatically rather than semantically. The criterion is the
grammatical function of the substitute item. In English, the substitute may function as a noun,
as a verb, or as a clause. The following is a list of the items that occur as substitutes
2.1.Nominal substitution: involves the substitution of a noun phrase by one / ones / the same.
2.1.1.The substitute items: one, ones always functions as head of a nominal group, and can
substitute only for an item which is itself Head of a nominal group. E.g.1. I’ve heard some
strange stories in my time. But this one was perhaps the strangest one of all. E.g.2- There are
some new tennis balls in the bag. These ones’ ve lost their bounce. E.g.3-I offered him a seat.
He said he didn’t want one. The substitute one / ones presupposes some noun that is to
function as Head in the nominal group. It is a substitution counter put in to fill the Head slot.
The meaning is “the noun to fill in this slot will be found in the preceding text”. 2.1.2.
Nominal substitute: the same: Same can be used as a nominal substitute, typically
accompanied by the. The same presupposes an entire nominal group including any modifying
element. E.g.1. A: I’ll have two poached eggs and toast, please. B: I’ll have the same. E.g. 2.
She chose the roast duck; I chose the same. Note that the same egg would be reference, not
substitution. Say the same: In the environment of a process in which a fact is involved, the
same can often substitute for the fact: E.g. A:John thought it was impossible. B: Yes, I
thought the same. Do the same: The nominal substitute the same is often combined with the
verb do as a substitute for the process in certain types of clause: E.g. A: They all started
shouting. B: So, I did the same. Be the same: The form the same occurs as attribute in clauses
of ascription, where it may substitute either a noun or an adjective. E.g. Charles is now an
actor. Given half a chance I would have been the same. 2.2.Verbal substitution Verbal
substitution is by means of do substitution for the lexical verb. This operates as head of a
verbal group, in the place that is occupied by the lexical verb, and its position is always final
in the group. E.g.1. The word did not come the same as they used to do. E.g.2. I don’t know
the meaning of half those long words, and, what’s more, I don’t believe you do, either. E.g.3-
A : Annie says you drink too much B : So do you. E.g.4-A: Did you see Jim last week? B: I
did on Thursday.
2.3. Clausal substitution Clausal substitution is by means of so / not: E.g.1. A: Is it going to
rain? B : I think so/not. E.g. 2. Are you going to the conference? If so, we could travel
together. E.g.3. A: Hens lay eggs. B: So do turkeys. Exercises pp. 32-34 1. Say what one or
ones is replacing in these examples: a. A group of people marching on the road should keep to
the left. There should be look-outs in front and at the back wearing reflective clothing at night
and fluorescent clothing by day. At night the look-out in front should carry a white light and
the one at the back should carry a bright red light visible from the rear. Answer: The word one
in the one at the back replaces (substitutes for) the word look- out. b. That Malaysian planning
is politically motivated does not mean it is necessarily inefficient. Although a number of
criticisms have been made about the performance of the civil service, its record in
development administration is by no means a bad one when viewed in comparative terms.
Answer: one=record c.Excess cholesterol enters the body through our foods, especially
animal fats, and many people are still unaware of the ones they should avoid. Answer:
ones=foods d. Attempts to introduce forms of workers' participation have often been
problematic. The Indian case is a particularly interesting one because the history of these
ideas in that country is a comparatively long one, going back to the 1920s. Answer:
one=Indian case; Long one=long history of these ideas e. There isn't always an obvious link
between the materials you have and the syllabus in use. The link through language is the most
obvious and most straightforward one to make if your syllabus is based on linguistic items
such as language structures or functions. Answer: one=the link 2.Say what do is replacing in
these examples a.They stood up. Victor walked towards her and put his hand on her back.
'Honestly, Lorie, I wasn't meaning to be a pain in the ass.' 'I thought you weren't going to call
me that.' 'I like it. Can't you be a little flexible too?' 'About my name?' Men seem to think that
they can name women as they please, just because Adam did. That way they give women the
shape and function they want them to have. Answer: did=named b.Robert Orr-Ewing,
responsible for Knight Frank & Rutley's lettings in Chelsea, admits that fewer Americans are
coming over, but those who move here are renting, not buying as they did in the boom years
of 1987 and 1988. Answer: did=bought c.'I want it all,' I said. 'You always do,' Hawk said.
Answer: do=want it all
d.The competition resulting from an increase in stock (capital) raises wages and decreases
profits. Thus the progress of the British economy since Henry VIII's time, involving as it did a
secular rise in the stock of capital, had led to a fall in the rate of profit. Answer: did=involved
e.Outside the stable doors the circling voices were raised and peremptory, and Lestyn, wild
with weariness and anger roared back at them incoherent defiance. Then, blessedly, Susanna's
voice soared above the clamour: 'Fools, do you think there's any power can separate us now? I
hold as Lestyn holds, I despise your promises and your threats as he does.' Answer:
does=despises 3.In these examples, distinguish the instances of clause substitute so from other
uses of so: a.'Marty, you are the third person this morning who has offered to disassemble my
body. You are also third in order of the odds are very good that I could put you in the hospital
before you got a hand on me.' 'You think so.' 'I was proud of myself. I didn't say, "I know so.''
Answer: so= you could put; so= you were proud b- In the twentieth century the focus of
exploitation has changed but exploitation itself remains. Capitalist society now tries to
preserve itself with a precariously interlocking and frantically stimulated system of greeds and
so it encourages people to think of themselves primarily as consumers living in a consumer
society. Answer: so = as the result of the fact that capitalist societies c.Plan your travelling to
include plenty of opportunities to get up and stretch stiff joints. Don't expect to make a quick
eight-hour car trip with only one stop for lunch. Plan in other stretching rests. On a train or
plane make sure to walk in the aisle with your child every hour or so. Answer: so=every hour
d.The sparrow perched on the edge of the pram and stared down into the baby's open mouth.
Then he turned to Teddy Robinson. That baby's hungry,' chirped the sparrow. 'Look, his beak
is wide open.' 'Do you really think so?' said Teddy Robinson. Answer: so=his beak is wide
open e.If your network is loaded in the upper-memory region between 640K and 1 megabyte,
you might have problems running Windows. If so, try loading the network in conventional
memory. Answer: so=you have problems running windows 3. Ellipsis Ellipsis means
substitution by nothing or the omission of clauses, phrases or words which can be recovered
from other parts of the discourse. Ellipsis is similar to substitution, except that in the case of
ellipsis the substitution is by nothing. An obvious structural gap occurs, which can only be
filled by reference to a previous sentence. As with substitution, ellipsis may be nominal,
verbal, or clausal. 3.1.Nominal ellipsis Nominal ellipsis involves the omission of the head of a
noun phrase, sometimes together with some modifiers.
E.g.1-Sylvia: I like the blue hat. Mary : I prefer the green. 2-A: Which hat will you wear? B:
This is the nicest. 3-Four other oysters followed them. And yet another four. 3.2.Verbal
ellipsis Verbal ellipsis involves the obmission of the lexical verb from a verb phrase, and
possibly an auxiliary or two recoverable from a previous verb phrase e.g. A : Have you been
working? B : Yes, I have. Another kind of verbal ellipsis obmits everything except the lexical
verb: E.g. A : Has she been crying. B : No, laughing. Ellipsis can be echoing and auxiliary
contrasting. Echoing means repeating an element from the verbal group: e.g. A: Will anyone
be waiting? B: Jim will, I should think. Contrasting means when the auxiliary changes: e.g. A:
Has she remarried? B: No, but she will one day, I’m sure. 3.3. Clausal ellipsis Unlike clausal
substitution, clausal ellipsis is not concerned with the ellipsis of whole clauses but with the
ellipsis of large parts of clauses, whole phrases and upward: E.g. A: Who was playing the
piano? B: Peter was. The whole verb phrase is not often left out in ellipsis across sentence
boundaries, but it may be within sentences: e.g.1. Joan bought some roses and Bill some
carnations. e.g.2. A: Where has Jim planted the roses? B : In the front border. Exercises pp.
35-37 The following examples contain various kinds of ellipsis. Say for each instance whether
it is a verb, noun or clause ellipsis. For each ind of ellipsis make a list of the words or types of
word that can precede the gap (Salkie, 1995, pp60-61) a.Many OAPs still have a hard time
making ends meet - but some are sitting on a small fortune. During the last property boom
they saw the value of their homes soar. Answer: a-some (= some OAPs): nominal ellipsis b-
There are four newspapers specifically for Britain's 330,000- strong Jewish community. The
Gulf war has put them in reluctant pole position for a huge international story. Yet all four
share the same potential problem: they are weeklies, with deadlines that vary from early
morning to late afternoon on Thursday. On the past two Fridays they have risked seeing their
front pages made redundant by attacks on Israel. Answer: four (=four newspapers): nominal
ellipsis c-I say that the critic new to the trade 'lowers his standards' when faced with a weekly
fare of rubbish, and so he does; that is, he excuses the badness of the plays and marks them
higher than he knows he should. Which is only reasonable while he does it consciously;
disaster comes when he crosses the line into truly believing that the bad plays are really not
bad at all. Answer:So he does: verbal sub. + clausal ellipsis
d-The judge said that an employer's duty, under section 99 of the Employment Protection Act
1975, to consult a union when he was proposing to dismiss employees as redundant, arose
when matters had reached a stage where a specific proposal had been formulated. Of two
possible subjects of negotiation: whether there were to be redundancies and, if so, how and on
what terms were they to take effect, only the second was open for discussion, and the
redundancies took effect on 31December 1987. Answer:so (there was redundancies) clausal
ellipsis e-The PM has been wise enough to call for a 'bipartisan' approach, and the leader of
the Opposition wise enough to concur. Answer: opposition wise (=opposition has been wise
enough): clausal ellipsis f-One female marine, Jacqueline Bowling, said: 'I do not think I have
any more fears than the guys have. I think we have the same feelings.' Her husband, who
serves at a post not far from hers, disagreed, and was unhappy to find that his wife had been
assigned so close to the front. 'I guess that is where the male ego kicks in,' his wife explained.
Answer:have (=have fears); clausal / verbal ellipsis g-This form tells me that you want to vote
by post, or get someone else to vote on your behalf, at elections for an indefinite period. It is
for people who have a right to vote but who cannot reasonably be expected to vote in person
because of the nature of their job (or their spouse's). Fill the form in carefully using block
letters except for your signature. Answer: fill the form= (you fill the form): nominal ellipsis 4.
Conjunction This term refers to specific devices (conjunctions) for linking one sentence to
another. E.g. He was very uncomfortable. Nevertheless, he fell fast asleep. There are a
number of words – conjunctions and adverbs- which fulfil this function: They may be divided
into four groups: additive, adversative, causal and temporal. 4.1. Additive conjunctions (liên
từ chỉ sự thêm vào): and, furthermore, besides, incidentally, for instance, by contrast
(additional information / an afterthought). E.g. From a marketing viewpoint, the popular
tabloid encourages the reader to read the whole page instead of choosing stories. And isn’t
that what any publisher wants? 4.2. Adversative conjunctions (liên từ chỉ sự đối lập về ngữ
nghĩa): yet, however, nevertheless, on the other hand, on the contrary, in any case (a contrast
link): E.g. I’m afraid I’ll be home late tonight. However, I won’t have to go in until late
tomorrow. 4.3. Causal conjunctions (liên từ chỉ nguyên nhân): hence, therefore, consequently,
as a result, that being so, otherwise, in this respect (a causal link): E.g. 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.
4.4.Temporal conjunctions (liên từ chỉ liên kết về thời gian): then, after that, previously,
thereupon, meanwhile, finally ( a time link): E.g. 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. Exercises (pp.37-39): 1-This exercise will help
you focus on marking the relationships between sentences in a text. Use the guide lines which
follow the text and write out the passage, connecting the sentences where possible (McCarter,
2003, pp.38-39) What are the arguments for and against vehicles? What is your opinion in this
matter? 1-Private vehicles play a key role in our lives. (2) They provide independent
transport, freedom and many jobs. 3. They cause pollution, traffic jams, noise and death.4.
Private transport, especially the car, gives us freedom to move.5. We no longer need to
organize our lives around bus or train time tables 6. Many people think that their cars are
indispensable machines. 7. They can not live without them. 8. People who live in rural areas
need private vehicles to go to towns for shopping, socializing, taking children to schools, etc.
9. Without a car their lives would be very difficult 10. They would be forced to rely on
infrequent public transport, if it existed at all. 11. Many families who live in the country have
one or more cars. 12. They would be cut off from the rest of the world. 13. For many people a
car is a necessity. Guidelines for sentence relationships. Sentences 1 and 2. You can join these
sentences together; the second sentence states the reasons why such vehicles play an
important role. Sentence 3 shows the opposite side of the picture, so insert an adverb that
brings out the contrast. Be careful with the punctuation! You will find in the Key that the
author has added another phrase, because he finds that the contrast is not strong enough, and
because there is a problem with the rhythm of the sentence. Can you add something yourself
to the sentence. Sentence 4 is the first argument of your essay. Add a ward or phrase to
indicate this. Sentence 5 is a sequence of sentence 4. Use a conjunction to join them together.
Sentence 6 is an extension of the previous one. It states another true fact about private
vehicles. Can you add a phrase to help show this? Sentence 7 is a result of sentence 6.
Sentence 8 is an example of the previous sentence. You can join sentence 9 and 10 with a
simple conjunction that indicates the two are of the same value. Sentence 11 is a consequence.
Can you think of an adverb to join sentence 12 to the previous one? Use a word that means or
else. Be careful with the punctuation. Sentence 13 is a conclusion. Answer: Exercise 1(p.37-
39):
Private vehicles play a key role in our lives because they provide independent transport,
freedom and many jobs. Firstly, private transport, especially the car, gives us freedom to
move. Therefore, we no longer need to organize our lives around bus or train timetables.
Secondly /As a matter of fact, many people think that their cars are indispensable machines as
they cannot live without them. People who live in rural areas need private vehicles to go to
towns for shopping, socializing, taking children to schools, etc. Without a car their lives
would be very difficult and they would be forced to rely on infrequent public transport, if it
existed at all. As a result, many families who live in the country have one or more car or else
they would be cut off from the rest of the world. In conclusion, for many people a car is a
necessity. 2- Look at the text and find conjunctions linking sentences to one another. Wind
power. Wave power. Solar power. Tidal power. Whilst their use will increase they are
unlikely to be able to provide large amount of economic electricity. Generally, the cost oh
harnessing their power is huge. However, there is a more practical, reliable and economic way
of ensuring electricity for the future. And that is through nuclear energy. It’s not new idea, of
course. We’ve been using nuclear electricity for the last 30 years. In fact, it now accounts for
around 20% of Britain’s electricity production. And it’s one of the cheapest and safe ways to
produce electricity we now for the future. What’s more, world supplies of uranium are
estimated 10 last for hundreds of years, which will give us more than enough time to develop
alternatives if we need to. So, while some people might not care about their children’s future.
We do. ( McCarthy, 1991) Answer: (p. 39): However: Adversative, And: additive, And:
additive, What’s more : additive, So: causal 5.Lexical cohesion Lexical cohesion refers to the
use of the same, similar, or related words in successive sentences, so that later occurrences of
such words refer back to and link up with previous occurrences. 5.1. Reiteration: a form of
lexical cohesion in which two cohesive items refer to the same entity or event. Reiteration
may be realised by: 5.1.1.the repetition of the same word in successive sentences: E.g. There
was a mushroom growing near her….She stretched herself up on tiptoe, and peeped over the
edge of the mushroom. 5.1.2.a synonym or a near-synonym of a word may appear in a
following sentence: e.g. I turned to the ascent of the peak. The climb is perfectly easy. 5.1.3.a
word may be replaced in a following sentence by another which is semantically superordinate
to it: e.g. Henry’s bought himself a new Jaguar. He practically lives in the car. 5.1.4.a word
may be replaced in the following sentence by a ‘general word’ which describes general class
of objects: e.g. A: What shall I do with all this crockery?
B: Leave the stuff there. General words describing a general class of objects are Humans:
people, person, man, woman, child, boy Non-human: creature Inanimate concrete nouns:
thing, object Inanimate concrete mass: stuff Inanimate abstract nouns: business, matter, affair
Place: place Facts: question, idea Action: move 5.2.Collocation: 5.2.1.. Collocation refers to
the habitual company which words keep. E.g. blue sky, white sand… 5.2.2..Collocation using
lexical fields: e.g.1. Book: page, tittle, read, turn over, shelf, …. e.g. 2. Weather terms,
kinship terms, medicine terms, music terms. e.g.3. Cotton is a very useful plant. Inside its
round fruits, called bolls, are masses of white fibres. When the fruits ripen, they split and
fibres are blown away. But in the cotton fields, the bolls are picked before this can happen.
Cotton grows best in warm, wet lands, including Asia, the southern United States, India,
China, Egypt and Brazil. E.g.4. Plants characteristically synthesize complex organic
substances from simple inorganic raw materials. In green plants, the energy of this process is
sunlight. The plants can use this energy because they possess the green pigment chlorophyll.
Photosynthesis or light synthesis, is a self-feeding, or autotrophic process. Collocation of
plants: synthesize, organic, inorganic, green plants, energy, sunlight... 5.3.The categories of
lexical cohesion recognised nowadays are (Tanskanen, 2006): 5.3.1.Reiteration a.Simple
repetition b.Complex repetition c.Substitution d.Equivalence e.Generalisation f.Specification
g.Co-specification h.Contrast 5.3.2.Collocation i.Ordered set ii.Activity-related collocation
iii.Elaborated collocation 5.3.1.Reiteration: a-Simple repetition occurs when an item is
repeated either in an identical form or with no other than a simple grammatical change, e.g.
singular-plural, present tense-past tense, Other examples: Your-your, your-you, you-you. b-
Complex repetition involves a more substantial change: the items may be identical but serve
different grammatical functions, or they may not be identical but share a lexical morpheme:
E.g. determinism-cultural determinist playing-play E.g. And cultural determinism is the idea
that the way people think and act is largely determined by their culture, their upbringing, their
socialization, their home environment, peer group pressure, this kind of thing, and is not to be
looked for in natural causes, in their genes, for example, or in individual psychological
experience, as was the prime focus of Freud in psychoanalysis. So the result is that, where
people did take notice of Freud, and here Talker Parsons is the prime example, they
interpreted Freud as if he too were a cultural determinist. E.g. A: oh are you playing the
recorder, too B: I play the recorder too and I I find this quite amusing and really most
undemanding. c-Substitution: Pronoun for a noun
One, do and so for a noun. d-Equivalence: The term equivalence is used to refer to the relation
more commonly referred to as synonymy: E.g.: carbon dioxide – CO2 pausing – a breather
E.g. Carbon dioxide is the most soluble of the gases because as it dissolves it doesn’t just go
through a physical solution it goes through a chemical conversion … .If you put more CO two
into the system the concentrations of all these go up. E.g. We are pausing on the road for no
other reason than that we have been bounding ahead so rapidly and could all do with a
breather. e-Generalisation: The relation between an item and a more general item: This
relation has been referred to as a superordinate or hyponymic relation in most of the earlier
studies, or inclusion: specific-general by McCarthy. E.g. imported oil-energy product Labour-
political party E.g. Over the past decade or more, Western governments have taken action,
individually and collectively, both to reduce dependence on imported oil and to provide for an
emergency should it arise. In particular, they have made considerable progress, some of it
quite recent, in freeing internal markets for energy products. E.g. Gordon: If Labour get in and
they can’t fulfil their promises. . . Audrey: Well I can’t well I mean there’s an awful lot, I
mean would, no no matter which political party it is, they all make promises, but they don’t
carry them all out. E.g. It will be observed that, as is often the case, the most informal or
‘slang’ words are regionally restricted, being in this case unknown or unusual in North
American English. It will also be observed that there are no strict co- occurrence restrictions
here as there are in some languages – one can say‘long journey’ and ‘lengthy trip’ just as well
as ‘lengthy journey’ and ‘long trip’. f-Specification: The next subcategory of reiteration is co-
specification, which includes the relation between two items which have a common general
item. The earlier studies that have included this relation have referred to it as co-hyponymy or
co-meronymy. E.g. The farthing has ceased to be a coin of the realm, the halfpenny is on its
way. . . Farthing / halfpenny: co-hyponyms of coin. E.g. It is widely agreed, though, that
while all RP speakers also speak Standard English, the reverse is not the case. Perhaps 9%–
12% of the population of Britain (see Trudgill & Cheshire 1989) speak Standard English with
some form of regionial accent. It is true that in most cases Standard English speakers do not
have ‘broad’ local accents (i.e. accents with large numbers of regional features which are
phonologically and phonetically very distant from RP). . RP speaker / standard English
speakers are co-hyponyms of English speakers g-Contrast: The relation between an item and
another item which has an opposite meaning. This relation has also been called antonymy,
opposition, or complex repetition or paraphrase.
E.g. out of fashion-up to date Old–age pensioner – working people E.g. And the reason for
this is that it belongs to a tradition, a fashion if you like, of writing which went dramatically
out of fashion immediately after World War One. So, at the time when it was published most
readers would have regarded it as completely up to date in its in its style and in its
presentation. E.g. Audrey: I mean where are they going, where are they going to get the extra
money from er to pay for the old aged pensioners’ er eight pound rise? Gordon: Mm. Audrey:
Or so they say, we’ll get eight pound. Somebody’s got to pay for it. So it’ll be the working
people. . . 5.3.2.Collocation relations a-Ordered set: Ordered set includes members of ordered
sets of lexical items: colours, numbers, months, days of the week and the like, E.g. today –
tomorrow - yesterday September-January-the end of June E.g. The working people of today
are the pensioners of tomorrow; the single people of today were the children of yesterday and
are the parents of tomorrow. E.g. So, like, the term starts in September and runs through till
January, when we have Spring festival, which is the Chinese New Year. Now schools and
universities will close for three weeks, and that is a particularly cold time of the year in the
North. And then the term starts again, finishing at the end of June. E.g. Judy: Monday?
Doreen: First thing, first thing. Mm. And come back about nine o’clock the Saturday night.
Relation of items based on activities: To decode cyphers, driving the same car, eating meal. b-
Activity-related collocation: The other relations discussed by Halliday and Hasan under
collocation are more problematic to define. They are by definition nonsystematic, based only
on an association between items, and thereby resist systematic classifications and definitions.
Consequently, we cannot construct watertight rules or models which would always tell us
which items are related and which are not, but with the help of some previous studies let us
nevertheless try to find some tendencies of association which may help us understand and
classify these complex relations. We remember that the study of Martin (1992), which
presents a redefinition of Halliday and Hasan’s collocation category, divides these relations
into two: nuclear (extending and enhancing) and activity sequence relations. In the discussion
of Martin’s model we already noted the difficulty with the activity sequence category, since it
actually involves a reclassification of taxonomic (reiteration) relations, and it is not clear how
this would benefit the present analysis. Let us therefore concentrate on what Martin (1992)
calls nuclear relations, which reflect the ways in which “actions, people, places, things and
qualities configure as activities”.
It appears that in the present material as well we can find pairs such as cyphers – decode or
meals – eat or driving – the same car in which the relation between the items is based on an
activity: you can decode cyphers, eat meals and drive cars. In classifying such items, it may
thus be helpful to think of their association as resulting from such a relation. The category will
consequently be called activity-related collocation. E.g. A: well I expect you don’t need
cyphers during if by that you mean people who B : people who can decode yeah E.g. . . .it
means of course that they will have the utmost difficulty in paying for their meals in the
refectories and that means that the refectories go into deficit if they can’t afford to eat here. . .
E.g. and of course this meant that there was no alcohol, there was no driving with a member
of the opposite sex. This was for Sudanese people, but, of course, you, as a foreigner, could
not be seen in the same car with a Sudanese man. c-Elaboration collocation: In elaborative
collocation the frame concept is introduced. Frames are knowledge structures evoked by
lexical items, e.g... at the beginning of the Michaelmas term 1955, Sylvia’s first year at
Cambridge. I had walked into the Mill Lane lecture room a few minutes early. . . The word
Cambridge evokes the university frame, and the Mill Lane lecture room can be interpreted
within this frame. Frames thus create a general basis for coherence E.g.1. ... on the topic of
the firing of Christina Jeffrey as US House of Representatives historian. The reason she was
fired was because she complained in 1986 that a proposed Jr. High curriculum on the
Holocaust was not balanced or objective because it did not include the Nazi point of view..
E.g.2. [beginning of a message] LA Times: Saturday, December 28, 1996. Page 7. “Youth
Opinion”. . . . Getting back to the news article: really? The students realised it was about
getting additional funds or the schools, . . . The relations in examples(Cambridge – the Mill
Lane lecture room; the Holocaust – the Nazi point of view; LA Times – the news article)
illustrate our third collocation category, elaborative collocation. This is a category for all
those pairs whose relation is impossible to define more specifically than stating that the items
can somehow elaborate or expand on the same topic. However, the relation between the items
is not totally haphazard. It is with elaborative collocation that the frame concept is
reintroduced.
Frames are knowledge structures evoked by lexical items: for example, if a text begins with
university, it evokes the university frame, and following items, such as college, school,
department, syllabuses, teacher, professor, students. Lecture room are interpreted according to
this frame, thus creating coherence in the text (Fillmore 1985; Fillmore & Baker 2001: p.3).
Considering the above example, we can say that Cambridge evokes the university frame, and
the Mill Lane lecture room can be interpreted within this frame. Frames thus create a general
basis for coherence, but they are conceptual, i.e. they are not visible on the surface of text.
Table 5: Cohesion (the formal links) COHESION (the formal links) 1-REFERENCE
(Personal, Demonstrative & Comparative) 2-SUBSTITUTION (Nominal, Verbal & Clausal)
3-ELLIPSIS (Nominal, Verbal & Clausal) 4-CONJUNCTION (Additive, Adversative, Causal
& Temporal) 5-LEXICAL COHESION (Reiteration & Collocation) Exercises pp.41-43 1.
Read the text and decide how the underlined words are related. For example: wrinkles,
creases=synonyms WRINKLE FREE Wrinkle Free is an amazing new formula aerosol that
will actually remove wrinkles and creases from all sorts of fabrics, leaving them looing neat
and super smart. Fast and convenient to use, Wrinkle Free is ideal for busy and travelers, and
can be used with complete safety on all fabrics and garments, and won’t leave a built-up on
clothes. It costs only pennies a spray! 3 oz can. Answer: 1-Direct repetition: fabrics-fabrics 2-
Partial repetition: use-used 3-Synonyms: wrinkles –creases / free-remove / garments – clothes
4-Partial synonyms with positive connotation: neat-smart / fast-convenient / amazing – super
– ideal 5-Antonyms: remove-leave 6-Same lexical set: aerosol-spray-can 2-Read the text and
find examples of the following: direct repetition of content words, synonyms, and near
synonyms, hyponyms, antonyms, and collocations. EASY SHOE SHINE The Shoe Valet will
deal with the family’s footwear in record time, with no mess and no grubby hands. Four
interchangeable wheels will give your leather shoes the full valest treatment. One removes
mud and dirt, another applies neutral shoe cream to the leather, and the two soft brushes will
polish your light or dark shoes to a deep shine. Shoe Valet operates quicly efficiently at the
touch of a button. Answer: 1-Direct repetition: shoe-shoes / leather-leather / shine-shine 2-
Synonyms and near-synonyms: mess-grubby / mud-dust / quickly-record-time – efficiently 3-
Hyponyms: footwear-shoes 4-Antonyms: light- dark / removes-applies 5-Collocations: a-
footwear-shoes-leather / b-shoe cream-brushes-polish-shine / wheel-button 3-Trace all
subsequent lexical reiterations of the underlined words in the text below. Are the reiterations
in the form of synonyms, antonyms or hyponyms/superordinates? Cruise Guards Were Asleep
DOZING guards allowed a group of peace campaigners to breach a missile security cordon
yesterday. The women protesters claimed to have walked right up to cruise launchers. As
sentries slept, they tip-toed past sentries at three am and inspected a cruise convoy in a woody
copse on the Salisbury Plain. Greenham Common campaigners Sarah Graham said “ For the
sake of making things more realistic, the copse was protected by soldiers dug into fox-holes. “
And there were dogs rather than the usual reels of barbed wire.” But, she claimed, the
American airmen were dozing by the launchers. “ One was kipping beneath one of the
vehicles.” She added. Eventually, one of the airmen ‘woke up’ and spotted the women, who
had been trailing the convoy from the Greenham Common base in Bershire since Tuesday.
TheMinistry of Defence confirmed there had been an incident. Ten women had been arrested,
charged with trespassing and released on bail. (Mc Carthy, 1991) Answer: 1-Dozing
(hyponym)-slept(superordinate-dozing (hyponym)-kipping (near-synonym) 2-Guard is taken
up as synonyms for sentries; then as a general superordinate for soldiers, then as a hyponym
for airman. 3-Campainer (superordinate)-protesters (hyponym)-campaigner 4-Walk-tip-
toed(hyponym) 5-cruise launchers-cruise convoy (superordinate)-launcher (repeated)-vehicles
(superordinate)-convoy (superordinate) 4-Read the text and identify the ways that it is joined
together (or made cohesive). Find examples of lexical and grammatical cohesion. BAD
BREATH: Why you’re always the last to now. A simple question: when someone you know
or work with has bad breath, do you tell them? If you ‘re like most people, the answer is
probably “No”. Which means that nobody is going to tell you when you have bad beath. So to
be sure you don’t, use RetarDEX products. The’re guaranteed to ban bad breath, because they
actually get rid of something dentist call Volatile Sulphur Compounds, or VSCs. These are
the end products of bacteria feeding off dead cell tissue and debris in the mouth that hardly
surprising, smell terrible. Ordinary mouthwashes, toothpastes and sprays only mask the order
with a nicer smell which soon wears off. But the clinically proven RedtarDex range of 24-
hour oral care products has a patented active ingredient called CloSYS which eliminates these
VSc and rapidly restores fresh breath. So don’t wait for someone to tell you. Because they
won’t. (Thornbury, 2005, p.167). Answer: 1-Direct repetition: bad, breath, smell, someone,
know, product, tell, you 2-Synonyms: ban-get rid of-eliminate/ ordour-smell/rapidly-soon 3-
Antonym: bad breath- fresh breath /terrible-nicer 4-Words from the same semantic field:
dentists – oral cure –mouth / bacteria / cell tissue-debris-Sulphur compound / mouth washes-
tooth paste-sprays III-Cohesion versus coherence Activity 7(p.43)
The following text is made up of sentences from different texts…Yet it has some superficial
features of cohesion. Can you identify these? Do the text cohere? Hale knew, before he had
been in Brighton three hours, that they meant to murder him. They made a dreadful row in the
morning when it was feeding time. With a team of officials he went about inspecting the place
this morning. No wonder reviewers have singled it out for special acclaim. The text is
cohesive, but this does not mean that it necessarily makes sense: it is not coherent. Coherence
is a less tangible quality and less easily defined or accounted for: it is perhaps a ‘feeling’ the
reader (or listener) has, and what may be coherent for one may be incoherent for another.
Nevertheless, the task of making sense of a text is made easier if the content of the text is
organized in such a way as to make its meaning easily recoverable. The order in which
information is presented in a text is an important factor in determining how coherent it is
likely to be to the reader. Cohesion alone is not enough to make a text coherent. Texts have an
internal logic, which the reader recognize even without the help of explicit cohesive devices.
Activity 8 (p.44) The two columns below contain a number of short (two-sentence) texts.
There are no connectors to link the two sentences. Nevertheless, there is a connection. Can
you match each sentence in the first column with the appropriate sentence in the second
column to make a complete text: 1.Police discovered two 12ft tall cannabis in a greenhouse
when they raided a house at Wokingham, Berkshire. a-He is married to Antonia Frasia. 2-
Memory allocation error, b-There are mulberries being trod over the floors. 3- Harold Pinter
was born in London in 1939. c-Chew thoroughly before swallowing. 4-Please, write firmly, d-
Can not load COMMAND, system halted. 5-There’s nothing worse than coming home to find
plants in greenhouse dead from the cold. e-Two people were taken into custody. 6-Take one
to four tablets daily. f-This sturdy British-made paraffin heater will safely keep the chill off
your garage or greenhouse for u to 14 days. 7-Please wipe your shoes clean on the mat. g-You
are making six copies. Using the following categories, drawn from Cohesion in English by
Halliday and Hassan, determine the relationship between the first and second sentence in each
case. It is -Additive, i.e. an and relation -Adversative, i.e. a but or however relation -Causal:
i.e. a because or so relation -Temporal: a before or later relation Answer: 1-e: temporal /
causal 2-d: causal: so 3-a: additive 4-g: causal 5-f:adversative 6-c: additive 7-b: causal
Activity 9 (pp. 45-46) Read the following extracts on coherence. From the exercises above
and the two readings, what factors do you think make a text coherent? Extract 1.
Cohesive devices help a text hang together, or to be cohesive. That means they contribute to
what Hasan terms a text’s ‘unity of texture’. The schematic structure of the text, in turn,
provides a text with unity of struccture’ (Hasan, 1989). Both of these are properties, Hasan
argues, that distinguish text from ‘non-text’. That is, they give it textual and structural unity.
They do not, necessarily, however give it coherence. Cohesion refers to the internal properties
of a text, whereas coherence refers to its contextual properties: that is, the way in which it
relates and makes sense in the situation in which it occurs. The extract above shows that
cohesion alone is not enough to make a text coherent. Texts have an internal logic, which the
reader recognize even without the help of explicit cohesive devices. Consider the following
example from Enkvist (1978). Cohesive elements, which in this example are all instances of
repetition, are in italics: e.g.The discussions ended last week. A week has seven days. Every
day I feed my cat. Cats have four legs. The cat is on the mat. Mat has three letters. The
example demonstrate that a set of sentences, despite abundant cohesive ties, does not form a
unified whole. Though there are cohesive ties in the sentence, it is not coherent. By contrast,
we can consider the following example, presented by Widdowson (1978, 29), which has been
used to demonstrate that coherence can be created without cohesion. In the following text
there are no grammatical or lexical links between each of the utterances, yet in a particular
situation, it is a coherent text. Widdowson (1978, p.29) presents the following example: A:
That's the telephone. B: I'm in the bath. A: O.K. Widdowson suggests that it is only by
recognising the action performed by each of these utterances within the conventional
sequencing of such actions that we can accept this sequence as coherent discourse. The
conventional sequencing may be presented as in: A requests B to perform action B states
reason why he cannot comply with request A undertakes to perform action There is no surface
textual cohesion in this short text, but the three utterances still form a plausible whole,
because a situation can easily be imagined in which their propositional content would make
sense together, i.e. cohere. Thus a text needs situational coherence, that is, a situation in which
it could occur; and generic coherence, that is it needs to occur within the context of a
particular communicative context, event, or genre… many contextual devices can work to
facilitate coherence. The most important of these, however, are the situational and
communicative contexts in which the text occurs. Consequently, it was concluded that overt
markers of cohesion are only of secondary importance in the creation of unity in text,
compared to the covert aboutness created by coherence (Enkvist, 1978, 1990; Widdowson,
1978, pp.28–29).
What is coherence then? Here are some definitions of coherence: Coherence: is “the
relationships which link the meanings of utterances in a discourse or of the sentences in a
text” (Richards, Platt & Webber, 1985, p.45) Coherence: “The extent to which discourse is
perceived to “hang together’ rather than being a set of unrelated sentences or utterances”
(Nunan, 1993). Coherence is the set of relationships within a text that link sentences by
meaning. Coherence often depends on shared knowledge, implication, or inference. What
creates coherent discourse? A text / a discourse is characterized by coherence; it hangs
together. There are many factors which contribute to the coherence of a text / a discourse.
Within the scope of our discourse analysis course study, we will have and will consider the
following factors of coherence: 1-Cohesion 2-Information structure 3-Thematic structure 4-
Generic structure 5-Other structures in spoken language. Specifically, coherence can be
created by the following types of cohesion: 1- Structural cohesion /Overall/ Global cohesion:
Generic structure, Textual patterns, Theme-Rheme structure, Given-New structutre,
Parallelism, Transaction-Exchange-Move-Act, Frame structure… 2-Grammatical cohesion :
reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction 3- Lexical / Semantic cohesion: synonymy,
repetition, Antonymy, Hyponymy, Meronymy, Collocation, Conceptual fields. 4- Phonetic/
Prosodic cohesion 5-Pragmatic Cohesion / discourse cohesion: Implication, Inference.
Exercises (pp. 48-50): A. Describe the situations in which the following exchanges would
make sense a-A: It’s nealy seven B: Yes, I know. I‘m just going to ring him now. Answer: A
is reminding B that he is supposed to ring somebody at seven. b.A: The grass needs cutting.
B. It’s nearly ten o’clock A: He’ll wait. B: Like last week and the week before. A: The
Robinsons are coming tomorrow. B: It’s starting to rain now any way. Answer: A wife is
suggesting to her husband that he should cut the grass in their garden, as they are expecting
visitors. The husband does not want to do it and reminds her that he is meeting someone soon
and that he has been late for appointments with this person for the last two weeks. c.A: Shall
we stop for a while? B: If you want. A: The Cow’s quite good, isn’t it? B: If you say so. A:
We met your friend Jane last time, didn’t we? B: My mother will be worried. Answer: A boy
is driving his girlfriend home and suggests that they should stop for a drink at a pub. She is
reluctant to stop and he tries to persuade her by suggesting that they might meet her friend. d-
A: Hello. B: Bob? A: I’m not coming tonight. B: he’s already gone. A: Already? B: Try
Ted’s. Answer: A boy answers the phone and is mistaken for his brother. He tells the caller
that his brother has left and suggests where he might be.
B-Cohesion and coherence are obviously both connected with ways of connecting utterances
together. It is not easy to actually define the difference between the two as there is
considerable overlap bwteen them. Try completing the following definitions: Cohesion
involves indicating the conn… between consecutive or rel… utterances. If a text is cohesive
you can see by loo… at the text how one utterance is rel… to a prev… or subse… utterance.
Coherence is the lin… together of conse… or rel… utterances according to the func… of the
utterances. Thus an invitation followed by an acc… would be coh… whereas an invitation
followed by an anecdote probably would not be coh... Answer: Cohesion involves indicating
the connection between consecutive or related utterances. If a text is cohesive you can see by
looking at the text how one utterance is related to a previous or subsequent utterance.
Coherence is the linking together of consecutive or related utterances according to the
functions of the utterances. Thus an invitation followed by an acceptance would be coherent
whereas an invitation followed by an anecdote probably would not be coherent. C. Look at the
following examples: 1-Mr. Burns is often late. Yesterday, I answered the phone. 2-A-Which
platform does the London train go from? B-London? My daughter lives in London. She
married a banker there last year. Example 1 could be coh… because it could consist of a
generalisation followed by an example and a consequence. But it is not coh… because there is
no indicated conn… between the two utterances. Example 2 is coh… because the two
utterances are connected by the repetition of London. But it is not coh… because there is no
apparent connection between the function of the question and the function of the reply.
Answer: B-London? My daughter lives in London. She married a banker there last year.
Example 1 could be coherent because it could consist of a generalisation followed by an
example and a consequence. But it is not cohesive because there is no indicated connection
between the two utterances. Example 2 is cohesive because the two utterances are connected
by the repetition of London. But it is not coherent because there is no apparent connection
between the function of the question and the function of the reply.