Grammatical C0HESIVE DEVICES

Prepared by Linh Nguyen, ULIS-VNU

Cohesive devices

Grammatical cohesion

Logical cohesion

Lexical cohesion
Nguyen, H. (2000)

Cohesive devices Reference Substitution

Ellipsis
Conjunctive cohesion Lexical cohesion
Hoang, V.V. (1999)

I. reference
Reference: The principle of reference within texts is that the reader / listener can only make complete sense of the word or structure they are looking at if they look elsewhere in the text to get a fuller picture.

REFERENCE

EXOPHORIC REFERENCE

ENDOPHORIC REFERENCE

ANAPHORIC REFERENCE

CATAPHORIC REFERENCE

I. reference
exophoric reference: Where a reference item moves us outside a text so that we can only make full sense of the text by referring to its context.

Eg: The government are to blame for unemployment.

I. reference
anaphoric reference: If a reference is referring back to something anaphoric reference markers: pronouns (he, she, it, they, etc), article the, and such items as this, that, these, those, here, the foregoing, the former, the latter, such a.

I. reference
Eg:
Some people think that they can

become rich without working hard. Thats a big mistake.

I. reference
cataphoric reference: if it is referring to something coming later.
cataphoric reference markers: pronouns (he, she, it, they, etc), this, here, these, as follows, the following, thus, below,

I. reference
Eg:
They pressed round him to take their

money. Andy, Dave, Bob, Phil and Stephen.

(Graham Swift, The Sweet Shop Owner)

REFERENCE PERSONAL REFERENCE

I, me, my, mine, it, its, etc

DEMONSTRATIVE REFERENCE
the; this, these, that, those; here, there, now, then, etc.

COMPARATIVE REFERENCE
same, other, different, more, less, further, etc

practice 1
My mother looked up at the stars. There were plenty of them up there. She lifted her hand. It swayed as she chose one. Her finger pointed. -Theres my little Henry up there. Look [at] it. I looked, her other little Henry sitting beside her on the step. I looked up and hated him. She held me but she looked up at her twinkling boy. [Roddy Doyle (1999) A Star Called Henry: Vintage edition, 2000, p. 1]

practice 1
The two parties agreed upon the

following items and conditions. They shall cooperate in good faith to ensure the success of the project.
This should interest you if you are

keen on boxing. The World Championship is going to be held in Chicago next month.

practice 1
The schoolmaster was leaving the

village, and everybody seemed sorry. The miller at Cresscobe lent him the small white cart and horse to carry his goods to the city of his destination, about twenty miles off, such a vehicle proving quite sufficient for the teacher.
(Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure)

Ii. Ellipsis
ellipsis: the omission of elements normally required by the grammar which the speaker / writer assumes are obvious from the context and therefore need not be raised. So the structure has a missing element which is supplied by the context.

Ii. Ellipsis
Eg:

You label and Ill stack

(two people labelling and stacking documents) -

How much does it cost you?

- 60 dollars

Ii. Ellipsis
types of ellipsis: English has broadly three types of ellipsis: nominal, verbal and clausal.

Ii. Ellipsis
Nominal ellipsis: the noun phrase is

missing Eg: Nelly liked the green tiles; I preferred the blue.

Ii. Ellipsis
Verbal ellipsis: the verb phrase is

missing Eg: - Has she remarried yet?. - No, but she will one day.

Ii. Ellipsis
Clausal ellipsis: the clause is missing

Eg:

- Will they loose the game?

- Probably.

iIi. substitution
substitution: the device to show the relationship between sentences and at the same time avoids repetition.
Substitution is similar to ellipsis in that

there is also a missing element. But here, the deleted element is replaced by another item.

Iii. substitution
types of substitution: In response to the types of ellipsis, there are also three types of substitution: nominal, verbal and clausal.

iIi. substitution
Nominal substitution: the items used

are one, ones, all, any, each, either, neither, some, none.

Eg:
I dont like this vase. Give me the black one.

iIi. substitution
Verbal substitution: the items used

are the auxiliaries (do, can, may, should, etc.) Eg: - John does smoke? - Im sure he does.

iIi. substitution
Clausal substitution: the items used

are too, do so, so do, do that, do it. Eg: - I want to go home - Me too.

Practice 2
My brothers want to go into business.

None wants to go to university.

Mr. Kerry now has 562 of the 2,162

delegates needed to win the Democratic presidential nomination

There are 24 members in my class.

All are from Hanoi.

Practice 2
He said he would take early

retirement as soon as he could and he has.

- Is it hard work?

- Of course.
- Is she leaving tomorrow?

- I think so.

iv. parcelling
parcelling: a way of indicating textual cohesion, by which we mean placing a syntactically dependent sentenceelement out of its usual frame and setting it off by a full stop like an independent unit.

iv. parcelling
It is observed that parcelling serves the

purpose of focusing on certain part of information which could be otherwise lost if it were placed in its usual position. Eg: Rain. Wind. Thunder. The frenzy of nature cannot stop them from taking their last journey to freedom.

v. structural parallelism
structural parallelism: If two or more sentences have identical or very similar structure, this parallelism may serve as a means of connecting sentences.

Eg: Theres a will, theres a way.

practice 3
Comment on the following: (1) The procecuting officer takes his seat at a little table to the left of her. He spreads a few documents in front of her. Not many, but enough for a sentence of death.

practice 3
(2) Wherever theres despair, we bring hope
Wherever theres fear, we bring confidence

practice 3
(3) Im very much in this for the long

haul, he said. My strategy has been the same all along: Continue to win delegates; continue to move in a serious and substantial way.
(John Edwards speech at his home state during his campaign for Democratic Presidential nomination)