Department of English Studies
Introduction to Linguistics II - Second semester
Instructor: Kiki Nikiforidou
Text linguistics-Discourse analysis:
Coherence, Cohesion
Terminological issues:
 Discourse: Language beyond the sentence (the study of language in text and
conversation) => “discourse” = the general cover term (Yule)
 Text: The linguistic expressions used in (oral or written) communication and the
interpretation that the hearer or reader makes of these expressions => “text” = the general
cover term (Dirven & Verspoor)

Coherence: The property that distinguishes texts (discourse) from random, arbitrary
collection of sentences. A text is coherent if it is possible to make sense of it, to construct
a coherent interpretation, e.g.:
My father once bought a Lincoln convertible. He did it by saving every penny he could.
That car would be worth a fortune nowadays. However, he sold it to help pay for my
college education. Sometimes I think I'd rather have the convertible.
A: That’s the phone ringing.
B: I’m in the bath.
A: Ok.
The London court has convicted a Brighton resident to twelve years imprisonment for
accessory to murder. The victim was fatally wounded in a shooting incident in a
Winchester restaurant last year.

Cohesion: The explicit marking of a text’s coherence my means of linguistic devices =>
cohesive links
Η γιαγιά μου γεννήθηκε στην Τραπεζούντα του Πόντου, όπου και έζησε μέχρι τα τριάντα
της χρόνια, για να καταλήξει, με την προσφυγιά, στη Θεσσαλονίκη. Η μητρική της
διάλεκτος ήταν η ποντιακή, μια περιφερειακή ελληνική διάλεκτος, έντονα διακεκριμένη
από την κοινή.[…]. Με τον ερχομό της στην Ελλάδα, βελτίωσε τις γνώσεις της, της
κοινής, αλλά η μητρική της «γλώσσα» δεν έπαψε να είναι η ποντιακή. Τιμούσε την κοινή
αλλά αγαπούσε τη διάλεκτό της. (Α.-Φ. Χριστίδης, Γλώσσα, πολιτική, πολιτισμός.
Εκδόσεις Πόλις, 1999)
My father bought a Lincoln convertible. The car driven by the police was red. That color
doesn't suit her. She consists of three letters. However, a letter isn't as fast as a telephone
call.
 It is possible to have coherence without explicit cohesion. Explicit cohesion
does not guarantee coherence.
 Coherence can be established a) referentially (repeated reference to established
referents or mental constructs in a text) or b) relationally (linking text parts
with particular relations, e.g. contrast, elaboration, etc.), c) lexicallythematically.
 A. Referential coherence: Creating coherence by manipulating referring expressions

Certain expressions in all languages can be used to perform reference acts, i.e. to enable
a hearer to identify something => referring expressions (proper names, definite and
indefinite noun phrases, pronouns):
a.
b.
c.
d.

John loves ice-cream.
A friend of mine has been just elected to parliament.
The heater exploded.
She hates me.
Referring expressions are used in a text to maintain referential coherence: pronouns,
definite expressions (the book, the girl, this girl, that girl) can be all used to create and
maintain coherence.
 Reference can be either anaphoric (=the referring expressions get their
interpretation from the preceding context) or cataphoric (=the referring
expressions get their interpretation from the following context). Anaphoric
expressions (only) refer back to an antecedent (=the first mention of an entity).
-Who is this mani? (pointing)
-Hei’s the new boss -> anaphoric co-reference
Last year all my familyj was in the islandsi. Wej thought theyi were beautiful.
-> anaphoric co-reference
Even though shei despised himj, my motheri never disobeyed my fatherj.
-> cataphoric co-reference
A boyi suddenly appeared from the woods carrying a basket. The boyi
walked… -> anaphora through lexical repetition
 When an anaphoric expression is associated with an antecedent in our knowledge
of the world, then we have anaphora by inference.
I got on a busi and asked the driveri to drop me at Syntagma square.
We finally found the housei but the doori was locked.
 Ellipsis is another instance of referential coherence: a referent can be inferred from
the immediate context, so the relevant referring expression is omitted.
The students protested the decision and left.
 Indefinite expressions (which are also referring expressions) are typically used to
introduce new referents in the discourse (a girl, some girl)
Once upon a time there was a little girl.
Once upon a time there was a little girl who was called Goldilocks. She lived in a forest that
belonged to a rich and powerful king. The king had a son called Jeremy, who loved hunting.
One day as he was chasing a deer, he saw ??her/the little girl.
Late indefinites
Girl subdues attacker
A brave young woman turned the tables on a robber and beat him with an iron pipe, then
handed him over to the police in Osaka, Wednesday night.
At about 11:25 p.m. Wednesday, a man attacked Miss Mayumi Sanda, 23, Oyodo-ku, Osaka,
on a street in the same ward. He struck her several times on the head… (=> perspectivization)
 B. Relational coherence: Imposing coherence on a text by imposing particular
relations which hold between the sentences, e.g. contrast, cause-consequence,
concession, etc.
She started walking. It was too cold to stand still.
The earthquake was all the more devastating because no one was prepared.
They must be in; their lights are on.
 Relational coherence may (but need not) be marked explicitly by the use of
connectives:
a) subordinating conjunctions (because, if, although, even if, etc.)
b) coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, both…and, either…or, etc.)
c) conjunctive adverbs (so, therefore, moreover, etc.)
d) conjunctive adverbial phrases (as a consequence, in contrast, as an
example, etc.)
Exercise 1: Use the following four sentences to create two pairs, independent of each other,
which seem coherent to you on the basis of the knowledge you have of the world. You can
substitute “Susan” with a pronoun when necessary, but you cannot use any additional
linguistic material.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Susan was depressed.
Susan was going to take a trip to Tokyo.
Susan was reasonably happy.
Susan had just lost her job.
Exercise 2: In the pair of utterances of Exercise 1, try inserting linguistic material (cohesive
links) that makes the relation between the clauses of each pair explicit.
Exercise 3: Identify the referring expressions in the following utterances:
1. My brother lives in Canada.
2. Mr. Schumacher is right behind me!
3. What is this blue thing doing here?
Exercise 4: Identify referring expressions in the following utterances. Specify which ones are
cataphoric and which are anaphoric, and for the latter category specify antecedents. Identify
instances of co-reference, lexical repetition, anaphora by inference, and ellipsis.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
This sports car is impressive. Do you know the driver?
When I saw her, Sally was wearing a huge hat.
This was a difficult exam. Did you manage to answer all the questions?
He had a walk in the part, but felt tired and sat at a bench for a while.
Tom saw that the train was full, so he would have to wait. But Tom was not an
impatient man, so he sat on a bench to read his newspaper.
6. Her garden is really beautiful. Did you notice the roses?
7. The children screamed and yelled at the top of their voice.
8. As soon as she realized what had happened, the woman started screaming.
9. Detective Philips switched off the lights, closed the door behind him and disappeared
in the dark of the night.
10. I missed the bus because the driver didn’t see me.
11. We stayed at a small, local hotel. The rooms were quite clean, actually, but the service
was practically non-existent.
12. After she had climbed a few steps, the old woman saw the boy. She climbed a few
more steps. The boy was still there.
13. After they had inspected the wooden horse, the Trojans decided to wheel it into the
city.
14. They met a few people in the street, wrapped in hats, coats and scarves.
15. Margaret turned her head and smiled at him.
Exercise 5: Identify the coherence relations in the examples below and specify the
connectives, if applicable:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
She went to University because she wanted to meet interesting people.
Mary expects to write well in the exam. She has studied hard for the past two months.
Although I love swimming, I hardly have the time to go to the beach.
She will either go to the library or stay in to study.
It soon became dark. She stood up to switch on the light.
Exercise 6: Find the connectives that are used to establish relational coherence in the
following text and identify their type (subordinating conjunctions, coordinating conjunctions,
conjunctive adverbs, conjunctive adverbial phrases).
If you want to make the best use of this book, you should note the following. This book can
be used either as a straightforward handbook for its recipes, or as full course in modern
vegetarian cookery because the recipes are all described in enough detail for anyone with
only a little cooking experience to be able to follow them. In addition, we have tried to
anticipate, and provide remedies for, any snags with might occur.
Exercise 7: In the following passage identify the words that contribute to the cohesion of the
text and classify them according to type.
Last year my parents and I spent two weeks in the United Kingdom. We visited various
places and enjoyed every minute of our stay. However, there was also an unpleasant event in
our trip that made our lives really difficult: the last day before our departure I lost my credit
card wallet. This event ruined my plans to visit Windsor Castle, and I was really
disappointed.

Turn-taking
Conversation can be of many different types (doctor-patient, student-teacher, mother-kid,
etc.). But all conversations are characterized by turn-taking, i.e. speakers take turns at
speaking.
 Typically, only one person speaks at a time, and speakers tend to avoid silences.
But overlaps (and silences) occur (square brackets conventionally signal
overlapping speech in conversation analysis)
A: Didn’t you [know whB:
[But he must have been there by two
A: Yes but you knew where he was going
 Participants in a conversation normally wait until the current speaker indicates
that s/he has finished, by signaling a completion point (transition relevant point):
asking a question, pausing at the end of a complete structure. The other
participant may also signal they wish to take the turn by making small repeated
sounds, using body language, etc.
Exercise: Analyse the following fragment of conversational speech with respect to turntaking strategies.
A:
B:
A:
C:
B:
A:
C:
A:
B:
C:
A:
Well it wasn’t really a holiday more a . . . a . . . I don’t know . . . more an expedition
Why? [Did you
[Oh I guess because we ed- we ended up carrying so much . . .
[equipment and
[that sounds like a trip I took . . . em two years ago I think . . . yeah in the
summer and . . . I’ve never gone again . . .
So where did you go?
Oh we followed the river and the p—the idea you see was to find the
source you know . . . and . . . just to avoid the . . . the roads well . . .[unless th–
[and did you?
What?
get
find the source . . . the river
Oh yes sorry . . . but we ended up . . . em walking on roads quite a bit because . . . it . .
. it just took too long