Text Analysis

COHESION &
COHERENCE

 Text and discourse analysis is one area of linguistics, the

systematic study of language
The best way to understand what text and discourse
analysis is about is to compare it with another area of
linguistics: grammar
Grammar (or syntax) deals mainly with the structure of
individual sentences. For instance, the rules of English
grammar tell us that if some words are combined as in
example 1, it would be acceptable and in example 2 is
unacceptable
1. If you want advice or practical help with health matters, ask
your family doctor, district nurse or health visitor
2. Visitor health or nurse district, doctor family you ask,
matters health with help practical or advice you want if.

Grammar, then, is basically how words are combine to form

sentences
The focus is not correct grammar but describing how
people do speak and write

Grammar in text analysis

 A text or a discourse is a stretch of language that

may be longer than one sentence . Thus its about
how sentences are combined to form texts.
Compare sentence 1 and 2 below. Are they
grammatical? Do the sentences in the text hang
together?
1. Its practically impossible to restrain children when
they get to grips with technology. Which is why the
computer equipment used in schools has to be
designed and built to a standard above and beyond
the normal call of duty. A standard thats set by
Research Machines.
2. Which is why the computer equipment used in
schools has to be designed and built to a standard
above and beyond the normal call of duty. Its
practically impossible to restrain children when they
get to grips with technology. A standard thats set by
Research Machines.

Text and Discourse

o Halliday and Hasan (1976)

o Cohesion is linguistically explicit and signals
underlying semantic relationships between
text elements.
o Coherence: underlying organiser which
makes the words and sentences into a unified
discourse that conforms to a consistent world
picture. A coherent text is meaningful,
unified, and gives the impression of "hanging
together".

Cohesion and coherence

Cohesion
Cohesion is continuity in word and sentence structure.
Cohesion is limited to the linguistic to the linguistic markers
that cue the comprehenders on how to build such coherence
representation.
Cohesion emphasizes discourse as product.
There are five different types of cohesion: reference,
substitution, ellipsis, conjunction, and lexical
cohesion.
However, these have been further refined and the five
categories have been reduced into four, with substitution
being seen as a sub category of ellipsis.
It is the non-structural resources for discourse.
The cohesive devices themselves do not create the
relationships in the text; what they do is to make the
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relationship explicit.

Referential Cohesion [1]

There are two kinds of reference: Exophora
(Situational) and Endophora (Textual). Textual
reference consists of Anaphora & Cataphora.
Referential cohesion consists of
(1) anaphoric (preceding the text) & cataphoric
reference (following the text)
(2) personal, demosntrative, and comparative
reference
Anaphoric reference points the reader or listener
backwards to a previously mentioned entity,
process, or state of affairs. Cataphoric reference
points the reader or listener forwardit draws us
further into the text in order to identify the elements
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to which the reference item refer. (see the example)

Reference

Fig of Reference

Referential Cohesion [2]

Halliday & Hasan (1976) identify three sub-types of
referential cohesionpersonal, demonstrative, and
comparative.
Personal reference items are expressed through
pronoun and determiners. e.g. I, you, my, ours, etc.
Demonstrative reference is expressed through
determiners and adverbs. e.g. this, those, here, then,
etc.
Comparative reference is expressed through
adjectives and adverbs and serves to compare items
within text in terms of identity or similarity. e.g. same,
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identical, different, better, less, etc.

Substitution & Ellipsis

Ellipsis is described as a form of substitution in which
the original item is replaced by zero. e.g. My axe is
too blunt. I must get a sharper one.
There are three types of substitutionnominal (one,
ones, same) , verbal (do) and clausal (so, not).
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. e.g. This is a fine hall you have here.
Ive never lectured in a finer.
As with substitution, there are three types of ellipsis
nominal (Which hat will you wear? This is the
best), verbal (What should she have done? Told
the police), and clausal (Is it Tuesday today?10I
dont know).

Conjunction
Conjunction differs from reference, substitution,
and ellipsis in that it is not a device for reminding
the reader of previously mentioned entities, action,
and state of affairs. In other words, it is not what a
linguist call an anaphoric relation. However, it is a
cohesive relation because it signals relationship
that can only be fully understood through reference
to other parts of text.
There are 4 types of conjunctiontemporality,
causality, addition, and adversity (contrast).
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Lexical Cohesion [1]

Lexical cohesion occurs when two words in text are
semantically related in some wayin other words
they are related in terms of their meaning. In
Halliday & Hasan (1976), the two major categories
of lexical cohesion are reiteration and collocation.
Reiteration includes repetition, synonym or near
synonym, superordinate, and general word.
Reiteration fulfills a similar semantic function to
cohesive reference. (see example)
Collocation can cause major problems for discourse
analysis because it includes all those items in a text
that are semantically related. In some cases, this
makes it difficult to decide for certain whether
cohesive relationship exists or not.
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Lexical Cohesion [2]

The problem arise because collocation is expressed
through open rather than closed class items. Closed lexical
items include all grammatical wordssuch as pronouns,
conjunction, and prepositionmembership of which is
finite.
Many lexical relationship are text as well as context-bound.
This means that words and phrases that are related in one
text may not be related in another.
The background knowledge of the reader or listener plays a
most obvious role in the perception of lexical relationship
than in the perception of other types of
cohesion.
Collocational pattern, for example, will only be perceived
by someone who knows something about the subject at
hand. The text-bound nature of many lexical relations, and
the role of language user in perceiving these creates a
problem for linguist concerned with providing a semantic
account of lexical cohesion.
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Categories of discourse cohesion

o Cohesion and coherence are related notions, but they

are clearly distinct. There are two types of views
concerning their relationship.
a) Cohesion is neither necessary nor sufficient to
account for coherence.

A: That's the telephone.

B: I'm in the bath.

A: O.K.
(Widdowson, 1978, p. 12)
b) Cohesion is necessary, though not sufficient in the
creation of coherent texts. In other words, cohesion is a
crucial though not exclusive factor contributing to
coherence, since it facilitates the comprehension of
underlying semantic relations.

Relationship between
cohesion andcoherence

Coherence
The term cohesion applies to the surface structure
of the text and the concepts and relation underlying
its meaning.
Coherence is a continuity in meaning and context.
Coherence can be reserved for conceptual
relationship that comprehenders use construct a
coherent mental representation accomodated by
what is said in discourse.
Coherence emphasizes discourse as process.
Cohesion alone is not sufficient for the
interpretation of the discourse. Comprehenders
generate inferences on the basis of background
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knowledge and discourse constraints.

 A coherent text has certain words and

expression in it which link the sentences
together
Cohesive devices are only one factor in
making a text coherent.
Just as important in making a text coherent
are the intentions, expectations, and the
backgroud knowledge of the text producer
and text receiver

Coherence

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Cohesion & Coherence

Cohesion & coherence can be divided into local
(microstructure) & Global (macrostructure).
Local cohesion & coherence concern the interrelatedness
between adjacent discourse segment.
Global cohesion & coherence concern the interrelatedness
of longer span of discourse.
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o How does cohesion contribute to coherence in native

speech/writing?
o How does cohesion contribute to coherence in non-native
speech/writing?
o Comparison of cohesion in native and non-native
speech/writing;
o Comparing cohesion in different genres (newspaper
articles, novels, informal letters, informal dialogues, etc.);
o Cohesion in child language and adult language;
o Cohesion at the different levels of language proficiency;
o Cohesion in different languages;
o Cohesion in disordered vs. normal talk;
o Cohesion in translations;
o Teaching cohesion to non-native speakers.

Some areas of investigation