COHESIVE DEVICES

What’s wrong with these sentences?

I went to the beach. There

were too many jellyfish. I
decided to stay. I had a good
time. I met some friends.

The simple
and solution!
but
I went to the beach. There were too many jellyfish, but I
decided to stay anyway. I had a good time, and I met some
friends.
But wait! There’s a better way…
I went to the
beach. Although
there were too
many jellyfish, I
decided to stay. I
had a good time
because I met some
friends.

Connectors make logical connections.

Why do we need them?
• They join ideas and show
how those ideas are related
to one another.
• They help us organise our
ideas.
• It is easier for the reader to
follow.
 How can we link these sentences?
Life in Israel is challenging. Life in Israel can be really exciting.

Despite the fact that life in Israel is challenging, it can be

really exciting.

Even though life in Israel is challenging, it can be really

exciting.

Life in Israel is challenging; however, it can be very exciting

Wait! There’s
a different Life in Israel is challenging; therefore, it
way. can be very exciting.
Can you find a different way to link
those sentences?

This is what we did: I went to a party but the

music wasn’t good. I decided to stay anyway
because I met my friends and we had a great
time.

I went to a party. Even though

the music wasn’t good, I
Use different
connectors and decided to stay. Eventually we
change the order had a great time because I met
of the sentences! my friends.
How can we link these sentences?
I went to a party. The
music wasn’t good. I
decided to stay anyway. I
met my friends. We had a
great time.

I went to a party but the music

wasn’t good. I decided to stay
anyway because I met my friends
and we had a great time.
FUNCTIONS OF COHESIVE DEVICES?

• Cues that help you to carry over a thought from one

sentence to another, from one idea to another or
from one paragraph to another with words or
phrases

• Link your sentences and paragraphs together so

that there are no abrupt jumps or breaks between
ideas
• Cohesion refers to that part of grammar that reflects the
coherence of the writer’s thought and helps the reader to
make the right connections between ideas.

• Two types of cohesion: Grammatical Devices (inclusive of

Logical Devices), and Lexical Devices

• Five categories of cohesive device that create coherence in

texts: reference, ellipsis, substitution (Grammatical
Devices), lexical cohesion (Lexical Devices) and connectors
(Logical Devices)
 Cohesion

Grammatical Lexical Devices

Devices

Logical Devices

Reference Substitution Elipsis Connector

GRAMMATICAL COHESION
⮚REFERENCE
⮚CONNECTOR
⮚ELLIPSIS
⮚SUBSTITUTION
Reference

• Elements in a text refer to other elements (their

referents)

pronouns
• Achieved through the use of
determiners
 Cataphoric Reference
• A cataphoric reference unit refers to another unit that is
introduced later on in the text/speech.
• To understand the unit refered to by a cataphoric
reference you would need to look ahead in the
text/speech.

He’s played junkies and cities slickers, Jedi knights and

US rangers. He’s at home in Hollywood’s boulevards and
Glasgow’s tenements. He spends his life in the arms of
beautiful women and is happily married… It seems Ewan
McGregor can do anything he wants
Here, the pronoun He is a Cataphoric reference because it
refers to the noun Ewan McGregor that is introduced
later on the text.
Anaphoric Reference
• Anaphoric reference means that a word in a
text refers back to other ideas in the text for its
meaning.
• It can be compared with cataphoric reference,
which means a word refers to ideas later in the
text.

"Susan dropped the plate. It shattered loudly"

the word "it" refers to the phrase "the plate".
Conjunctions
• Involve the use of connectors to link words, phrases,
clauses or sentences
• Connectors – words or short phrases that link parts
of a sentence together
• Can also link one sentence or paragraph to another
• Make a connection with what has already been said,
or what follows
• Relative pronouns can also act as connectors.
• Link a relative clause to the rest of the sentence
Connectors of addition
• Additionally
• Furthermore
• In addition (to)
• Moreover
• Similarly
• Likewise
• In the same way
• Besides
• Not only … but also
Connectors of contrast
• However
• Nevertheless
• Although / though / even though
• In spite of / despite
• In contrast to
• On the other hand
• Whereas / while
• On the contrary
Always use a comma after “however”
and “therefore”.
• I don’t like when it rains,
however, we desperately
need water in Israel.

I don’t like when it rains. However, we

Use a
comma after
desperately need water in Israel.
however.
OR
I don’t like when it rains;
however, we desperately need water
in Israel.
Wrong: Although that I hate rainy days, we desperately need
water in Israel.
Right: Although I hate rainy days, we desperately need water
in Israel.
Wrong: Despite that it was raining, we went for a walk.
Right: Despite the rain, we went for a walk.

Don’t use a
Use a noun phase complete sentence
Connectors of cause and
effect
• Therefore,
• Consequently,
• As a result, (of)
• Thus
• For this reason
• Because
• Because of
• In order to
• So that
Connectors of sequence
• First / In the first place
• Second / secondly
• Third etc.
• Next
• Afterwards / After that
• Eventually
• Finally
• Before that / beforehand
Other connectors
• Fortunately / unfortunately
• Luckily
• Obviously
• For example,
• For instance,
• Such as
Ellipsis
• involves omitting unnecessary words to avoid repeating
what has just been said
• entails syntactic reduction, a form of inexplicitness
consisting in the unspoken, the unexpressed, but
understood.
• entails the omission or deletion of some items of the
surface text, which are recoverable in terms of relation
with the text itself.
• the use of ellipsis reduces the amount of time and effort
in both encoding and decoding, avoiding redundancy and
repetition, BUT only when it does not lead to ambiguity.
Some examples
• The actual language surrounding an utterance
or sentence
CONTEXTUAL ELLIPSIS

• It is endophoric referring to elements within

the text
• It can be anaphoric:
Brian won’t do the dishes, so I’ll have to [E].
• Or cataphoric:
Since Brian won’t [E], I’ll do the dishes.
More examples…
• Face-to-face conversation:
❖[E] Want some coffee?
❖‘Hey,’ Stradlater said. ‘[E] Wanna do me a big favour?’
(The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger)

• Written texts:
❖Push [E]. (sign on a door)
❖Do not spray [E] on a naked flame. (on a spray can of air
freshener)

Situational ellipsis is a very specific way in which

language interacts with its environment
Substitution
• replacement of one language item by another
• The use of words such as, so, not, do, and one, to
replace a more specific expression that has just
been used.
• Types of substitution:
• Nominal
• Verbal
• Clausal substitution
Nominal
• noun phrases are substituted by the pronominal
one(s).

• .... out of every hole and corner came little devils.

.... one of them lost ....
Verbal
• ‘that’, ‘it’ or ‘so’ are added
• Example:
• ..... A ring hangs in front of it, through which any
one, who wants to reach the apple and break it
off, must put his hand, and no one has yet had
the luck to do it."
Clausal
• this substitution will be used in substituting
clauses.

• Example
• Do you think she is married?
• - Yes, I think so.