COHESION AND COHERENCE

A. Cohesion
Cohesion is the connection that results when the interpretation of a textual
element is dependent on another element in the text. [] Cohesion refers to
the connection that exists between elements in the text Stubbs (1983: 1).
Grammatical Cohesion
1. Reference
Anaphoric: an item that refers back to something else in the same text.
(Gutwinski, 1976, p.66)
For example:
There was an old lady who lived in a shoe.
She had so many children, she didnt know what to do.
Cataphoric: an item refers to something coming along in the text.
(Gutwinski, 1976, p.67).
For example:
He was scarcely ten years old when he was first arrested as a vagabond.
He spoke thus to the judge: I am called Jean Francois Letruc
(Francois CoppeThe Substitute (in Coppe, 1891, p.91)
Exophoric: an item refers to a situation outside of language. (Gutwinski,
1976, p. 67)
For example: when a person says this cat, and points to the cat in the fort
yard.

2. Substitution: use of pro-forms

a. one(s): She likes red ribbons, but her sister likes green ones.
b. do: A: Did John take the letter?

B: He might have done.

c. so/not: Do you need help? If so, I'll stay; if not, I'll go.
d. same: They went to the cafeteria, and I did the same.

3. Ellipsis: omission of elements which are retrievable from context

If you take the green tie, I'll take the blue _.
a. A: Will anyone be waiting?
B: John will _, I think.
b. A: Have you considered my proposal?
B: No, but I will _.
He said he would consider my proposal as soon as he could _ but he
hasn't _.
4. Conjunction: signals relationship between discourse segments (and, but,
or, though, then, because...)
a. She's honest. And she's reliable.
b. I've lived here ten years and I've never heard of him.
c. He stayed in the snow for a hour and caught a cold.
d. They came in and sat down.
Other examples: apposition: or, in other words;
clarification: or rather;
variation: alternatively;
spatio-temporal: there/previously;
causal-conditional: consequently/in that case
a. Functional coherence
1 A: Are you using the photocopier?
2 B: How many copies?
3 A: Just two.
4 B: OK. There you go.
b. Topical coherence
A: Thats the telephone
B: I am in the both.
C: Ok.

Lexical cohesion
Lexical Cohesion: words are semantically related; for example, when they
all concern the same topic. (Turney, 2006). In the words of Paltridge
(2006:133), Lexical cohesion refers to relationships in meaning between
lexical items in a text and, in particular, content words and the relationship
between them. Hatch (1992) notes that some lexical ties are long, as they
are spread over larger pieces of discourse, and others are short
WRITTEN DISCOURSE (GENRE)
Adjacency pairs
Utterance function
Expected response
Greeting
greeting
Congratulation
thank
Apology
acceptance
Inform
acknowledge
Leave taking
leave taking
Another opinion by Paltridge (2006, p. 115) is that Adjacency pairs are
utterances produced by two successive speakers in a way that the second
utterance is identified as related to the first one and expected to follow-up to
it. An ordered pair of adjacent utterances spoken by two different speakers,

once the first utterance is spoken, the second is required. By those of

definition, it is clear that adjacency pairs are the paired utterances produced
by
two or more
people that occurs in interaction. The
following
conversation is the example from a telephone call that illustrate speakers
using adjacency pairs:
A : Hello.
B : Hello Bob. This is Laurie. Hows everything.
A : Pretty good. How bout you.
B : Just fine.
In each of the pairs of utterance in this interaction the first speaker stop
speaking and allows the second speaker to produce the expected second
part to their pair of the utterance.
Common adjacency pairs and typical preferred and
dispreferred second pair parts
Second pair parts
No.
First pair parts
Preferred
Dispreferred
1
Request
Acceptance
Refusal
2
Offer/invitation
Acceptance
Refusal
3
Assessment
Agreement
Disagreement
Unexpected
Expected
4
Question
answer
answer
or non- answer
5
Blame
Denial
Admission
6
Assertion
Agreement
Disagreement
7
Suggestion
Acceptance
Denial
8
Command
Compliance
Incompliance
CONVERSATION ANALYSIS
1. The techniques that the speaker employs in deciding when to speak
during a conversation such as rules of turn-taking.
2. The ways, in which the utterances of more than one speaker are
related for instance conversational adjacency pair, inserted sequence.
3. The different functions that conversation is used for.
1. Turn-taking
Turn-taking is defined as the role of speaker and listener change
constantly in conversation. The people who speak first become a
listener as soon as the person addressed takes his or her turn in
conversation beginning to speak.
2. Adjacency pair
Adjacency pairs In pragmatics a branch of linguistics an adjacency pair is
an example of conversational turn taking. An adjacency pair is composed of
two utterance by two speakers one after the other. Adjacency pair is
sequences of two related utterances which are given by two different
speakers the seconds utterance is always response to the first. Sacks (1967)

also observe that, a conversation is a string of two turns. Some turns are
more closely related than others, and isolates a class of sequences of turns
called adjacency pair.

Question answer
"What does this big red button do?" "It causes two-thirds of the
universe to implode"

Greeting greeting
"Heya!" "Oh, hi!"

Request acceptance /rejection

"Is it OK if I borrow this book?" "I'd rather you didn't, it's due back at
the
library tomorrow"

Offer acceptance /rejection

"Would you like to visit the museum with me this evening?" "I'd love
to!"

Complaint excuse /remedy

"It's awfully cold in here" "Oh, sorry, I'll close the window"
. Insertion sequence:
An insertion sequence is a sequence of turns that intervenes between the
first and second parts of an adjacency pair.The person towards whom the
first part of an adjacency pair has been directed may want to undertake
some preliminary action before responding with the second part .a request
for clarification by the recipient will take place after the first pair part but
before the second pair part .this is an insertion sequence. Here turn 1 and 4
make up one adjacency pair inserted between the two parts of the first pair.
-

1.
2.
3.
4.

P: Martin would you like to dance

M: Is the floor is slippery?
P: No its fine.
M: then Id be happy to dance

Moreover, it can be defined as, the phenomenon of embedding; of one pair

occurring inside another is noticeable in conversations. Schegloff (1972)
terms this type of embedded pairs Inserted sequence. Cook (1989:156) holds
insertion sequence: one set of related conversational turns occurring within,
and helping the bracketed part of the following conversation;
A: Did you enjoy the meal?
B: Did you?
A: Yes.
B: so did I.

4. Repair
Definition Repair, in conversation analysis, is 'a term for ways in which errors,
unintended forms, or misunderstandings are corrected by speakers or others
during conversation' (Richards et al.,1992, p.314). Repair is classified as selfrepair or other repair and self-initiated or other-initiated. A repair which is
made by the speaker him/herself (i.e. self-initiated) is known as a self repair.
For example:
Estragon: You're sure it was this evening?
Vladimir: What?
Estragon: That we were to wait. (ibid., p.7)
Roberta (1987, pp.14-16) writes in detail; Repair procedures are grouped in
two separate classes: self-repairs, those in which the problematic item is
produced and corrected by the same interlocutor; and other-repairs, in which
the problem is addressed by a participant other than the one who has
produced it. Two further subclasses are distinguishable in each of the above:
self-initiated and other-initiated. In the first case, the producer of the troubleitem signals its presence to the other interlocutor(s), whereas in the case of
other-initiated repairs, a party other than the one that produced the violation
highlights the need for repair.
SELF-REPAIRS
SELF-INITIATED
A: When do you want this book back?
B: Tuesday night - I mean Wednesday night at the meeting.
(fabricated)
OTHER-INITIATED
A: Look, I know people like that.
B: Like what?
A: People who don't trust anyone, who don't care about
anything, they just go after money.
B: Oh. (real but reconstruction)
OTHER-REPAIRS

SELF-INITIATED
A: I talked to Mr. Weinap - what's his name?
B: Weinapple. (fabricated)
OTHER-INITIATED
(Singing a line from "I'll be There" by Jackson Five)
A: You and I must make a pack, we must bring

starvation
B: Starva: tion C: Starva: tion, boy it's sal/ /vation.
A: Salvation.
CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

What Is Critical Discourse Analysis?

Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is a type of discourse analytical
research that primarily studies the way social power abuse, dominance, and
inequality are enacted, reproduced, and resisted by text and talk in the social
and political context. With such dissident research, critical discourse analysts
take explicit position, and thus want to understand, expose, and ultimately
resist social inequality.
Fairclough and Wodak (1997: 271-80) summarize the main tenets of CDA
as follows:
1. CDA addresses social problems
2. Power relations are discursive
3. Discourse constitutes society and culture
4. Discourse does ideological work
5. Discourse is historical
6. The link between text and society is mediated
7. Discourse analysis is interpretative and explanatory
8. Discourse is a form of social action.
Research in Critical Discourse Analysis
Although most discourse studies dealing with any aspect of power,
domination, and social inequality have not been explicitly conducted under
the label of CDA, we shall nevertheless refer to some of these studies below.
1. Gender inequality
2. Media discourse
3. Political discourse
4. From group domination to professional and institutional power
DISCOURSE AND SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING
Discourse and Genre
One of the key ways in which people communicate with each other is
through the participation in particular communicative events, or genre.
Richard and Schmidt (2002: 224) define the term genre as:
a type of discourse that occurs in a particular setting that has distinctive
and recognizable patterns and norms of organization and structure and
that has particular and distinctive communicative functions.
A. What is a genre?
Genres are ways in which people get things done through their use of
spoken and written discourse.
A genre is a kind of text. Academic lecturers and casual conversations are
examples of spoken genres. Newspaper reports and academic essays are
examples of written genres.
Discourse competence is the element of the communicative competence
which involves the development of texts in language learning. It is related
to notions such as cohesion, coherence, genres and text types, among

others, and it is deeply linked to the integration of the four skills in

language teaching. Discourse Competence can be seen as the ability to
understand, create and develop forms of the language that are longer than
sentences (stories, conversations, letters, ) with the appropriate
cohesion, coherence and rhetorical organization to combine ideas.
D. Pedagogical Implication
When discourse is related to pedagogical implication, what comes to our
mind is what to teach. When it comes to teaching, discourse involves
many aspects about how language is used appropriately. The aspects may
include effectiveness, efficiency, accuracy, cohesion, coherence, etc.
Sentences are effective if they deliver meaning correctly. In other words,
they are meaningful. Sentences which are grammatically incorrect become
ineffective. For illustration, the following sentences which are
grammatically incorrect so that they are not effective.
The girl feeling sad. Thats why he not go to
school today.
Although the information is still comprehensible, the meaning of the
sentences becomes ambiguous. It cannot be decided who does not go to
school.
However, sentences which are grammatically correct can also become
ineffective if they do not deliver meaning correctly. For illustration, the
following sentences are grammatically correct but ineffective.
I want to cut my hair. I am getting ready to go
to saloon right now.
The sentences imply that I cut my hair by myself. The sentences can
become ineffective if in fact I get a barber to cut my hair.pp