Cohesion in English
The various kinds of cohesion had been out lined by MAK Halliday
in his writings on stylistics and the concept was developed by Ruqayia Hasan in
her University of Edinburgh doctoral thesis.
Cohesive relations are relations between two or more elements in
a text that are independent of the structure: for example between a personal
pronoun and an antecedent proper name, such as John ….he. A semantic relation
of this kind may be set up either within a sentence with the consequence that
when it crosses a sentence boundary it has the effect of making the two
sentences cohere with one another.
The major function of cohesion is text formation. As defined:
text is a unified whole of linguistic items, this unity of text as a semantic
whole is source for the concept of cohesion.
So first we will explore the concept of text.
Text
Text in linguistics refers to any passage
spoken written of whatever length that forms a unified whole. A reader can
easily identify whether the passage he is reading is a text or otherwise a
collection of unrelated sentences. A text may be: spoken, written, prose,
verse, dialogue, monologue, single proverb, a single cry for help or all day
discussion on a committee. A text is a unit of language in use. A grammatical
unit that is larger than a sentence. A text is not something that is like a
sentence only bigger or larger. It is misleading. Rather text can be best
defined as a semantic unit; a unit not of form but of meaning. If it is
semantic unit, we will not expect to find it in structure of a sentence as a
grammatical unit as phrase, clause etc.
So text is not consist of sentence but it is realized by
sentence or encoded in sentences.
There are certain objective factors involved
that constitute a text.
Constituents of Text
1.
Texture:
2.
Ties:
3.
Cohesion
1. Texture:
Texture is that feature of text which made it a unified whole.
According to ‘The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics by
P.H. Mathews’ cohesion and coherence are sources which create texture. Crystal
adds ‘informativeness’ to cohesion and coherence.
Example:
Wash and core six
cooking apples. Put them into a fireproof dish.
Here them reference back to six cooking
apples to create cohesion between the two sentences. Here we make a
presupposition about the relationship between them and sixcooking
apples but it is not enough only to make a presupposition rather that
presupposition must be satisfied to create texture as shown in the example .
These two items are co referential and this coreferentiality creates texture.
Here are five cohesive devices to create texture:
(i) Reference
(ii) Substitution
(iii) Ellipses
(iv) Conjunction
(v) Lexical Cohesion
2. Ties
The term refers to a single instance of cohesion.
Example:
Wash and core six cooking apples. Put them into
a fireproof dish.
Them and six cooking apples show reference as
tie.
If we take the Example:
Wash and core six cooking apples. Put the
apples into a fireproof dish.
Here are two ties
(i) Reference
(ii) Repetition
Cohesive analysis of text is made in terms of tie for a
systematic account of its patterns which are a source for texture. Onward we
will use the term ‘cohesive tie’ in place of ‘tie’.
Here are five different kinds of cohesive ties that are also
called cohesive devices:
(i) Reference
(ii) Substitution
(iii) Ellipses
(iv) Conjunction
(v) Lexical cohesion
MAKH and RH have based their model of cohesion on these cohesive
ties. A detailed review is given here in the proceeding discussion.
3. Cohesion
‘The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics
by P.H. Mathews (1997)’ defines cohesion in term of syntactic unit (sentence).
‘ A Dictionary Of Linguistics And Phonetics by
David Crystal (1997)’ defines cohesion in terms of a grammatical unit (words)
MAKH and RH (1976) argued that the concept of
cohesion is semantic one. For them it refers to relation of meaning that:
exists with in text
gives the text texture
defines the text as text
This relation of meaning between the elements gives the reader
presupposition. This is another way of approaching the notion of cohesion that
presupposing and the presupposed give us a presupposition at semantic level as
a relation of meaning: The one element presupposes the other i.e. the one
element cannot be decoded without the presupposed.
Example:
Time flies
You can’t; they fly too quickly.
You
can’t (Ellipses)
They (Reference)
Fly (Lexical
Cohesion)
Types OF Cohesion
Language is multiple coding system comprising three levels of
coding:
Ø Meaning The
semantic system
Ø Wording The
lexicogrammatical system
(grammar an
vocabulary)
Ø Sounding/writing The
phonological and orthographical system
Cohesive relation fit into the overall pattern of language.
Cohesion is expressed partly through vocabulary and partly through grammar.
:
1. Grammatical Cohesion
(i) Reference
(ii) Substitution
(iii) Ellipses
2. Lexical Cohesion
The distinction between grammatical cohesion
and Lexical cohesion is a matter of degree and MAHK RH suggested not to go in
the depth of these overlapping areas and that conjunction is on the border line
of the two types mainly it is grammatical but with the lexical component so we
cannot clearly distinguish between the two types.
Cohesion and the Linguistics Structure
Texture and Structure
Structure is one mean of expressing texture.
Text consists of one sentence are fairly rare but they can be single sentences
as well for Example
No smoking
Wonder never cease
But most of the text extends beyond the
confines of single sentences so structure is important in a text as structural
units such as phrase, clause and sentence which express the unity of text. But
our use of term Cohesion refers especially to the non structural text forming
relation. They are semantic relations and the text is a semantic unit.
Cohesion With in the Text
Since cohesive relation is not concerned with
structure, they may be found just as well with in the sentence as between
sentences cohesive relation are beyond the sentences boundaries. Cohesion is
semantic relation between one element in the text and some other element that
is crucial for its interpretation. This other element must also be found with
in the text. Cohesion refers to the range of possibilities that exist for
linking something with what has gone before.
The
Place of Cohesion in the Linguistics System
Halliday (1985) has described three major
functional semantic components:
(i) The Ideational
(ii) The Interpersonal
(iii) The Textual
Table: the place of cohesion in the description of English
functional components of semantic system
Ideational
|
Interpersonal
|
Textual
|
|||
Experiential
|
Logical
|
Structural
|
Non-structural
|
||
By
Rank:
Clause:
Transitivity
Verbal
Group:
Tense
Nominal
Group:
Epithesis
Adverbial
Group:
circmstance
|
All
Ranks:
Practice
and hypotactic
relations
(condition,
addition,
report)
|
By
Ranks
Clause:
Mood,
modality
Verbal
Group:
person
Nominal
Group:
attitude
Adverbial
Group:
comment
|
By
Rank
Clause:
theme
Verbal
Group:
voice
Nominal
Group:
deixis
Adverbial
Group:
conjunction
|
Cross-Rank
Information
Unit:
Information
distribution,
Information
focus
|
Cohesion
Reference
Substitution
Ellipses
Conjunction
Lexical
cohesion
|
Conclusion
Cohesion is a part of text forming component
in the linguistics system. It links together the elements that are structurally
unrelated through the dependence of one on the other for its interpretation.
Without cohesion the semantic system cannot be effectively activated at all.
