Cadi Ayyad University- FLSH Semester Four
Doctor Abdelkebir Elalouani
Lecture2: Cohesion
Review of Lecture 1
Main Assumptions and Principles of Discourse Analysis
• Discourse is a form of using language according to the context.
• Discourses have, apart from verbal and written forms extended to any semiotic
element.
• DA enables people to think critically.
• It can lead to fundamental changes in the practice of institutions, professions and
society as a whole.
• It is challenging but rewarding.
• It is a crossdisciplinary approach and beneficial to reserachers in different fields
• Language (discursive practices) constructs social reality, shapes knowledge, and
maintains or challenges ideologies and power structures.
Objectives of Lecture 2
• By the end of this lecture, students will be able to:
• Define cohesion.
• Recognize cohesive devices.
• Analyse a stretch of discourse for cohesive ties.
Outline of Lecture 2
• Definition of Cohesion
• Grammatical Cohesion
• Lexical Cohesion
• Halliday and Hasan's (1976) Cohesion Taxonomy
• Analysis
Definition of Cohesion
Nunan (1993, p. 21) defines cohesive ties as “words and phrases which enable the
writer or speaker to establish relationships across sentence or utterance boundaries, and
which help to tie the sentences in a text together”. There are different types of cohesive
ties: Reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction, and lexical cohesion.
Halliday and Hasan's (1976) Cohesion Taxonomy
Halliday and Hasan (1976) define cohesion as what occurs when the interpretation of some
elements in the discourse is dependent on that of another. The one presupposes the other in the
sense that it cannot be effectively decoded except by recourse to it. Halliday and Hasan
(1976) identified five types of cohesion: reference cohesion, substitution cohesion, ellipsis,
conjunction, and lexical cohesion. The first three types fall under the category of grammatical
cohesion. Lexical cohesion on the other hand refers to relationships between any lexical item
and some previously occurring lexical item in the text quite independently of the grammatical
category of the items in question (…) Conjunctive cohesion lies on the borderline between
grammatical cohesion and lexical cohesion.
I-REFERENCE COHESION
1- Personal Reference
a-Personal pronouns: I, me, you, we, us, him, her, they, them, it
b-Personal determiners (the possessives): my, mine, your, yours, his, her, hers, their, theirs, its
c-Relative pronouns: who, which, etc.
2-demonstrative reference
a- Determiners: the, this, there, that, those
Many students do not prepare their lessons. This may affect their comprehension. (Anaphoric
reference)
This book is mine. (Cataphoric reference)
b- Demonstrative adverbs: here, there, then
3- comparative reference:
Nunan (1993, p. 24) states that “Comparative reference is expressed through adjectives and
adverbs and serves to compare items within a text in terms of identity or similarity”.
a-Comparative adjectives: same, identical, equal, other, different, more, better, etc.
A: Would you like to buy this book?
B: No, as a matter of fact, I’d like to buy the other book. (Adjective)
A: The last copy is found in that big room. (Adjective)
b-Comparative adverbs: similarly, differently, more, less, etc.
I read books more often nowadays.
She began to walk more quickly.
She has a similarly furnished room to mine. (Adverb)
II- Substitution cohesion
Substitution refers to the substitution of a word or expression by another one. There are three
types of substitution: Nominal, verbal, and clausal.
1-Nominal Substitution:
-Can you give me a glass? - There is one on the table.
There are some new books on the table. These ones are interesting.
2-Verbal Substitution:
Every child likes chocolate and I think my son does too.
3-clausal substitution:
-Latecomers will not be allowed in school after 8.00 a.m. the headmaster says so.
• A:Is Jack going to Paris?
• B: I think so (he is going to Paris).
• I hope not/ I suppose not.
III-Ellipsis
“Ellipsis occurs when some essential structural element is omitted from a sentence or clause
and can only be recovered by referring to an element in the preceding text.” (Nunan, 1993, p.
25). There are nominal, verbal, and clausal ellipses.
1-Nominal ellipsis:
These are my two dogs. I used to have four.
• A: Would you prefer the red dress?
• B: No, I prefer the green (0).
2-Verbal ellipsis:
• Teacher: Have you done the homework? John: Yes, I have (0).
3-Clausal ellipsis:
• Mary: Are you going to buy a new dress for my birthday? Mother: Yes
• Peter is getting married.
• B: Is he? he didn’t tell me (0)
IV-Conjunction
Nunan (1993) states that conjunction “signals relationships that can only be fully
understood through reference to other parts of the text” (p. 26). He adds that there are
four types of conjunction:
• a- Adversative: (however, on the other hand, but, etc.).
• b- Additive: (and, besides, moreover, etc.)
• c- Temporal: (first, then, finally, etc.)
• d- Causal: (because, because of, consequently, as a result, etc.)
V- Lexical cohesion
Nunan (1993, p. 28) states that “Lexical cohesion occurs when two words in a text
are semantically related in some way – in other words, they are related in terms of
their meaning”. He adds that there are two major categories of lexical cohesion:
Reiteration and Collocation.
A-Reiteration
• Reiteration Includes repetition, synonym or near synonym, superordinate, and general
word
• 1. repetition of a word or phrase;
• 2. synonymy (e.g. commonly, popularly);
• 3. antonymy (e.g. high, low);
• 4. hyponymy(e.g. job/mechanic; drink/tea);
Hyponymy is a semantic relationship where a specific word (hyponym)falls under a
broader category (hypernym or superordinate). Hyponyms allow for hierarchical
structuring of vocabulary, where hyponyms of the same category are called co-hyponyms.
• I have bought a new book. The book talks about an adventure. (Repetition)
• The room is dirty. I didn’t expect it to be unclean. (Synonyms)
• -Tubercolosis used to be incurable. This disease had killed millions. (Superordinate)
• A: Did you try fried fish and ships?
• B: Yes, I didn’t like the things much. (Nunan, 1993, p. 29) (General word)
B-Collocation
Nunan (1993, p. 29) states that collocation “includes all those items in a text that are
semantically related”.
-take/ fail/ pass an exam
-spend time/money
-make a mistake/ do a job
-have a class/fun/a pizza
-Michael has worked as a secretary for ten years.
-Bob is a nurse in a university hospital.
-Elizabeth, the taxi driver, wrote a novel.
Discourse Analysis Exercises
1-Analyze the following proverbs for cohesive ties
• Actions speak louder than words.
• Don't count your chickens before they hatch.
• A stitch in time saves nine.
• A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
• A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
• Birds of a feather flock together.
• When there’s smoke, there’s fire.
• You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.
2-Analyze the cohesive ties in this song
Blowing in the Wind (by Bob Dylan)
3-Analyse the following text for cohesive ties
Most people believed social changes are happening faster than ever. These changes aren’t
necessarily good ones. They believe things will turn out for the best eventually. Young people
are the most comfortable with change. People over 60 admit that changes are difficult. In their
personal lives, almost 50 percent of older people are happy with the way things are. They
wouldn’t change their names, their friends, their spouses, their families, their homes, or their
looks. They don’t want to change social class either, even if it would mean going to a higher
class. Many younger people would change all or some of those factors. Over 80 percent of
people polled believed that their personal happiness is a matter of personal effort. As for
difficult changes, the death of a spouse is the hardest change to endure. Divorce is the second
hardest. Older folks tend to remember high school graduation as a pleasant experience. Most
recent graduates disagree.