The difference of the presence or absence of cohesion for a text is illustrated in the following examples:. While the set of sentences in 1 seems to make sense, i. There is no possibility to relate the three sentences in 2 to each other, not even by changing their position. The difference between 1 and 2 is the presence and absence of cohesion, or better, of so-called cohesive ties. By using the concept of cohesive ties, it is possible to count the amount of instances of cohesion within a given text.
Looking at the first examples, it is possible to identify a number of such cohesive ties in 1 , while there are no such ties in 2. The absence of such cohesive ties in 2 discard the label text for the three given sentences, because of their unrelatedness to each other. A text needs texture and this texture can only be created by the presence of cohesive ties. In other words, sentences are linked by relational elements which combine them to a unified whole that can be called a text.
This process, which combines sentences to a meaningful unit, is called cohesion and can be subdivided into the categories: reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction and lexical cohesion.
However, cohesion does not only occur in what could be called a cohesive pair, where one only one element refers to another element in a preceding or subsequent sentence and thus forms a cohesive tie which connects the two sentences with each other. So-called cohesive chains frequently occur within a text in which one element of a sentence is cohesively connected to other elements of preceding or subsequent sentences.
In some of these cases one element is only indirectly linked to another one, and it is only through cohesive devices that these links become apparent cf. It is also necessary to state that the concept of cohesion is closely connected to the concept of coherence. Together with grammatical cohesion, lexical cohesion forms one of the seven standards of textuality, namely cohesion. Therefore, a short explanation of the term itself as well as the difference between grammatical and lexical cohesion is given before focus is set on lexical cohesion and its different types.
The types of lexical cohesion are the main topic of this paper. The given definitions and explanations aim to show what lexical cohesion is about, and the examples demonstrate how lexical cohesion works in a text. The types of lexical cohesion presented in this term paper refer to the classification of Schubert, who names the following ones: repetition, sense relations including synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy as well as meronymy, paraphrase, and collocation.
Moreover, definitions of the terms underline the explained types and contribute to a clear understanding. Cohesion is, such as coherence, a text-internal standard of textuality 1. Therefore, it is not a user-centred but a text-centred notion. From these explanations we learn that cohesion is about how spoken or written words are linked to each other, and that cohesive ties are the devices that hold a text together.
These cohesive ties can be distinguished on a grammatical as well as on a lexical level. Since cohesion does not only occur on a lexical level, but also on a grammatical- structural basis, the difference is stated at this point. While grammatical cohesion is based on the structural content of a text and how these structures are woven together, lexical cohesion is based on lexical knowledge i. Consequently, grammatical cohesion looks at structure in a text, and lexical cohesion looks at the actual words.
These grammatical structures are found on the surface of a text, while lexical cohesion already reaches underneath the surface, tackling the meaning of words. Lexical cohesion refers to the relations created between lexical items Schubert , Therefore, when talking about lexical cohesion, it is about ties between words or phrases and moreover, it helps to create text unity.
These statements infer that our choice of words is the basis of coherence in a text or in an utterance, which implies in turn a certain general knowledge. According to Schubert , 62 , lexical cohesion can be divided into four groups, which are mostly further subdivided:. A prevalent type of lexical cohesion is repetition, also known as recurrence. Repetition is the most obvious type of lexical cohesion.
However, it is not restricted to the repetition of the same morphological form of the lexical item. If a word reoccurs in a different morphological form, e. Examples for partial repetition are Schubert , 47f :.
Repetition contributes to clearness and continuity in text, which means it helps to avoid ambiguity. Nontheless, very frequent repetition might reduce the level of informativity by producing redundancy. Here, the second occurrence of dog refers back to the first one.
Therefore, repetition is related to pro-forms of grammatical cohesion. Nevertheless, repetition is more explicit and does not imply to look for a reference. Language and Literature 16 1 , Here is an amateur production of Top Girls; the stretch of dialogue occurs at 6.
Dialogue is a staple of literature, but it is unlike real speech and has evolved stage conventions of its own, including discrete turn-taking. There need not be cohesion although there usually is , but the audience has to be able to interpret the dialogue coherently, if it is to function as such. The University of Cambridge Faculty of English would like to thank the copyright holders for granting permissions to reproduce the texts used in this English Language Online Course.
Every effort was made to clear permissions of all extracts reprinted in this English Language Online Course, and the Faculty of English would be very happy to hear from copyright holders we have been unable to trace. You can view the latest copyright clearance list here. Definition of the terms Cohesion and Coherence.
Demonstration of Cohesion in action. Literary Exercise. They look at menus. NIJO his prayers he would have gone straight to heaven. Hennie did good works. JOAN Nothing to start with for me, thank you.
NIJO the past. I think that was repentance. Compare your answer with the sample answer below: Commentary It is relatively easy, in this extract, to pick out the lexical cohesion — and the author has helped by making it explicit via her notation system.
They were shot by the sheriff! Example 4 demonstrative reference 1 There I was born and grew up. There I met him, my beloved one. There we raised our kids. There, in a small town called Slawi. Can I have the lighter, please? Substitution is the replacem replacement of one item by another, and ellipsis iss the omission of an item.
But the mechanisms involved in the two are rather different, diffe and also, at least in the complex Halliday and Hasan8, case of ellipsis, fairly complex. English London: Longman, , p. These substitution is aimed at avoiding the similar words to be repeated exactly at the next sentences or clauses. The examples of each type of substitution is presented below. Example 6 nominal substitution 1 My axe is too blunt. I must get a sharper one. I wish I had the same now.
Example 7 verbal substitution 1 You think Joan already knows? All of your friends did! Example 8 clausal substitution Halliday and Hasan9, 2 Do you think that the assignment will due this week? I hope not! Ellipsis occurs when something that is structurally necessary is left unsaid, as it is has been understood already. This is not quite the same thing as saying that we can tell from the strtucture of an item whether it is elliptical or not.
For practical purposes we often can; but it is not in fact the structure which makes it elliptical. An item is elliptical if its structure does not express all the features that have gone into its make-up - all the meaningful choices that are embodied in it.
This is a fine hall you have here. I've never lectured in a finer one. I've never lectured in a finer.
In nominal ellipsis, the Noun is omitted. Example 10 nominal ellipsis —the omitted noun is bracketed 1 They do not like it, yet they said nothing. Example 11 verbal ellipsis 1 Have you been swimming?
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