话语分析

AGeneralIntroductiontoCohesionandCoherenceAbstract:Thispaperisintendedtoillustratethecohesionandcoherencegenerallyfromseveralaspects.Cohesionandcoherencearethemostimportantpropertiesofatext.BeaugrandeandDressleralsoregardthemasoneofthesevencriteriasoftextuality.Cohesionandcoherencearethedifferentaspectsofthemeaning.Theyhavesomerelationswitheachother.Keywords:cohesion,coherence,textuality.1.IntroductionAccordingtoHallidayandHasan(1976:4),cohesionisrelatedwithmeaningthatexistwithinthetextandthatdefineitasatext.Cohesionoccurswheretheinterpretationofsomeelementinthediscourseanditdependsonthatofothers.Grammarandlexisaretwomeanstorealizethegoalofcohesion.Inotherwords,therearegrammaticalcohesionandlexicalcohesion.Coherencereferstotherelationships,whichlinkthemeaningofutterancesinadiscourseorthesentencesinatext.Itisunderstoodasthetotalofthemechanisms,whichmakeatextalogicalunitandaresultofmentalwork.Thehearerorreaderassignscoherencetothetext.Bothcohesionandcoherencecontributetothecreationofatext.Cohesionisachievedmainlybyformallinguisticlinks,whilecoherenceisrealizedbyextralinguisticmeans,suchasspeakers’sharedknowledge.However,thereisnoinherentrelationbetweencohesionandcoherence.Cohesionisonlyaguidetocoherenceandcoherenceissomethingcreatedbythereaderintheactionofreadingthetext.Cohesionisanecessaryconditionforcoherencebutnottheonlyandsufficientcondition.Atextmaybecoherentbutnotcohesive.2.cohesionandcontextCohesionisachievedbyconnectivemechanismsmoreorlessexplicitlymanifestedinthesurfaceoftext.Whenweconsidercohesion,weareinvesti-gatingthelinguisticmeanswherebyatextisenabledtofunctionasasinglemeaningfulunit.Theselinguisticmeans,whichincludebothgrammaticalandlexical,arepartsofthelinguisticcontext.2.1.GrammaticalCohesionandLinguisticContextAsHallidayandHasannoted,undergrammaticalcategoryarereference,substitution,ellipsisandconjunction.Eachofthembelongstolinguisticcontext.Becauseallofthemhaverelationswiththepreviousorfollowingwords,phrases,clauses,etc.2.2LexicalCohesionandLinguisticContextLexicalcohesionisacohesiverelationachievedbylexicalitems,consistingofreiterationandcollocation.Inthisexample,bothreiterationandcollocationareusedtoprovidecohesion.Inthefirstsentencesportisasuperordinateforfishing.Bootsoccurstwiceinthetext.Oneinstanceofcollocationisprovidedbyfish…catching.Theyarealltheelementsofthelinguisticcontext.Therefore,allthecohesivedevicesaredependentonthelinguisticcontext.Inotherwords,withoutthelinguisticcontextatextcannotbecohesive.3.coherenceDiscoursecoherenceisoneofthemostdifficultandcomplicatedtopicsofdiscourseanalysis.Thetermcoherencedidnotreceivemuchattentionuntil1976,whenHallidayandHasansfamousworkCohesioninEnglishwaspublished.Fromthenon,theconceptofcoherencehasattractedincreasingattentionandinterestoflinguists.Inthepastthreedecades,muchresearchhasbeendoneondiscoursecoherence.Allthestudiescanbegroupedintotwotypes:semanticapproachandpragmaticapproach.3.1SemanticApproach:CohesionTheoryHallidayandHasan(1976)holdtheviewthattheprimarydeterminantofwhetherasetofsentencesdoordonotconstituteaunifiedtextdependsoncohesiverelationswithinandbetweenthesentences.Generallyspeaking,thecohesiveanalysisofcoherenceisconcernedwiththefollowingthreeaspectsofadiscourse:firstly,theidentificationofparticularcohesivedevices,namely,reference,substitution,ellipsis,conjunction,andlexicalcohesion;secondly,thecountingofthenumberofcohesivetiesinaparticulardiscourse;thirdly,labelingthetiesintermsofimmediate,mediated,andremoteties.Itseemsthatitisthecohesivetiesthatmakeadiscourseaunitedwhole,givingitco-Herence.HallidayandHasanprovideadetailedexplorationofcohesivedevicesandthentheyclaimthatthecriterionforclassificationislexico-grammaticalandsemantic.Thus,referenceachievescohesivepowerthroughonelinguisticitempointingbacktoaprecedinglinguisticitem(anaphoric),orpointingfor-wardtoafollowingone(cataphoric),orpointingoutsideofthetext(exophoric),withanaphoricbeingbyfarthepredominant.Substitutionandellipsisachievecohesivepowerbyreplacingoromittinganitem,theonlydifferencebetweenthetwobeingthatellipsisissubstitutionbyzero.Lexicalcohesionfunctionsthroughtherepetitionofalexicalitemintheprecedingtext(reiteration),orthroughtheuseofasynonymorahyponym.Conjunctionconcernstheseman-ticlinkbetweentwoclauses.Itisobviousthat,exceptconjunction,alltypesofcohesiondependonacommonfactor:theidentificationofareferent.Foralinguisticitemtocreatecohesiontheremustalwaysbeareferenttopointto,tobesubstituted,tobeomitted,ortobeusedtodetermineasynonymorhyponym.Asamatteroffact,inadiscourse,everysentenceorclausemayhavemorethanonecohesivedeviceinit.Asweknow,HallidayandHasanhavemadegreatcontributionstothestudyofcoherencefromthesemanticperspective.Theircohesiontheoryhasprovidedanilluminatingdiscussionoftherelationshipsbetweendifferentelementsofadiscourse,regardingcoherenceasanobjectiveinherentpropertyofthediscourseitself,strivingtoidentifycohesivetiestodescribecoherence.Tosomedegree,mostdiscourseswillrevealsomeformofcohesivestructuringcohesiondevices,andmeanwhilethesetypesofcohesivedev