Coherence-and-Cohesion

CoherenceandCohesionCoherenceCohesionCoherenceCoherenceisthequalityofmeaningunityandpurposeperceivedindiscourse.Itisnotapropertyofthelinguisticforminthetextandtheirdenotations,butoftheseformsandmeaningsinterpretedbyareceiverthroughknowledgeandreasoning.CoherenceAssuch,coherenceisnotanabsolutequalityofatext,butalwaysrelativetoaparticularreceiverandcontext.Adescriptionofcoherenceisusuallyconcernedwiththelinksinferredbetweensentencesorutterances.CoherenceCoherenceistherelationshipswhichlinkthemeaningsofutterancesinadiscourseorofthesentencesinatext.Theselinksmaybebasedonthespeakers’sharedknowledge.ExampleA:Couldyougivemelifthome?B:Sorry,I’mvisitingmysister.CommentThereisnogrammaticalorlexicallinkbetweenA’squestionandB’sreplybuttheexchangehascoherencebecausebothAandBknowthatB’ssisterlivesintheoppositedirectiontoA’shome.Generallyaparagraphhascoherenceifitisaseriesofsentencesthatdevelopamainidea(i.e.withatopicsentenceandsupportingsentenceswhichrelatetoit).CohesionItisoftencontrastedwithcohesion,whichisthelinguisticrealizationofsuchlinks.