EL3264B

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EL3264B

• 1st Lecture on Cohesion

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A NOTE ON TEXTURE

• The textual metafunction of language.
• TEXTURE, -- the property of being a text.

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Texture Structural Cohesive

• (A) the structural component of texture
• 1 thematic structure Theme Rheme (Chapter 3)
• 2 information structure and focus (Chapter 8)
• (B) the cohesive (non-structural) component of
  texture (Chapter 9)
• 1 reference
• 2 ellipsis and substitution
• 3 conjunction
• 4 lexical cohesion

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A PRIOR NOTE ON COHERENCE

• A cohesive text may not necessarily be coherent
  to the reader, and a text which is coherent to
  someone may be lacking in certain crucial
  cohesive elements.

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Coherence vs. Cohesion

• A text is cohesive according to the language it
  is written or spoken in, and it is coherent to
  the individual reader or hearer.
• Cohesion is thus dependent on the resources of a
  particular language, whereas relevant
  psychological and other variable extra-linguistic
  factors are needed for the realization of
  coherence.

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COHESION Going beyond the Sentence

• 4 ways
• 1) REFERENCE
• 2) ELLIPSIS
• 3) CONJUNCTION
• 4) LEXICAL COHESION

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REFERENCE

• 1. Participant or circumstantial element
  introduced at one place in the text, which is
  either taken as a reference point for something
  that follows, or as a basis for comparison.

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Referential Cohesion 3 Types

• Three types
• PERSONALS
• DEMONSTRATIVES
• COMPARATIVES

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Referential Cohesion PERSONALS

• Personals can perform the function of a
• (a) Determinative
• (b) Possessive
• And which in turn can be
• singular/plural, or
• masculine/feminine/neuter

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Referential Cohesion DEMONSTRATIVES

• Demonstratives can perform the function of a(n)
• (a) Head
• (b) Deictic
• (c) Adjunct

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Referential Cohesion COMPARATIVES

• 1.3 Comparatives can perform the function of
• (a) Deictic/Numerative
• (b) Epithet
• (c) Adjunct/Submodifier

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Personal Pronouns
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Demonstratives
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Comparatives
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Referential Cohesion

• In referential cohesion -- a major concern --
  whether the items refer forward or backward
• to items within the text or
• outside the text.

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Referential Cohesion Anaphora Cataphora

• Anaphora a personal pronoun, demonstrative or
  comparative refers to an item whose more detailed
  or precise description has been given earlier in
  the text,
• Cataphora a reference item whose more detailed
  or precise description will be given later.

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Referential Cohesion Endophora, Exophora,
Homophora

• Endophora
• both anaphora and cataphora are examples of
  endophora, as the cohesive links in both
  instances, can be found within the text.
• Exophora
• The opposite of endophora is exophora, where the
  reference item refers to an entity existing
  outside the text.

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Referential Cohesion Homophora

• Homophora
• an item appears to be self-referential if its
  reference is known by members of a particular
  sociocultural community.

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ELLIPSIS Definition Examples

• Ellipsis (Halliday) a clause, part of a clause,
  or part of a nominal or verbal group which has
  been removed at a later place in a text, but
  which is presupposed by something stated earlier
  in the text.
• linked to the interpersonal metafunction of
  language
• examples occur in conversational discourse
  between two or more participants.

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Yes-No Ellipses

• 2.1 A clause or its part can be ellipted in a
  yes-no or WH-construction.

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Yes-No Ellipses Involving Whole Clauses (1)

• Can you row?
• Yes. I can row
• You're growing too.
• Notice that yes-no ellipsis is not limited to
  yes-no questions, but to yes-no constructions in
  general.
• Yes I'm growing too, but I grow at a
  reasonable pace.

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Yes-No Ellipses Involving Whole Clauses (2)

• "Are you to get in at all? That's the first
  question, you know." It was, no doubt only Alice
  did not like to be told so. Alice did not like
  to be told that that was the first question
• The word so above is an instance of substitution.

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Yes-No Ellipses Involving Whole Clauses (3)

• Does your watch tell you what year it is?
• Of course not. Of course my watch
  does not tell me what year it is
• The word not above is another instance of
  substitution. ?
• In ellipsis involving the clause or part of it, a
  particular word, usually so, not or nor,
  replaces the deleted clause or its part.

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Yes--No Ellipses Involving Parts of Clauses

• Must a name mean something?
• Of course it must. mean something
• Of course you know your ABC?
• To be sure I do. know my ABC
• So do I. know my ABC

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WH-Ellipses -- Whole Clause and Part of a Clause

• I think you ought to tell me who you are, first.
• Why? ought I to tell you who I am
• They're at it again.
• Who are? at it again
• It may be observed here that the WH-element in
  WH-ellipsis need not necessarily occur in the
  initiating clause, but may instead be found in
  the response.

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Ellipses of the Verbal Group

• Does it hurt?
• Not any more. It was doing last night.
• Have the children gone to sleep?
• I think they must have done.
• Note that both examples of ellipses of the verbal
  group involve substitution. In fact, most cases
  of ellipses of the verbal group involve
  substitution by means of the non-finite form of
  the verb do (eg. do, doing, done).

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Ellipses of the Nominal Group

• Have some wine.
• I don't see any wine.
• There isn't any.
• This here ought to have been a red rose-tree, and
  we put a white one i.e. rose-tree in by
  mistake.
• Note again here that the ellipsis of the nominal
  group also involves substitution. In the above
  examples, substitution is by means of the words
  any and one.

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from Sir Walter Scott's Heart of Midlothian

• The magistrate commenced by observing, that
  Butler has said his object was to return to the
  village of Libberton, but that he was interrupted
  by the mob at the West Port, Is the West Port
  your usual way of leaving town when you go to
  Libberton? said the magistrate with a sneer.

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• No. certainly, answered Butler, with the haste
  of a man anxious to vindicate the accuracy of his
  evidence but I chanced to be nearer that port
  than any other, and the hour of shutting the
  gates was on the point of striking.

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• That was unlucky, said the magistrate dryly.
  Pray, being, as you say, under coercion and fear
  of the lawless multitude, and compelled to
  accompany them through scenes disagreeable to all
  men of humanity, and more especially
  irreconcilable to the profession of a minister,
  did you not attempt to struggle, resist, or
  escape from their violence?

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• Butler replied, that their numbers prevented him
  from attempting resistance, and their vigilance
  from effecting his escape.

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• That was unlucky, again repeated the
  magistrate, in the same dry inacquiescent tone of
  voice and manner. He proceeded with decency and
  politeness, but with a stiffness which argued his
  continued suspicion, to ask many questions
  concerning the behaviour of the mob, the manners
  and dress of the ringleaders and when he
  conceived that the caution of Butler, if he was
  deceiving him, must be lulled asleep, the
  magistrate suddenly

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• and artfully returned to former parts of his
  declaration, and required a new recapitulation of
  the circumstances, to the minutest and most
  trivial point, which attended each part of the
  melancholy scene. No confusion or contradiction,
  however, occurred, that could countenance the
  suspicion which he seemed to have adopted against
  Butler...

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from William Shakespeare's Measure for Measure

• Present ANGELO (the Deputy to Duke VINCENTIO),
• ESCALUS (an ancient Lord), Servants, and a
  Justice
• Enter ELBOW (a simple constable) and Officers
  with FROTH (a foolish gentleman) and POMPEY
  (servant to Mistress Overdone).

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• Elbow. Come bring them away. If these be good
  people in a commonweal, that do nothing but use
  their abuses in common houses, I know no law.
  Bring them away.
• Angelo. How now sir, what's your name? And what's
  the matter?
• Elbow. If it please your honour, I am the poor
  Duke's constable, and my name is Elbow. I do lean
  upon justice, sir, and do bring in here before
  your good honour two notorious benefactors.

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• Angelo. Benefactors? Well, what benefactors are
  they? Are they not malefactors?
• Elbow. If it please your honour, I know not well
  what they are. But precise villains they are,
  that I am sure of, and void of all profanation in
  the world, that good Christians ought to have.
• Escalus. to Angelo This comes off well here's
  a wise officer.
• Angelo. Go to. What quality are they of? Elbow is
  your name? Why dost thou not speak, Elbow?

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• Pompey. He cannot, sir he's out at elbow.
• Angelo. What are you, sir?
• Elbow. He, sir? A tapster, sir parcel bawd one
  that serves a bad woman whose house, sir, was,
  as they say, plucked down in the suburbs and now
  she professes a hot-house which I think is a
  very ill house too.

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• Escalus. How know you that?
• Elbow. My wife, sir, whom I detest before heaven
  and your honour -
• Escalus. How? Thy wife?
• Elbow. Ay, sir whom I thank heaven is an honest
  woman -

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• Escalus. Dost thou detest her therefore?
• Elbow. I say, sir, I will detest myself also, as
  well as she, that this house, if it be not a
  bawd's house, it is pity of her life, for it is
  not a naughty house.

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Extract from Judith Wrights Silence

• Silence is the rock where I shall stand.
• The silence between this and the next breath,
• that might be - is not yet - death
• the silence between lover and lover
• that neither flesh nor mind bridge over

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Ellipted Theme Subject

• Nearly everyone who can afford to do so sets up
  as a country gentleman, or ? at least makes some
  effort in that direction.
• This wide-spread day-dream is undoubtedly
  snobbish, it has tended to stabilize class
  distinctions and ? has helped to prevent the
  modernization of English agriculture but it is
  mixed up with a kind of idealism, a feeling that
  style and tradition are more important than money.

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Ellipses (Not in Conversational Discourse)

• He really was an impossible person. He was Too
  shy altogether. ? With absolutely nothing to
  say for himself. And he had such a weight.

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End of Lecture