Language Matters - Cohesion and Coherence
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Cohesion and coherence - what do the terms mean, and what's the difference between them? This introductory
video (originally part of our Delta Module One course) will give you an overview of the area.
Click on the link
below to listen to the presentation (approx 28 mins):
Follow Up Reading
From the University of Cambridge
From the EAP Foundation
From ELT Concourse
From An ELT Glossary : Cohesion and Coherence Reference and substitution Ellipsis
Test Your Understanding: Identifying
Cohesive Ties
Look
at the following extract from a novel (Camilla Läckberg, The Preacher, Harper Collins)
:
Sweat made the sheet stick to her body. Erika
tossed and turned in bed, but it was impossible to find a comfortable position.
The bright summer night didn't make it any easier to sleep, and for the
thousandth time she made a mental note to buy some blackout curtains
to hang up, or rather to persuade Patrick to do it.
It drove her crazy that he could sleep so
contentedly next to her. How dare he lie there snoring when she lay
awake night after night? She gave him a little poke in the hope that
he'd wake up. He didn't budge. She poked a little harder. He grunted,
pulled the covers up, and turned his back to her.
Identify
the grammatical and lexical items in the second paragraph
which create cohesion. Then scroll down to compare your own analysis and the suggested answers.
Suggested answer - cohesive ties in the second paragraph:
1. Grammatical cohesion - Reference
a) Anaphoric reference :
i) 3rd
person personal pronouns and possessive determiners used to
refer to Patrick (he x5 – subject pronoun;
him – object pronoun; his –possessive determiner)
and Erica (she – subject pronoun; her x3 – object pronoun )
ii) adverb
of place there used
to refer to the bed.
b) Cataphoric
reference
Subject pronoun it used to
refer forward to the clause that he could sleep so contentedly
2. Grammatical cohesion - Ellipsis
i) harder (ellipted
: than the first time) The use of the
comparative indicates to the reader that the concept has been expressed
earlier.
ii) the covers (ellipted
: of the bed) : use of definite
article indicating shared knowledge allows the reader to infer which
covers must be indicated.
iii) He – ellipted in the second and third of the co-ordinated
clauses: He grunted, (he - ellipted)
pulled the covers up, and (he - ellipted) turned his back to her. Follows the rule that anything at
the beginning of a consecutive co-ordinated clause which is the same as an
element in the same position in the first clause (here the subject he) may be ellipted
3. Lexical cohesion
i) Words in
the lexical field of sleep and sleeplessness : sleep, snore, lie awake, wake up
ii) Connective expressions used to
indicate the relationship between the propositions in the text:
- When : subordinating
conjunction – sequencer. Here indicates the simultaneity of the two events. - And : co-ordinating
conjunction which indicates a relationship of addition - here, of three
consecutive events.
iii) Repetition of the same
words but with a different word class : a
little poke = indefinite article + adjective + noun / poked
… a little (harder) = verb + quantifier
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