cohesion-in-English

CohesioninEnglish2IntroductionAsHallidayandHasanexplainedintheprefacetoCohesioninEnglish(1976),“Cohesiverelationsarerelationsbetweentwoormoreelementsinatextthatindependentofthestructure;forexamplebetweenapersonalpronounandanantecedentname,suchasJohn…he.Asemanticrelationofthiskindmaybeeitherwithinasentenceorbetweensentences;withtheconsequencethat,whenitcrossesasentenceboundary,ithastheeffectofmakingthetwosentencescoherewithoneanother.”3ItisafterthepublicationofCohesioninEnglish(1976)writtenbyHallidayandHasanthatcoherencebecameanimportanttopic.Manypeopleholdthedifferentopinionswiththem.Inthispresentation,wemainlyfocusontheintroductionofcohesionandcoherenceandtherelationshipbetweenthem.4CohesionTheconceptofcohesionReferenceEllipsisSubstitutionConjunctionLexicalcohesion5TheconceptofcohesionHalliday&Hasantaketheviewthattheprimarydeterminantofwhetherasetofsentencesdoordonotconstituteatextdependsoncohesiverelationshipswithinandbetweenthesentences,whichcreatetexture:‘Atexthastextureandthisiswhatdistinguishesitfromsomethingthatisnotatext...ThetextureisprovidedbythecohesiveRELATION’(1976:2).6TheconceptofcohesionTextTextureTiesCohesion7TextThewordTEXTisusedinlinguisticstorefertoanypassage,spokenorwritten,ofwhateverlength,thatdoesformaunifiedwhole.Areadercaneasilyidentifywhetherthepassageheisreadingisatextorotherwiseacollectionofunrelatedsentences.Atextmaybespokenorwritten,proseorverse,dialogueormonologue.Itmaybeanythingfromasingleproverbtoawholeplay,fromamomentarycryforhelptoanall-daydiscussiononacommittee.Itisaunitoflanguageinuse.8Textisnotagrammaticalunit,likeaclauseorasentence;anditisnotdefinedbyitssize.Rathertextcanbebestregardedasasemanticunit:aunitnotofformbutofmeaning.Thus,itisrelatedtoaclauseorasentencenotbysizebutbyrealization,thecodingofonesymbolicsysteminanother.Atextdoesnotconsistofsentences;itisrealizedby,orencodedin,sentences.9TextureTheconceptofTEXTUREisentirelyappropriatetoexpressthepropertyof‘beingatext’.Atexthastexture,andthisiswhatdistinguishesitfromsomethingthatisnotatext.Itderivesthistexturefromthefactthatitfunctionsasaunitywithrespecttoitsenvironment.WhatweareinvestigatinginthefirsthalfpartofthispresentationaretheresourcesthatEnglishhasforcrestingtexture.Let’sfirststartwithasimpleexample:Washandcoresixcookingapples.Putthemintoafireproofdish.10Itisclearthatthemrefersbacktosixcookingapplestocreatecohesionbetweenthetwosentences.Thetextureisprovidedbythecohesiverelationthatexistsbetweenthemandsixcookingapples.Thecohesioniseffectednotbythepresenceofthereferringitemalonebutbythepresenceofboththereferringitemandtheitemthatitrefersto.Inotherwords,itisnotenoughthatthereshouldbeapresupposition;thepresuppositionmustalsobesatisfiedasshownintheexample.11TiesWeneedatermtorefertoasingleinstanceofcohesion,atermforoneoccurrenceofapairofcohesivelyrelateditems.ThisweshallcallaTIE.Therelationbetweenthemandsixcookingapplesinlastexampleconstitutesatie.Wecancharacterizeanysegmentofatextintermsofthenumberandkindsofties.Inlastexample,thereisjustonetie(reference).12Theconceptofatiemakesitpossibletoanalyseatextintermsofitscohesiveproperties,andgiveasystemicaccountofitspatternsoftexture.Thedifferentkindsofcohesivetieprovidethemainpartsofthepresentation.Theyare:reference,substitution,ellipsis,conjunction,andlexicalcohesion.13CohesionThetermcohesionwasfirstofferedbyHallidayin1962,whichwasnotwidelyuseduntilthepublishingofCohesioninEnglish(1976).Inthewell-knownbookCohesioninEnglish,HallidayandHasaninitiallymadeasystematicanalysisofcohesion.Theydefinedcohesionas‘relationsofmeaningthatexistwithinthetext,andthatdefineitasatext’(1976:4).Theythinkthatcohesionisasemanticsconcept,akindofsemanticrelation.14CohesionoccurswheretheINTERPRETATIONofsomeelementinthediscourseisdependentonthatofanother.TheonePRESUPPOSEStheother,inthesensethatitcannotbeeffectivelydecodedexceptbyrecoursetoit.Whenthishappens,arelationofcohesionissetup,andthetwoelements,thepresupposingandthepresupposed,aretherebyatleastpotentiallyintegratedintoatext.Thisisanotherwayofapproachingthenotionofatie.15Cohesionisdescribedasasemanticrelation.However,itisrealizedthroughalexico-grammaticalsystem.HallidayandHasan(1976)makethefirstattemptontheanalysisofcohesivedevices;theyclassifycohesivedevicesintofivecategories:reference,substitution,ellipsis,conjunction,andlexicalcohesion.16theplaceofcohesioninthedescriptionofEnglishfunctionalcomponentsofsemanticsystemHalliday(1985)17ReferenceReference---thesemanticrelationinwhichawordorwordsareusedtoenabletheaddresseetoidentifysomeoneorsomething.Accordingtowhetherthereferentisretrievablewithinthetextoroutinthecontextofsituation,referencefallsintothefollowingcategories:endophorareference&exophorareference.18Wecanillustratereferencewiththefollowingdiagram:Reference[situational][textual]exophoraendophora[toprecedingtext][tofollowingtext]anaphoracataphora19Exophoricreference:whichreferstoanitemwhosereferentisretrievableinthecontextofsituation.Exophoricrelationisameansoflinking‘outwards’tosomepersonorobjectinthee