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Handout 4a
Text, Cohesion & Coherence
TEXT = an actual instance of language in use (Fairclough) or discourse, or,
more generally, any stretch of language, either spoken or written, that forms a
unified whole. A text can be seen as “freezing in time one moment of the ongoing dynamic use of language in the speech community”.
 The linguist or discourse analyst tries to make sense of texts, what it is that
makes parts of texts hang together (or create texture);
 Texts cannot be understood fully without understanding their context in that
discourse.
 It is also important to focus on the text itself so that we can understand how
the linguistic elements that make up the texts interact with discourse as well
as with processes in the human mind (cognitive processes).
DISCOURSE has different meanings which have changed over time including:
1. a linguistic unit longer than a sentence, which is similar in meaning to
text:
2. a “collection of connected language units – such as sentences and
paragraphs – that together make up a coherent, cohesive text.” (Trimble)
3. the use of language in a given context, such as legal discourse, political
discourse, etc. [Functionalist view, SFL]
4. the way language embraces ways of thinking, being and acting in the
world: so it goes beyond linguistic and situational elements to also
include: language, action, interaction, values, beliefs, symbols, tools
and places (social practice) [Bourdieu, Foucault, Critical Discourse
Analysis]
GENRE: the term that was originally used in reference to a category of artistic
composition characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter. In
Discourse Analysis genres are specific or conventional text categories associated
with particular types of social occasion or communicative event that are readily
distinguished by mature speakers of a language such as business letter, news
report, editorial, recipe, novel, political speech, political interview, etc. Texts
can combine different genres in various ways – mixing or hybridizing them, or
combining them in ‘formats’, etc.
TEXTURE “For a text to achieve coherence, it is not enough that it have a
hierarchical structure. Additionally, all of its component parts must fit together in
a manner that is recognizable to the hearer or reader.” (Meyer 2009: 98).

Various devices work together to create texture: constituents within a clause
are ordered in a specific way so that the thematic structure can promote the
easy flow of information [cf. suprastructure below], relationships between
clauses are indicated by markers of cohesion, i.e. the linguistic elements that
connect clauses of a text (=cohesive devices), and coherence, i.e. the
relation between the conceptual structures (things, people, activities, etc.)
or stored background knowledge, which may be expressed by the words in
the text but may be present in the mind of the text producer or processor.
Cohesive devices often depend on coherence.
COHESION: the set of resources for constructing relations in discourse that
connect one part of a text to another (backwards, forwards or outwards in a text).
It is often seen as a function of the semantic relations between sentences and can
occur linguistically in the surface structure of a text through:
A. reference
B. substitution / ellipsis
C. conjunction
D. lexical cohesion
COHERENCE: a more general notion which refers to the quality of a text that
makes it function as a meaningful whole in its context
 the relation between propositions in a text (e.g. cause and effect,
chronological sequence)
 knowledge of the context in which the text was produced and beyond
that (of relevant extra-linguistic knowledge and cultural practice), which
is generally inferred and not explicitly expressed in text (Hewings &
North)
CONTEXT: the language used within the text itself (cohesion or structure of the
text) is studied as well as within the situational and social contexts in which it
occurs and is produced. Typically there are three different types of context
(Cutting 2002: 3):
 the situational context (i.e. what speakers know about what they can see
around them)
 the background knowledge context (i.e. what they know about each other
and the world)
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
Boyd
Handout 4a
cataphoric: when reference can be inferred by looking forward in the
co-text
exophoric: reference is from “outside” the text (either in immediate
context or shared world view) [Cf. Intertextuality]
the co-textual context (i.e. what they know about what they have been
saying)
Look at the following two statements and comment:
“Understanding a text means that people are able to construct a mental model for
the text”. (van Dijk 2004);
“Texts require readers to carefully separate different kinds of reality and also to
‘tag’ claims about the truth of events and situations”. (Chilton 2009)
FRAMES are the non-linguistic knowledge structures for a particular domain of
human experience (e.g. university, school, law courts, politics). SCRIPTS are
background knowledge about sequences of events, which are often dependant on
frames. Frames and scripts are held in long-term memory and are activated by
the meanings of words when you process texts.
pronouns
demonstratives
articles
other forms
he, she, it, him, they
this, that, these
a(n); the
such a
We can infer the meanings by what we know about English grammar (number,
person, gender), co-textual knowledge and our background knowledge.
In the case of articles the indefinite article generally introduces a new referent,
while the definite one refers back to an already mentioned referent.
Cohesion Devices
A. (CON)JUNCTIONS
words that relate propositions to one another in various ways
additive
adversative
causal
temporal
and; in addition
but; however
because; consequentially
then; subsequently
Temporal conjunctions interact with the tense system of verbs, which also plays
an important role in textual cohesion. (see also Halliday and Hasan, Coherence in
English, 1976)
B. REFERENCE
Reference can be deictic, i.e., referring directly to something in the world, or
phoric, which provides an index (indexical) to some part of the discourse. For
example, pronouns can refer and identify, not by describing them or naming
them but by pointing them out.
Third-person pronouns are used to refer to entities, situations or events that may
be mentioned lexically in the co-text or sometimes information outside of the
text. Thus, reference forms may be:
anaphoric: when reference can be inferred by looking back in the cotext
Compare the use of articles in these two examples:
 A man in a dark suit sidled up to the bar. Mary watched him
warily. After a few seconds, the man said, “Hello, darling.”

The street was dark. The curtains were drawn across the
windows. Mary walked cautiously along the pavement.
C. substitution/ellipsis
structures are only fully realised or repeated when they need to be, so ellipsis and
substitution are a speaker’s choice made on pragmatic assessment of the situation.
Ellipsis is when some element of the grammatical structure is left out of the
sentence
one(s)
do
so/not
same
–
commonly used substitutions/ellipsis
I offered him a seat, but he didn’t want one.
These towels are dirty; we need some clean ones.
Did she take that? –She might have done.
Do you need this?- If so/if not, then you…
John chose the hamburger. – I chose the same.
Jane went to the lecture, but Harry didn’t [go].
Look at the use of cohesive devices in the texts below:
 If you’d like to give someone a phone for Christmas, there are plenty to
choose from. Whichever you go for, if it’s to be used on the BT network,
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Handout 4a
make sure it’s approved—look for the label with a green circle to confirm
this. Phones labelled with a red triangle are prohibited.
 Lord Melbourne, who was Prime Minister when Victoria became Queen in
1837, did not like birdsong and could not distinguish a woodlark from a
nightingale. He preferred the singing of blackbirds anyway; best of all he
liked the cawing of rooks and could watch them for hours as they circled at
sunset. Victoria was surprised by this: she disliked their grating and insistent
calling.
D. lexical cohesion: created by the repetition of words or related words
through their reiteration (repetition) within the text
synonymy
hyponymy
antonymy
lexical (or semantic) field
collocation
An example of hyponymy from the Bully Text (Chilton):

plot = the order through which the text presents the events
Even when stories are scrambled, texts retain their cohesion and coherence by
means of the tense system and other markers that indicate the time at which
events take place relative (a) to one another and (b) to the time of writing or
speaking.
1.2. Theme And Rheme
clauses consist of a THEME (or FOCUS), which establishes what the clause is
about, and a RHEME, which says something about it. The THEME is generally at
the beginning of the sentence, while the RHEME is everything that follows.
 There are various ways to bring things into focus (FRONTING DEVICES).
How does the THEME change what is being implied by the speaker?
1. John kissed Mary.
2. Mary was kissed by John.
3. It was John who kissed Mary.
4. It was Mary who was kissed by John.
5. What John did was kiss Mary.
6. Who John kissed was Mary.
7. Mary, John kissed her.
Ms Ball is in education. She teaches in a primary school.
education is a superordinate term and primary school is the hyponym.
Collocation is the co-occurrence of lexical items in the same environment (which
can also be grammatically related in some way).
1.1. Superstructures
Texts have recognizable parts that are organized according to conventional
patters (Cf. genre)
NESPAPER REPORT= headline + by-line + journalist + (lead) + body
of text
story = the chronological sequence of episodes
Chilton, Paul. 2009. “Text Linguistics” In J. Culpeper, F. Katamba, P. Kerswill, R. Wodak
& T. McEnery. English Language Description, Variation and Context. London:
Palgrave Macmillan
Adverb fronting
It-theme
Cleft Sentence
Pseudo-Cleft
Sentence
embedded clause
AdverbThematisation
Passive voice
Sometimes he goes to the beach.
It was Michael who won the prize.
What John did with his playing was encourage the
rest of the team.
That he would finish his dissertation was never in
doubt.
Against all odds, they won the tournament.
Late that afternoon she received a response.
Only the best papers are nominated for the award.