Lectures 3 and 4.

Coherence and cohesion. Main concepts, terminology and different ways of achieving
coherence.

Theory of Coherence

The term coherence is regarded as the link in a text that connects ideas and makes the flow of
thoughts meaningful and clear for readers (Castro, 2004).

The definition that came from Halliday and Hasan’s (1976:23) is: coherence refers to the
elements internal to a text which consist of cohesion and register.

Pearson, Roland & Speek, Barry Pennock (2005) states that coherence is an umbrella term for
many aspects, such as the sequencing of events covered in the text, completeness of the actions
or concept laid out in it and whether the text conforms to what we would expect from a piece of
writing belonging to a given genre.

Enkvist (1990) defines coherence as “the quality that makes a text conform to a consistent world
picture and is therefore summaries able and interpretable” and coherence is primarily related to
the nature and property of the text.

Like Enkvist, Brown and Yule (1983) believe that coherence depends primarily on the
interpretation of linguistic messages. Enkvist (1978) distinguishes between two types of semantic
connection:

(1) connection through cohesion in the surface level and

(2) connection through coherence in the profound level.

Theory of cohesion.

Since the term of cohesion in paragraph refers to the content relationship, Michael Halliday and
Ruquaiya Hasan propose five cohesive devices in English (1976) as a mark of cohesion in
discourse. Cohesion has some role of building up sentences in any given text. This comes
through the linking of different parts of a text to each other so that it gives a structure to a text. It
helps in hanging sentences together in a logical way, for having a right meaning. So, cohesion
has a relation with the broader concept of coherence.

According to Halliday and Hasan (1976:6) cohesion in English is to be classified into two broad
categories: grammatical cohesion and lexical cohesion. Grammatical cohesion is the surface
marking of semantic link between clauses and sentences in written discourse and between
utterances and turn in speech. Then, lexical cohesion refers to how the writer uses lexical items
such as verb, adjectives, nouns and adverbs to relate to the text consistently to its area of focus
(Eggins, 1994). It is signaled by means of lexical elements/vocabularies.

(Osisanwo, 2005:38) table

Reference therefore has the ability to point to something within or outside a text. Halliday and
Hassan (1976) states that coreferential forms are forms which instead of being interpreted
semantically in their own right make reference to something else for their interpretation. When
the interpretation is within the text, this is an endophoric relation but in a situation where the
interpretation of the text lies outside the text, in the context of situation, the relationship is
exophoric. However, exophoric relations play no part in textual cohesion. Endophoric relations
on the other hand, form cohesive ties within the text. Endophoric relations are also of two types:

1. anaphoric relations, which look back in the text for their interpretation and
2. cataphoric relations, which look forward to the text for their interpretation.

For instance, the following sentences show the use of reference.

a. ‘Go on back to the kitchen, nigger. You go with him, bright boy’.

b. ‘The clock says twenty minutes past five, the second man said ‘It’s twenty minutes fast’.

c. ‘What do you mean the nigger? The nigger that cooks.’

In the first sentence above, “him” refers back to “nigger” while “It’s” in the last sentence refers
back to “the clock”. This kind of references is referring to an anaphora (i.e. looking backward).
The other kind of reference, where the pronoun is given first and then kept in suspense as to its
identity, which is revealed later, is known as cataphora (i.e. looking forward). Examples:

a. ‘You go with him, bright boy’.

b. ‘I’ll tell you, ‘Max said. ‘We’re going to kill a Swede. Do you know a big Swede named Ole
Anderson?’

c. ‘Who’s out in the kitchen? The nigger’.

Referring expressions help to unify the text, develop relation between meanings and create
economy because they save writers from unnecessary repetition.

Grammatical cohesion includes devices such as: reference, substitution, ellipsis, and conjunction
(Tanskanen, 2006:15). Reference refers to items of language that instead of being interpreted
semantically in their own right, make reference to other item for which the context is clear to
both sender and receiver. In written text, reference indicates how the writer introduces
participant and keeps track of them throughout the text. According to Halliday and Hasan,
(1976:37) there are three main types of references:
 1. personal reference,
2. demonstrative reference, and
3. comparative reference.

The categories of personal reference includes:

1.1) personal pronouns, e.g I, me, you, him, she, he, her, we, us, they, them, it;

1.2) possessive determiners, e.g my, yours, their, its, our, his, her;

1.3) possessive pronouns, e.g. mine, yours, hers, theirs, ours.

The categories of demonstrative reference include three classes namely:

2.1) nominative demonstrative (this, that, these, those),

2.2) circumstantial demonstrative (here, there, now, then) and

2.3) definite article (the).

Comparative reference is classified into two kinds, namely:

3.1) “general” comparison and

3.2) “particular” comparison.

General comparison deals with comparison which is simply in terms of likeness and unlikeness,
without respect to any particular property: two things may be the same, similar or different
(where “different” includes both “not the same” and “not similar”).

Halliday and Hasan emphasize that substitution is a relation in the wording rather than in the
meaning. They also explain that there are three types of substitution, namely:

1. nominal (one/ones), “I have eaten your meal. I must get you another one”
2. verbal (do) and) “They’ll kill him. I guess they will”
3. clausal (so, not) ‘He must have got mixed up in something in Chicago’. ‘I guess so’.
‘They’re all right’. ‘You think so’.

Substitution, therefore, is presupposition of linguistic structure at the word and structural level.

Ellipsis is omission of elements normally required by the grammar which the speaker/writer
assumes as obvious from the context and therefore need not to be raised. The idea of omitting
part of sentences on the assumption that an earlier sentence will make the meaning clear is
known as ellipsis. There is:

1. nominal, “Do you know the big Swede named Ole Anderson? Yes I know”.
2. verbal “Which is yours? Ham and eggs”
 3. clausal ellipsis “I mean you got anything to drink? Just those I said”. ‘They are come
here and eat the big dinner. That’s right”.

Mather & Jaffe (2002: 1) state that conjunctions represent semantic relation that expresses how a
clause or statement is relate in meaning to a previous clause or statement; it is signal by a
specific connecting word or phrase. Halliday and Hasan also classify conjunction into four types,
namely:

1. adversative,
2. additive,
3. temporal and
4. causal

Another category of cohesion to be analysed is lexical cohesion. Halliday and Hassan have
classified lexical cohesion into two major categories, namely:

1. reiteration and
2. collocation.

Reiteration is a mechanism of producing cohesion in a text by means of repetition of two or

more lexical items that are observable at the surface of the text. The following is example of the
use of reiteration is a quote from Halliday and Hasan (1976: 279).

There is a boy climbing a tree.

a. The boy is going to fall if he doesn’t take care (repetition)

b. The lad is going to fall if he doesn’t take care (synonym)

c. The child is going to fall if he doesn’t take care (super ordinate)

d. The idiot is going to fall if he doesn’t take care (general word)

Collocation is achieved through the association of lexical items that regularly co occur. It
pertains to lexical items that are likely to be found together within the same lexical environment.
Have a look at the following example:

Plants characteristically synthesize complex organic substances from simple inorganic raw materials. In
green plant, the energy of this process is sunlight. The plants can use this energy because they process
the green pigment chlorophyll. Photosynthesis or light synthesis, is a self feeding, or autotrophic process
(Pearson, 1987 in Nunan, 1993:28)
In the text above it could be said that the following items are examples of lexical collocation
because they all belong to the scientific field of biology.

Despite from the two above mentioned elements of lexical cohesion, there should also be
mentioned the importance of synonyms and antonyms. Synonymic and antonymic relations may
be seen as explicit, but more interestingly as implicit ones. Each of you may provide examples of
synonymic and antonymic pairs.

Text 1.

The Killers: A Brief Overview

One winter evening, around dusk, while he is sitting at the end of a counter and talking to George, the
manager of a diner in Summit, Illinois, a small town south of Chicago, Nick Adams watches two over-
dressed strangers in black (Al and Max) entering the diner. After complaining about the serving
schedule, the two men order dinner, joking sarcastically about George and Nick being a couple of dumb
country boys. Finishing his meal, Al orders Nick and Sam, the Black cook, to the kitchen, where he ties
them up. Meanwhile, Max boasts to George that he and Al have been hired to kill Ole Andreson, an aging
boxer, who, they've heard, eats dinner there every night. When the boxer fails to show up in the diner, Al
and Max leave, and George hurries to untie Nick and Sam. He then suggests that Nick warn Andreson,
who lives in a nearby boarding house. When the boxer hears about Al and Max's plan to kill him, he's
unconcerned; he's tired, he says, of running. Nick leaves and returns to the diner, where he tells George
and Sam that he's leaving Summit because he can't bear to think about a man waiting, passively, to be
killed by a couple of hired killers.

Text Analysis

In given analysis we tried to highlight the prominent features present in the short story to make
the understanding easier for the readers as well as the hearers. Through the cohesive analysis the
style of the writer will be elaborated as the different one from the traditional short stories because
it is a thrilling story though it has some of its own specific features to call it thrilling. In the story
the most prominent feature is ellipsis which is used to create suspense and thrill throughout.
Ellipsis also creates a conversational realism in the story. Their discussion seems to be factual by
using the technique of ellipsis. Writer Earnest Hemingway used this skill deliberately for the
sake of genuineness in his story. He has used affirmative and negative words for the reply in the
most situations which shows fear and horror which makes the story more interesting for the
readers and this leads till the end. Bulk use words like ‘no’, ‘yes’, ‘sure’, ‘nothing’ are used
specifically to make the story more thrilling.

Text 2.

“Got anything to drink?” Al asked.

“Silver beer, bevo, ginger-ale,” George said.

“I mean you got anything to drink?”

“Just those I said.” “This is a hot town,” said the other.

“What do they call it?”

“Summit.”

“Ever hear of it?” Al asked his friend.

“No,” said the friend.

“What do they do here nights?” Al asked.

“They eat the dinner,” his friend said.

“They all come here and eat the big dinner.” “That’s right,” George said.

“So you think that’s right?” Al asked George.

“Sure.”

“You’re a pretty bright boy, aren’t you?”

“Sure,” said George.

“Well, you’re not,” said the other little man.

“Is he, Al?”

“He’s dumb,” said Al.

He turned to Nick. “What’s your name?”

“Adams.”

“Another bright boy,” Al said.

“Ain’t he a bright boy, Max?”

“The town’s full of bright boys,” Max said.

George put the two platters, one of ham and eggs, the other of bacon and eggs, on the counter. He set
down two side dishes of fried potatoes and closed the wicket into the kitchen.

“Which is yours?” he asked Al.

“Don’t you remember?” “Ham and eggs.” “Just a bright boy,” Max said.

He leaned forward and took the ham and eggs. Both men ate with their gloves on. George watched them
eat. “

What are you looking at?” Max looked at George.

“Nothing.” “The hell you were. You were looking at me.”

Text analysis.
There is some unknown narrator in the story either the writer is himself a narrator or somebody
else. In the above given extract is selected from the mentioned story. Though ellipsis he is
making a sense of fear in the servants of the hotel that is why they are answering in the shorter
way. On the other hand the both killers named Al and Max also used shorter way in order to
make them afraid of to acquire their motifs. Generally it is considered that the persons who are
scared and who are scaring, both converse in short way because one is overpowered and other is
overpowering.

Text 3.

Go on back to the kitchen, nigger. You go with him, bright boy’.

‘The clock says twenty minutes past five, the second man said ‘It’s twenty minutes fast’.

‘What do you mean the nigger? The nigger that cooks.’ ‘

You go with him, bright boy’. ‘I’ll tell you, ‘Max said.

‘We’re going to kill a Swede. Do you know a big Swede named Ole Anderson?’ ‘Who’s out in the
kitchen? The nigger’.

Text Analysis.

References (anaphoric & cataphoric) basically occur in “The Killers” to avoid repetition. In the
short story he uses them either to depict anaphoricaly, cataphoricaly or abstract things to create
suspense and horror. Another type of reference which is not explained by Halliday and Hassan
(1976) is exophoric reference. It used to describe generics or abstracts without ever identifying
them (in contrast to anaphora and cataphora, which do identify the entity and thus our forms of
endophora) e.g rather than introduce a concept the writer refers to it by a generic word such as
“everything”. In this short story this device is castoff to portray the electrifying state. Earnest
Hemingway used this device to designate the persons or objects.

Cataphoric reference is used to craft insecurity, doubtfulness and anxiety in the minds of readers.
Anaphoric reference is used to explain the previous situation as there are so many characters in
the story to create ambiguous situation.

Text 4.

I have eaten your meal. I must get you another one (Nominal substitution)

‘They’ll kill him. I guess they will.’ (Verbal Substitution)

‘He must have got mixed up in something in Chicago’.

‘I guess so’. (Clausal Substitution)

‘They’re all right’. ‘You think so’. (Clausal Substitution)

Text analysis.
It is very surprising thing that in substitution, word is not omitted as in ellipsis. In the
prearranged sentences taken out from “The Killers” writer has projected substitutive words in
order to sidestep lexical repetition. This device is fashioning conversational coherence. It seems
at the whole situation is presented before the eyes of the readers. They find themselves in
“Henrey’s Lunch room”. Although he has used many devices but still it’s cohesive and coherent
sense is maintained handsomely.

References:

Akindele, J. (2011). Cohesive Devices in Selected ESL Academic Papers. African Nebula, 1(3).

Brown, G., Brown, G. D., Brown, G. R., Gillian, B., & Yule, G. (1983). Discourse analysis. Cambridge
university press.

Eggins, S. (1994). An introduction to systemic functional grammar.

Enkvist, N. E. (1978). Coherence, Pseudo-Coherence, and Non-Coherence.

Enkvist, N. E. (1990). Seven problems in the study of coherence and interpretability. Coherence in

writing: Research and pedagogical perspectives, 9-28.

Halliday, M. A. (1976). Hasan. Cohesion in english.

Mather, N., & Jaffe, L. (2002). Woodcock-Johnson III: Reports.Recommendations, and Strategies.

Pearson, R., & Speck, B. P. (2005). Coherence in English essays written by non-native students of
sociology. Quaderns de Filologia-Estudis Lingüístics, 10, 261-278.

Sari, A. N. (2010). An Analysis of Lexical and Grammatical Cohesion In Dido’s Songs (Doctoral

dissertation, Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta).