UNIVERSIDAD JUÁREZ AUTÓNOMA DE TABASCO

DIVISIÓN ACADÉMICA DE EDUCACIÓN Y ARTES

TITLE:
COHESION AS A FEATURE OF LANGUAGE ESSAY

SUBJECT:
WRITTEN DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

PROFESSOR:
ROLANDO SILVÁN ALMEIDA

NAME:
RUBÉN ARTURO PÉREZ JUÁREZ
TERESA DE JESÚS VÁZQUEZ MARTÍNES

FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEGREE

Villahermosa, Tabasco. May 22th, 2013.
 Analysis of cohesion implied within a text

A text is cohesive if its elements are linked together. The following is an essay

about cohesion in written discourse. Its purpose is to test ourselves putting into practice

all the knowledge acquired during the course while reasserting at the same time these

cohesive elements of the written discourse that we use when we communicate by

writing a text. This essay begins with an introduction, following a theoretical analysis

about the features of written discourse and finally a short conclusion showing the

outcomes found the analyzed text.

To carry out the essay we read a text about Bulimia. During the analysis we

found out many cases where features of language, in this case cohesion elements, are

exposed. For example the first case is about the Addition Conjunction, which express

certain meanings which presuppose the presence of other component in the discourse

(Halliday & Hasan 1976). In short this means that conjunctions refer to a word or a

phrase that signals a relationship with another word or phrase with the same idea. The

addition conjunction is represented by the word and, and it means that both situations

happened at the very same time: And while 28 y/o Basque writer Espido Freire lived to

tell the story, the experience has left her scarred for life.

Another cohesion element found in the text was the Causal Conjunction, which

has the same function of uniting two ideas but in this case, according to Nunan (1993)

“the relationship is one of cause and consequence”. In other word this means that one

idea precedes the other one as being its cause. This conjunction is represented by the
word because in the following extract: Freire retraces those seven long years because,

as she says, “if a writer isn’t able to lend a voice to those who are capable of

expressing themselves, then part of their vocation has been lost”.

In 1976, Halliday & Hasan said that Referential Cohesion Demonstratives enable the

writer or speaker to make multiple references to people and things within a text; are

words or phrases or a chunk of text. In a general sense, the use of this adjective helps us

from not repeating the name of the subject over and over each time it is required. We

also found this cohesion element several times, in this case, these words are represented

by those in the following sentence: In her new book, Freire painfully retraces those

seven long years; a writer is supposed to lend a voice for those who aren’t capable of

expressing themselves.

The substitution figure makes its apparition in the text. The Nominal

substitution, which according to Halliday & Hasan (1976) “is the replacement of one

item by another”. So in the next utterance: as she says… where she has spent….. the

exhaustion she felt after… the word she is used to replace the name of the girl who the

text is talking about. It’s a nominal substitution because it’s replacing the subject,

requiring a pronoun to do it.

It is very frequent that we generally just write any text message but we never

take some time to think about it, and analyze it. Now from this onward everytime we

see a text it will all be different. Cohesion is the grammatical and lexical link within text

or a sentence that holds a text together and gives it meaning. Cohesion is a very

important characteristic in language because unites two or more ideas into a same
sentence, avoiding repetition and cacophony. So this text about bulimia is cohesive due

to very common use of these connectors.

Reference list:

1. Halliday, M.A.K., & Hasan, R. (1976). Cohesion in English. London:

Longman
2. Nunan, D. (1993). Introducing Discourse Analysis. London: Penguin
Books.