Lecture-11-lexical-cohesion

Chapter11LexicalCohesion1.knowledgeofcohesion2.Grammaticalcohesion3.lexicalcohesionDefinitionofcohesionHowcanelementsofatextbetiedtogetherintoacoherentwhole?Atextisnotarandomcollectionoflexicalitemsorsentencesatrandom.Instead,itmustbesemanticallyunified.Cohesionisthegrammaticalandlexicalrelationshipwithinatextorsentence.Cohesioncanbedefinedasthelinksthatholdatexttogetherandgiveitmeaning.Itisrelatedtothebroaderconceptofcoherence,whichwillbeelaboratedinnextlecture.Therearetwomaintypesofcohesion:grammatical,referringtothestructuralcontent,andlexical,referringtothelanguagecontentofthepiece.Acohesivetextiscreatedinmanydifferentways.InCohesioninEnglish,HallidayandHasanidentifyfivegeneralcategoriesofcohesivedevicesthatcreatecoherenceintexts:reference,ellipsis,substitution,lexicalcohesion,andconjunction.Here,cohesivetiesrefertooneoccurrenceofapairofcohesivelyrelateditems,thesingleinstanceofcohesion.Threeblindmice,threeblindmice.Seehowtheyrun!Seehowtheyrun!threemiceThreeblindmice,threeblindmice.Seehowtheyrun!Seehowtheyrun!Therelationbetween________and_____canberegardedascohesivetiestheyTask1BrainstormingPleasehelpmakeacompletesentencewiththepartmentionedabove_______buthecouldn’tkeepherPeterhadawifebuthecouldn’tkeepherItisclearthatwifeandherareintherelationofcohesiveties.Cohesivetiesmaybeeithergrammaticaldevicessuchreference,ellipsis,andsubstitution,andconjunction,orlexicaldevicessuchasgeneralwords,reiterationandcollocation.Abriefintroductionwillbegiventogrammaticaldeviceswhilelexicaldevicesshouldbeintroducedindetail.GrammaticaldevicesReferencereferstothesemanticrelationsinwhichawordorwordsareusedtoenabletheaddresseetoidentifysomeoneorsomething.Referencefallsintotwocategories:Theyareexophora(指外）andendophora（指内）Whatisexophora?Itisalsocalledexophoricreferenceorsituationreference,referringtoanitemwhosereferentisretrievableinthecontextofsituation.Forinstance,Canyouseethatmanoverthere?IwouldliketotakethisTask2analyzeWhodoes“thatman,I”referto?Whatdoes“this”referto?Thereferentscannotbefoundinsidethesentencesbutinthecontextoutsidethetext.Whatisendophora?Itreferstoanitemwhosereferentcanberetrievedwithinthetext.Endophoracanbefurtherdividedintotwosubcategories:anaphora(前指）andcataphora（后指）Itshouldbenotedthatanaphorareferstoanitemwhosereferentisretrievableintheprecedingpartofthetext.Cataphorareferstoanitemwhosereferentcanberetrievedwithinthesucceedingpartofthetext.Task3seekingoutPleaseseekoutwhatcategorytheybelongto.anaphoraOnehastodohisdutiesListentothis:John’sgettingmarriedItisgenerallyacceptedthattheearthrevolvesaroundthesun.Doyouwanttohaveanotherbiscuit?cataphoracataphoraexophoraSecondlythegrammaticaldeviceworthmentioninghereisellipsisandsubstitution.Ellipsisreferstotheomissionofanitemandsubstitutionreferstothereplacementofoneitembyanother.Task4discussionWhydoweoftenadoptellipsisandsubstitutioninwritingandspeaking?Itisoftenacceptedthatthereisamajorreasonasfollows:Asfaraspragmaticmotivationisconcerned,substitutionandellipsisarebothmotivatedbytheeconomyprinciple.Humanbeingsareapttousetheminimumandmosteffortlesspossiblelinguisticunitsintheprocessofcommunicationsothattheycanconveythemaximumpossibleinformationwiththeminimumpossibleeffort.EllipsisItisusuallynotedthatasforellipsis,theomittedpartcanbefoundinthetext--Didyouseehimyesterday?--Yes.Whatisomitted?Inellipsis,theomittedpartmustbeinconsistencewithitscounterpartintermsofgrammaticalstructure.JohnlikesclassicalmusicbutMarypopmusic.Whatisomitted?Moreover,itissometimesbelievedthattheomittedpartisnotinsidethetextbutoutsidethetext,incontext.Gladtomeetyou!Haven’theardfromyouforalongtimeWhatisomitted?substitutionAccordingtotheelementssubstituted,therearethreetypesofsubstitution:NominalsubstitutionVerbalsubstitutionClausalsubstitutionNominalsubstitutionreferstothereplacementofanoun.--Ihavelostmywatch--GetanewoneVerbalsubstitutionreferstothesubstitutionofaverbphrase.--DoyoulikeNewYork?--Yes,Ido.Clausalsubstitutionreferstothereplacementofanounclausebyusingso,not--IsJohncomingtotheeveningparty?--Ihopeso/IhopenotconjunctionConjunctioningrammarreferstoawordorexpressionlikeand,but,or,inthatcase,forexample,connectingwords,phrases,clauses,andsentenceswithacertainlogicalrelation.Hedied,forhedidn’tseethecarcomingInthatcase,hewouldhavetakenataxi.Theweatherwasappalling.Butwehadapleasanttime.Ex.ItshouldbehoweverpointedoutthattherearesomedifferentcasesHecame.Hesaw.Heconquered.Hedied.Hedidn’tseethesumofmoneythatheshouldhavereceived.Whatisyourunderstandingofthesentencesabove?LexicalCohesionLexicalcohesionreferstothecohesiveeffectachievedbythechoiceoflexicalitems.Englishlexicalcohesiveties,accordingtoHalliday,fallintothefollowingcategories:ReiterationReiterationcantakethefollowingfourforms:1)repetition2)synonymy3)antonymy4)hyponymy5)meronymy6)generalnounsrepetitionRepetitionreferstothereoccurrenceofthesamelexicalitem.Itisthemostdirectformoflexicalcohesion.Long,longagotherelivedanoldman,theoldmanhadabeautifuldaughter.Repe