Discourse cohesion

Lecturer: Trần Hương Quỳnh

Group 3:
Đỗ Phương Hạnh
Phạm Thị Phương Thúy

Class K57C
 outline
I. Definition
II. Types of cohesion
1. Reference
2.Substitution
3.Ellipsis
4.Conjunction
5. Lexical cohesion
I. What is cohesion?

Cohesion is the grammatical

and lexical relationship within a
text or sentence. Cohesion can
be defined as the links that hold
a text together and give it
meaning
II. Types of cohesion
 Reference

Personal
reference
Anaphoric cataphoric comparative

Demonstrative
Anaphoric reference

 –refers back to somebody or something

that has already been mentioned
*ex:
1. My sister is 17 years old, she is a student.
2. Look at the sun ,it’s going down quickly.
Cataphoric reference
– refers to something in the coming text;
requires reader to ‘look forward’ in the
text.

*ex:
1. Here he comes, our teacher... he is Tom.
2.it’s going down quickly, the sun
3 sub-types of referential cohesion
 Personal reference.
Ex: Mike visited London, she realized that
this was a beautiful city.
 Demonstrative reference.
Ex: my son failed in the exam .This made
him feel bored.
 Comparative reference.
Ex: This hat is too small. I need a bigger one.
 Substitution
 Substitution refers to the replacement of one
item by another.

 Words like one, do, so are common pro-forms.

- Nominal substitution : one ,ones ,same
A: "Which ice-cream would you like?“
B: "I would like the pink one"
-Verbal substitution: do
A: You think Joan already knows?
B:I think everybody does.
- Clausal substitution :so ,not
A: ‘Are you buying the green jumper?’
B: ‘I don’t think so’
Ellipsis
 It happens when, after a more specific
mention, words are omitted when the phrase
needs to be repeated.
Ex : (A) Where are you going?
(B) To town.
 Nominal ellipsis
My kids play an awful lot of sport.
Both()are incredibly energetic.
 Verbal ellipsis
A: Has she been working ?
B: Yes , she has()
 Clausal ellipsis
John can play something, but I don’t know
what John can play
John can play something, but I don’t know
what()
 Conjunction

 Conjunction refers to the logical-semantic

relations between elements in discourse.
 Conjunction is usually realized by
conjunctives or connectives. Examples
include then, however, in fact, and
consequently.
 Additive: and, and also, nor, or else
 Adversative: yet, though, only, but,
however, on the other hand
 Causal: because, so, then, therefore,
consequently
 Temporal: first, then, next, after that,
finally
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.
- Two major kinds of lexical cohesion :
reiteration & collocation
1. Reiteration
 (a) Repetition
 (b) Synonym
 (c) Super-ordinate
 (d) General word
2. Collocation
1. Reiteration
 Is a form of lexical cohesion which involves
repetition, synonym or near synonym,
super- ordinate and general word
Example:
There’s a boy climbing that tree.
1.The boy’s going to fall if he does not take
care.
(repeated: boy)
 2. The lad ‘s going to fall if he does not take
care
(form of synonym: lad)
3. The child’s going to fall if he does not take
care.
(Super ordinate: child )

4. The idiot’s going to fall if he does not take

care.
(general word: idiot )
2. Collocation
 is concerned with how words go together.
 A lexical collocation is a type of
construction where a verb, noun, adjective
or adverb forms a predictable connection
with another word, as in:
*Adverb + Adjective: completely satisfied
*Adjective + Noun: beautiful day
*Verb + Noun: commit suicide