Theory, Text and Context14.1 Introduction: beyond the sentence

14.2 Cohesion: Repetition; Reference; Substitution; Ellipsis; Conjunction and

Lexical Cohesion

Reporter:Villaceran, Ruth Klaribelle C. BSED 3

Cohesion  the grammatical and lexical relationship within

a text or sentence.  the links that hold a text together and give it

meaning. It is related to the broader concept of coherence.• Coherence in linguistics is what makes a

text semantically meaningful. It is especially dealt with in text linguistics. Coherence is achieved through syntactical features such as the use of deictic, anaphoric and cataphoric elements or a logical tense structure, as well as presuppositions and implications connected to general world knowledge.

Cohesion

Two main types of cohesion:

• Grammatical- referring to the structural content

• Lexical- referring to the language content of the piece

Repetition An instance of using a word, phrase,

or clause more than once in a short passage--dwelling on a point.

Used deliberately, repetition can be an effective rhetorical strategy for achieving emphasis. 

Example Anadiplosis

• Repetition of the last word of one line or clause to begin the next.

"My conscience hath a thousand several tongues,And every tongue brings in a several tale,And every tale condemns me for a villain."(William Shakespeare, Richard III)

Example Anaphora

• Repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or verses.

"I want her to live. I want her to breathe. I want her to aerobicize."(Weird Science, 1985)

Example Antistasis

• Repetition of a word in a different or contrary sense.

"A kleptomaniac is a person who helps himself because he can't help himself."(Henry Morgan)

Example Commoratio

• Emphasizing a point by repeating it several times in different words.

• "Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space."(Douglass Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, 1979)

Example Diacope

• Repetition broken up by one or more intervening words.

"A horse is a horse, of course, of course,And no one can talk to a horse of courseThat is, of course, unless the horse is the famous Mister Ed."(Theme song of 1960s TV program Mr. Ed)

Example Epanalepsis

• Repetition at the end of a clause or sentence of the word or phrase with which it began.

"Swallow, my sister, O sister swallow,How can thine heart be full of the spring?"(Algernon Charles Swinburne, "Itylus")

Example Epimone

• Frequent repetition of a phrase or question; dwelling on a point.

"And I looked upwards, and there stood a man upon the summit of the rock; and I hid myself among the water-lilies that I might discover the actions of the man. . . .

Example Epimone (continuation)

"And the man sat upon the rock, and leaned his head upon his hand, and looked out upon the desolation. . . . And I lay close within shelter of the lilies, and observed the actions of the man. And the man trembled in the solitude;--but the night waned, and he sat upon the rock."(Edgar Allan Poe, "Silence")

Example Epiphora

• Repetition of a word or phrase at the end of several clauses.

"She's safe, just like I promised. She's all set to marry Norrington, just like she promised. And you get to die for her, just like you promised."(Jack Sparrow, The Pirates of the Caribbean)

Example Epizeuxis

• Repetition of a word or phrase for emphasis, usually with no words in between.

"If you think you can win, you can win."(William Hazlitt)

Example Gradatio

• A sentence construction in which the last word of one clause becomes the first of the next, through three or more clauses (an extended form of anadiplosis).

"To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly."(Henri Bergson)

Example Negative-Positive Restatement

• A method of achieving emphasis by stating an idea twice, first in negative terms and then in positive terms.

"Color is not a human or personal reality; it is a political reality."(James Baldwin)

Example Ploce

• Repetition of a word with a new or specified sense, or with pregnant reference to its special significance.

"If it wasn't in Vogue, it wasn't in vogue."(promotional slogan for Vogue magazine)

Example Polyptoton

• Repetition of words derived from the same root but with different endings.

"I hear the voices, and I read the front page, and I know the speculation. But I'm the decider, and I decide what is best."(George W. Bush, April 2006)

Example Symploce

• Repetition of words or phrases at both the beginning and end of successive clauses or verses: a combination of anaphora and epiphora.

Example Symploce (continuation)

"They are not paid for thinking--they are not paid to fret about the world's concerns. They were not respectable people--they were not worthy people--they were not learned and wise and brilliant people--but in their breasts, all their stupid lives long, resteth a peace that passeth understanding!"(Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad, 1869)

Reference There are two referential devices that

can create cohesion:• Anaphoric reference occurs when the

writer refers back to someone or something that has been previously identified, to avoid repetition. Some examples: replacing "the taxi driver" with the pronoun "he" or "two girls" with "they". Another example can be found in formulas such as "as stated previously" or "the aforementioned".

Example

The monkey took the banana and ate it. 

Pam went home because she felt sick. 

Example:

What is this?  The dog ate the bird and it died.  I went home to take a nap because I

thought it would make the headache go away. 

Reference There are two referential devices that

can create cohesion:• Cataphoric reference is the opposite of

anaphora: a reference forward as opposed to backward in the discourse. Something is introduced in the abstract before it is identified. For example: "Here he comes, our award-winning host... it's John Doe!" Cataphoric references can also be found in written text, for example "see page 10".

Example If you want some, here's some

parmesan cheese. After he had received his orders, the

soldier left the barracks. If you want them, there are cookies in

the kitchen. He's the biggest slob I know. He's

really stupid. He's so cruel. He's my boyfriend Nick.

Reference There is one more referential device

which cannot create cohesion:• Exophoric reference is used to describe

generics or abstracts without ever identifying them: e.g. rather than introduce a concept, the writer refers to it by a generic word such as "everything". The prefix "exo" means "outside", and the persons or events referred to in this manner will never be identified by the writer.

Substitution A word is not omitted, as in ellipsis,

but is substituted for another, more general word.

• Example: • "Which ice-cream would you like?" – "I

would like the pink one" where "one" is used instead of repeating "ice-cream." 

Ellipsis

Ellipsis is another cohesive device. It happens when, after a more specific mention, words are omitted when the phrase needs to be repeated.

Example: A simple conversational example:

• (A) Where are you going?• (B) To town.

The full form of B's reply would be: "I am going to town".

Example: A simple written example: 

• The younger child was very outgoing, the older much more reserved.

The omitted words from the second clause are "child" and "was".

Conjunction sets up a relationship between two

clauses. the most basic but least cohesive is the

conjunction and.  transitions are conjunctions that add

cohesion to text and include then, however, in fact, and consequently.

can also be implicit and deduced from correctly interpreting the text.

Lexical Cohesion

a linguistic device which helps to create unity of text and discourse. In contrast to grammatical cohesion, lexical cohesion “[…] is the cohesive effect achieved by the selection of vocabulary.” (Halliday 1994).

Categories Repetition- sometimes called reiteration, is

the most direct and obvious source of lexical cohesion since it is the mere identical recurrence of a preceding lexical item.

Synonymy- refers to “[…] the fact of two or more words or expressions having the same meaning.” In this case, “[…] lexical cohesion results from the choice of a lexical item that is in some sense synonymous with a preceding one […]” (Halliday and Hasan, 1976: 331). 

Different types of synonymy

(a) with identity of reference: Here, lexical cohesion is established by synonyms in the narrower sense on the one hand and superordinates on the other hand, both types referring back to the same entity.

• Example: I heard a sound, but I couldn’t figure out where that noise came from.

-> Noise refers back to sound. Both terms have the same level of generality and are therefore synonyms in the narrower sense.

Different types of synonymy

• (b) without identity of reference: In this case, a lexical item that synonymously refers back to a preceding one is not of the same entity.

• Example: Why does this little boy have to wriggle all the time? Good boys don’t wriggle.

Different types of synonymy

Hyponymy: Describes a “specific-general” relationship between lexical items.

• Example: Then they began to meet vegetation – prickly cactus-like plants and coarse grass… .-> Plants and grass are specific parts of vegetation and therefore altogether form a cohesive relationship.

Different types of synonymy

Meronymy: Describes a “part-whole” relationship between lexical items.

• Example: She knelt down and looked along the passage into the loveliest garden you ever saw. How she longed to […] wander about among those beds of bright flowers and those cool fountains, […].-> Flowers and Fountains are typical parts of a garden and therefore altogether form a cohesive relationship.

Different types of synonymy

3. Antonymy: Describes a relationship between lexical items that have opposite meanings.

• Example: He fell asleep. What woke him was a loud crash.-> Asleep and woke are antonyms and therefore form a cohesive relationship

Categories Collocation-“[…] a natural combination of

words; it refers to the way English words are closely associated with each other.” (2005: 4).

it is the tendency of at least two lexical items to co-occur frequently in a language.

can serve as a source of lexical cohesion since it is “[…] one of the factors on which we build our expectations of what is to come next.” (Halliday and Hasan, 1976: 333).

Thank you