Text Analysis

1
Text Analysis Production
Cohesion / Coherence
2
COHESION Cohesion is a textual function. It
relates primarily to the ties connections which
exist in texts (on the surface of texts) e.g.
grammatical dependencies lexical
fields relations of cause / effect a b ?
c alternativity a or b
addition a b concession if a
then b However, it is possible to create highly
cohesive texts with many connections between
sentences which are difficult to interpret. -
The postmans at the door. - Im in the
bath. Cohesive links? None (on the
surface) Coherent? Does it make sense?
3
concepts and relations UNDERLYING the text,
not always explicit. in the people i.e.
world knowledge, assumption of understanding The
postmans at the door, but Im in the bath. Im
in the bath so I cant answer the postmans whos
at the door. COHERENCE Coherence is not a purely
textual phenomenon it does not exist in the
language, but in people. It is the people who
make sense of what they read and hear. My
father bought a Lincoln convertible. The car
driven by the police was red. That colour doesnt
suit her. She consists of three letters. However,
a letter isnt as fast as a telephone
call. Yule, p. 141
4
COHERENCE "meaning" potential of language
expressions to represent and convey knowledge
(i.e. "virtual meaning") "sense" knowledge that
is actually conveyed by expressions occurring in
a text NB many expressions have several "virtual
meanings", but only actually 1 sense in a
text. A text makes sense because of the
continuity of the "senses", the underlying
logic. This the foundation of COHERENCE. The
textual world is more than the sense of the
expressions in the surface text.
5
CONTEXT - determines the STRUCTURE TEXTURE of
a text TEXTURE whole range of relationships
within and between sentences which ensure the
cohesion coherence of a text Known /
understood re A The postmans at the door
has signalled his presence by knocking / ringing
doorbell always calls around this time saw
him/her out of window Someone needs to answer the
door. You usually do it so come and do
it! Known / understood re B Not in a fit
state to answer door (no clothes / wet) Not
coming to answer door. You do it
6

• Where does all this information come from?
• WORLD KNOWLEDGE
• Why do people communicate in this way?
• ASSUME OTHER PERSON UNDERSTANDS
• -gt EFFICIENCY (avoiding redundancy)
• Therefore we can say that coherence relates to
  meaning meaning as the mechanism that executes
  the potential of language expressions to
  represent and convey knowledge (i.e. virtual
  meaning)
• Sense knowledge that is actually conveyed by
  expressions occurring in a text
• NB many expressions have several virtual
  meanings, but only actually 1 sense in a text.
• A text makes sense because of the continuity of
  the senses, the underlying logic.
• This the foundation of COHERENCE.

7

• The textual world is more than the sense of the
  expressions in the surface text.
• It is ALSO
• mutual access to a configuration of concepts
  
• relationships
• the mutual relevance of these
• i.e. shared knowledge of particular expectations
  experience regarding the organisation of events
  and situations
• (Bibliography on last slide)

8
COHESION GRAMMATICAL SYNTACTIC LEXICAL
REFERENCING SUBSTITUTION ELLIPSIS
9
"head" dependent elements
A monstrous red, blue and white balloon bounced
crazily down the street.
monstrous
and
blue
red
white
A balloon bounced down the street
10
LEXICAL (1) Repetition / Recurrence Repetition
of same words/expressions in chains.   This
little piggy went.... This little piggy....   I
saw the student... the student then ... the
student...   Visitors.... Visiting.... Their
visits... (partial recurrance i.e. changing word
classes)
11
NB identical repetition "not elegant in style"
SO -gt "elegant repetition" using synonyms or
paraphrasing or using more general
expressions. Spaceship Odyssey... the spaceship
...the ship..the spacecraft...the vessel on which
they were travelling... BUT in legal contexts
"elegance" may sacrificed to "lack of
ambiguity".
12
ALSO Lexical chains repetition / recurrence not
just of words with same meaning, but also
chains of associated words (from same
"family") NB superordinates hyponvms (
coordinates)   Scottish MPs.... The Minister for
Education...   Trains...Buses...Taxis...Means
of public transport... Think
"glossary" (semantic field)
13
LEXICAL (2) Reference The meaning of certain
referring expressions can be discovered by
referring to other words or elements in the
text. replacing of content-carrying elements
with short place-holders of no independent
content (i.e proforms). ANAPHORA referring
"backwards" (to s.th. previously mentioned) The
students They....
14
CATAPHORA referring "forwards" (to s.th. to be
mentioned cf. suspense) Pushing and shoving as
they fought to get into class, the
students.... Substitution Would you like a
glass of wine? I'd love one. a glass of
wine Do you like chocolate? Yes, I love
it. chocolate Do you think it will rain
tomorrow? I think so. it will rain
tomorrow Do you like apples? Yes, I do.
like apples
15

• LEXICAL (3)
• Ellipsis
• A word or phrase which has already been said may
  be omitted completely.
• Would you like a glass of wine? Yes, I would.
• like a glass of wine
• The beaches were golden and the beaches
  stretched for miles.
• The students drank beer and the visiting school
  pupils drank Coca Cola.
• We have done the research and we have written
  up the first draft.
• Who was partying until 3 am last night? Mary
  and Ben were partying until 3 am last night.

16
GRAMMATICAL SYNTACTIC Verb form Form of verb
(tense) in one sentence can limit the choice in
the next and following Parallelism Form of one
clause/sentence is repeated in another. The
men went off to sea to catch fish. The women
stayed at home to have babies. Co-ordination and
subordination Words / phrases which explicitly
draw attention to the relationship between one
sentence / clause and another.
17
4 main types of linking adverbs /
conjunctions Additive add on informationand,
besides, incidentally Adversive create a
contrast between sentence they introduce and
preceding one(s) however, yet, on the
contrary... Causal suggest one clause/sentence
result of the other because, therefore,
thus... Temporal create a time link between a
clause/sentence and another before, while, after
that...

18
ties connections which exist in texts (on
the surface of texts) BUT possible to create
highly cohesive texts with many connections
between sentences which are difficult to
interpret.  
AThe postmans at the door. BIm in the bath.
Cohesive?
Coherent?   Does it "make sense"?
19
COHERENCE something which does not exist "in"
the language, but in people. It is the people who
"make sense" of what they read and hear. My
father bought a Lincoln convertible. The car
driven by the police was red. That colour doesn't
suit her. She consists of three letters. However,
a letter isn't as fast as a telephone
call. Yule, p141

20
I bought a Ford. A car in which President Wilson
drove down the Champs Elysees was black. Black
English has been widely discussed. The
discussions between the presidents ended last
week. A week has seven days. Every day I feed my
cat. Cats have four legs. The cat is on the mat.
Mat has three letters. Yule Brown, p197
21
Reminder CONTEXT determines the STRUCTURE
TEXTURE of a text TEXTURE whole range of
relationships within and between sentences which
ensure the cohesion coherence of a text
Reminder COHESION links between components
of texts visible on SURFACE of text e.g.
grammatical dependencies lexical fields
relations of cause / effect a b .'. c
alternativity a or b addition a b
concession if a then b
22
Reminder COHERENCE
concepts and relations UNDERLYING the text, not
always explicit. "in the people" i.e. world
knowledge, assumption of understanding
AThe postmans at the door BIm in the bath
Cohesive links? NONE
Coherent? The postman's at the door, but I'm
in the bath. I'm in the bath so I can't answer
the postman's who's at the door.
23
Known / understood re A The postman's at the
door -    has signalled his presence by knocking
/ ringing doorbell -    always calls around this
time -    saw him/her out of windowSomeone needs
to answer the door.You usually do it - so come
and do it! Known / understood re B Not in a
fit state to answer door (no clothes / wet...)
Not coming to answer door. You do it... Where
does all this information come from? WORLD
KNOWLEDGE
24
Why do people communicate in this way? ASSUME
OTHER PERSON UNDERSTANDS -gt EFFICIENCY (avoiding
redundancy)
SLOW Roadworks
25
HARD HATS TO BE WORN ON SITE
STOP Children
STOP Police
HEAVY PLANT CROSSING
26
COHERENCE "meaning" potential of language
expressions to represent and convey knowledge
(i.e. "virtual meaning") "sense" knowledge that
is actually conveyed by expressions occurring in
a text NB many expressions have several "virtual
meanings", but only actually 1 sense in a
text. A text makes sense because of the
continuity of the "senses", the underlying
logic. This the foundation of COHERENCE. The
textual world is more than the sense of the
expressions in the surface text.
27
It is ALSO - mutual access to a configuration of
concepts relationships - the mutual relevance
of these i.e. shared knowledge of particular
expectations experience regarding the
organisation of events and situations

28
PRAGMATICS study of "language in use" "the
study of the purposes for which sentences are
used, of the real world conditions under which a
sentence may be appropriately used as an
utterance." Stalnaker gt pragmatics deals
with communicative competence the knowledge
which enables people to produce and understand
utterances in relation to specific communicative
purposes and specific speech contexts.
29
Language governed by many contextual
factors        social physical
circumstances        identities       
attitudes - emotive, deferential....       
abilities        beliefs of participants relati
onships holding between participants (social,
intimate...) status, age, peers, colleague,
friends
30
Communicative competence   ability to bring
these surface forms into association use
answers the question "what are these rules of
interpersonal communication? AI have a
fourteen year old son. BWell, that's all
right.A I also have a dog. B Oh I'm Sorry.
Harvey Sacks 1992
match a FORM and a FUNCTION
31
PRAGMATICS is therefore sometimes described as
the "study of invisible meaning" or the "study
of intended speaker meaning (rather than
meaning of words sentences)
32
S Sticks and stones will break my bones,
but names will never hurt me!" v. "least said
soonest mended" Language can be used to "do"
things - e.g. to hurt people.
saying/DOING word / DEED ltgt a An
UTTERANCE can described as an ACTION
33
"I'm sorry." apology "You're beautiful."
compliment "You're expelled." suspension
of s.o.'s studies "I sentence you to 6 months
in jail. sending s.o. to prison
34
YULE, George (1996) The study of language (2nd
ed.). Cambridge Cambridge University
Press. Brown, Gillian and Yule, George (1983)
Discourse Analysis. Cambridge Cambridge
University Press. Hatim, Basil and Mason, Ian
(1990) Discourse and the Translator. London New
York Longman. De Beaugrande, Robert and
Dressler, Wolfgang (1981) Introduction to Text
Linguistics. London New York Longman. Thorne,
Sara (1997) Mastering Advanced English Language.
London Macmillan Press Ltd.