4) Lexical cohesion is a linguistic device which helps to create unity of text and discourse.
In contrast to grammatical cohesion, lexical cohesion “[…] is the cohesive effect achieved by the selection of vocabulary.” (Halliday 1994). Thus, a speaker or writer’s either conscious or unconscious selection of certain lexical items that are in some way connected to each other creates lexical cohesion.
Lexical cohesion includes:
1)repetition,
2)synonymy a) antonymy, b) hyponymy
3)collocation
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5) Conjunction and transitions
Conjunction sets up a relationship between two clauses. The most basic but least cohesive is the conjunction and.
Transitions are conjunctions that add cohesion to text and include then, however, in
fact, and consequently.
Conjunctions can also be implicit and deduced from correctly interpreting the text.
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Grammatical cohesion
The logical and structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology and syntax, often complemented by phonetics, phonology, semantics, and pragmatics.
NB! Grammatical and lexical cohesion overlap
The conjunction is the border line between the two types
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2. Coherence of the text
- is what makes a text semantically meaningful.
is achieved through syntactical features:
a)the use of deictic, anaphoric and cataphoric elements or a logical tense structure,
b)presuppositions and implications connected to general world knowledge.
The purely linguistic elements that make a text coherent are subsumed under the term cohesion.
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In short,
Cohesion is formal integrity
Coherence is meaning
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Coherence concerns the ways in which concepts and relations, which underlie the surface text, are linked, relevant and used, to achieve efficient communication.
Relations are the links between concepts within a text, with each link identified with the concept that it connects to.
Types of relations of coherence:
Causality
Enablement Reason Purpose
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Causality
Hush-a-by baby On the tree top,
When the wind blows
The cradle will rock.
When the bough breaks,
The cradle will fall,
And down will fall baby
Cradle and all.
The wind causes the cradle to rock, the broken in the wind bough causes the cradle to fall
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Enablement
Jack and Jill went up the hill
To fetch a pail of water.
Jack fell down and broke his crown,
And Jill came tumbling after
(Jack and Jill’s going up |
|
the hill makes possible |
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Reason
Little Jack Horner Sat in the corner,
Eating a Christmas pie; He put in his thumb, And pulled out a plum,
And said 'What a good boy am I!’
(“I’m a good boy because I‘ve pulled out a plum out of the pie”)
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Purpose
“Pussy cat, pussy cat, where have you been?" "I've been up to London to visit the Queen." "Pussy cat, pussy cat, what did you there?"
"I frightened a little mouse under her chair“
(visiting the queen was the purpose of cat’s going to London)
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