Discourse Analysis

Lecture 4
Coherence
 Exercise on cohesion
Underline the cohesive devices and mention their types and
subtypes. Indicate the word(s) they link with.

• 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.

2
 Answer
Device Type Subtype Antecedent
1 He reference anaphoric father
My father once bought a
2 did substitution verbal bought
Lincoln convertible.
3 It reference anaphoric buying
He1 did2 it3 by saving
4 He reference anaphoric father
every penny he4 could
5 --- ellipsis verbal saved
..5. That6 car7 would be
6 That Reference Anaphoric Lincoln
worth a fortune
7 Car hyponym -- Lincoln
nowadays. However8,
8 However conjunction Contrast
he9 sold it10 to11 help
9 He reference Anaphoric Father
pay for mAy college
10 It reference Anaphoric Car
education. Sometimes12
11 To conjunction Causal --
I think I’d rather have
12 Sometimes conjunction Temporal --
the13 convertible14.
13 The reference Anaphoric Lincoln
14 convertible repetition -- convertible
3
 Cohesion and Coherence
Read the following texts. For each one: decide if the text is cohesive.
1) Identify some cohesive ties.
2) Does it make sense?

a. Tom worked very hard but earned little money and died very poor at the
age of 35. Three years later his father took him to play at concerts in the
great cities of Europe.

b. The Austrian composer Mozart was a musical genius. He has got a

swimming pool. It actually tingles on your skin to tell you it’s working.
Water would then come out of fountains such as the one shown here. And
that’s why dogs still chase rabbits.
 Cohesion and Coherence
Read the following texts. For each one, decide if the text is cohesive.
1) Identify some cohesive ties.
2) Does it make sense?
a. Tom worked very hard but earned little money and died very poor at the age of
35. Three years later his father took him to play at concerts in the great cities
of Europe.
b. The Austrian composer Mozart was a musical genius. He has got a swimming
pool. It actually tingles on your skin to tell you it’s working. Water would then
come out of fountains such as the one shown here. And that’s why dogs still
chase rabbits.
Both texts are cohesive. The sentences are connected with pronouns, substitution,
and conjunctions.
However, neither text is coherent as they do not make sense. Coherence, thus, is
not based on explicit linguistic devices but rather on the interaction between the
reader and the text, and the resulting understanding and perception of coherence.
 Cohesion vs coherence
• Coherence refers to textual relations which are inferred, but which are not
explicitly expressed. Examples include relations between speech acts (such
as offer–acceptance or complaint–excuse), which may have to be inferred
from context, or other sequences which are inferred from background
nonlinguistic knowledge.
• While cohesion, as mentioned before, relies heavily on grammatical
knowledge, coherence is grounded in the thinking process. Coherence is
the result of a reader’s appropriate response to the writer’s plan and relates
to the discourse world of written texts.

• It usually fits a conventionally and culturally acceptable rhetorical

tradition in terms of sequence and structure. In the process of interpreting a
written text, the reader assesses his specific purpose for reading and then
uses his knowledge of the world, previous experience in reading, and
familiarity with writing conventions and different types of genres to
arrive at that degree of interpretation deemed necessary.
 Can we have one without the other?
Cohesion without coherence:
– Wash and core six apples.
– Then, use them to cut out the material for your new suit.

This discourse is about apples, but it is incoherent (doesn’t make sense).

Coherence without cohesion:

– I came home from work at 6:00pm.
– Dinner consisted of two chicken breasts and a bowl of rice.

This discourse ‘makes sense’ (it’s about somebody’s evening), but there are no
overt signs of cohesion (e.g., no lexical repetition or pronouns or
conjunctions).
 How to achieve coherence?
• There are two strategies that constitute text
coherence:

• Local coherence (micro-level coherence):

Relations between utterances, sentences, or
propositions that are structured as sequential
continuations
• Global coherence (macro-level coherence):
Using knowledge of the world and background
knowledge
 Micro-level coherence (logical relationships)

1. Temporal relation: 5. Exemplification:

A number 16 bus finally arrived. I The buses never arrive on time
asked the driver whether he was these days.
going to the university. Yesterday I waited 20 minutes for
2. Causal sequence: the number 16.
The number 16 bus was half an hour 6. Restatement:
late. At the beginning of this piece there
I missed most of the syntax lecture. is an example of Hyponymy.
3. Cause–effect sequence: The writer uses a general term
John broke his leg. followed by a specific term.
He skied over a cliff. 7. Adversative (contrast):
4. Elaboration / explanation (where, He loves holiday adventures.
who): His wife prefers to stay at home .
I ate at a good restaurant last week. 8. Parallelism:
It was Tikka’s. John bought an Acura for the trip.
Bill rented a BMW for the family.
 Example
• Which example is coherent? Why? Determine the logical relation between
the two sentences of the coherent example.

• 1 a. I love to collect classic automobiles. My favourite car is my 1899 Rolls

Royce.
• 1 b. I love to collect classic automobiles. My favourite car is my 2012
Toyota.

• The reason why only the first of the sequences “makes sense” is that our
assumptions about cars do not allow us to derive an interpretation of (1b)
which is consistent with our assumption that the text is coherent. (1a)
succeeds as a text because the contextual assumption that a 1899 Rolls
Royce is a member of the set of classic automobiles enables the hearer to
establish that the two segments satisfy the relation of elaboration.
 Match the two halves of these short texts.
1. Shares in Palm Heights fell by 50% a. Pool, garden, comfort, privacy.
after 3 days.
2. Doctor Foster went to Denmark in a b. They may be recovered via the police
shower of rain. officer on payment of a fine.
3. Magical residence; modern farmhouse c. Add ginger slices and stir well.
in village.
4. Shockingly, 10 football players are at d. The company had suffered budget
risk of foot injuries. discrepancies.
5. Bicycles parked other than in the e. We are blocking the pavement. Thank
places provided are likely to be you.
confiscated.
6. Boil water in a saucepan. f. Nike shoes can help prevent you being
one of them.
7. To all smokers, please cross the road to g. He stepped in a puddle up to his waist.
smoke. He never went there again.
Answer: 1=d, 2=g, 3=a, 4=f, 5=b, 6=c, 7=e
Easy to guess due to collocations and implicit logical connections despite the absence of
explicit links
What is the logical relation between the 2 parts of each text?
1. Shares in Palm Heights fell d. The company had suffered Causal: situation - reason
by 50% after 3 days. budget discrepancies.
2. Doctor Foster went to g. He stepped in a puddle up Temporal (and then) implied
Denmark in a shower of rain. to his waist. He never went
there again.
3. Magical residence; modern a. Pool, garden, great view, Elaboration– more details
farmhouse in village. comfort, privacy. about general statement

4. Shockingly, 10 football f. Nike shoes can help prevent Adversative (contrast)=

players are at risk of foot you being one of them. however, but
injuries.
5. Bicycles parked other than b. They may be recovered via Adversative (contrast)=
in the places provided are the police officer on payment however or but
likely to be confiscated. of a fine. Contrast between confiscated
& recovered
6. Boil water in a saucepan. c. Add ginger slices and stir Temporal = implying and then
well.
7. To all smokers, please cross e. We are blocking the Causal: situation - reason
the road to smoke. pavement. Thank you.
 Global coherence: Using knowledge of
the world and background knowledge
• We certainly rely on the syntactic structure and lexical items used in a
linguistic message to arrive at an interpretation, but it is a mistake to think
that we operate only with this literal input to our understanding.

• We interpret texts with or without explicit linguistic connections between

those elements by relying on our expectations and shared knowledge in
reading the following poster.
Sociolinguistics Seminar: Thursday 3rd June, 12.00 p.m.
Dr. Mona Mounir, Department of Arabic Language, Dammam University.
‘Dialects of Spoken Arabic‘

• We assume that June belongs to this year, and refers to the date of the
seminar; that the person mentioned is the presenter; that the host is the
department mentioned.
 Global coherence: Using knowledge of
the world and background knowledge
• ‘The question of how people know what is going on in a text is a special case
of the question of how people know what is going on in the world at all'.
• When one encounters a new situation (or makes a substantial change in one's
view of the present problem) one selects from memory a structure called a
mental model. This is a remembered framework to be adapted to fit reality
by changing details as necessary.
• A) When you go the polling station / advising dept
• B) tell the clerk your name and address. / employee name, ID
• By resorting to the voting mental model, one can make sense of the clerk, the
station, and the need for such information.
• A) John's car crashed into a guard-rail.
• B) When the ambulance came, it took John to the hospital.
• Our expectations are conceptual including hospital, doctor, medical centre in
cases of injury and accidents. In this way we can see the connection between
the two sentences.
Global coherence: Using knowledge of
the world and background knowledge
Global coherence involves constructing a single mental model. What is the
connection between the statements in each of the following texts?

1. John was playing with his toy. Mary was building a castle and Sue was
blowing soap bubbles.

2. A husband (to his wife on the phone): You’ll have to do the shopping
today. Jessica fell and broke her leg at the playground and we’re at the
emergency ward.

3. Ron’s wife died in 1980. He married again in 1990; his wife now lives in
Spain.
 Answer
Global coherence involves constructing a single mental model. What is the
connection between the statements in each of the following texts?

1. John was playing with his toy. Mary was building a castle and Sue was blowing
soap bubbles.
The three people are children playing .

2. A husband (to his wife on the phone): You’ll have to do the shopping today.
Jessica fell and broke her leg at the playground and we’re at the emergency
ward.
John was supposed to do the shopping but now has to take care of Jessica.

3. Ron’s wife died in 1980. He married again in 1990; his wife now lives in Spain.
His second wife lives in Spain. The first one is dead! (The noun “wife” refers
to 2 different people.)
 Read and figure out what the text is
about:
Before they start, conditions are less than ideal and security is at
risk. But the problem is soon resolved as each of their arms
repeats the same movement, the one in time with the other. In this
way, the obstacle is removed, thus avoiding the need to stop and
perform the operation by hand. The process continues until
change in conditions makes it unnecessary.

1. Did you understand the general, overall meaning of the texts?

2. Are there cohesive ties?
3. What makes comprehension easier or more difficult?
 If you’re told text (2) is about windscreen
wipers, how far can you make sense of the text?

Windscreen wipers

Before they start, conditions are less than ideal and

security is at risk. But the problem is soon resolved as
each of their arms repeats the same movement, the one
in time with the other. In this way, the obstacle is
removed, thus avoiding the need to stop and perform the
operation by hand. The process continues until change
in conditions makes it unnecessary.
 Example
• "It was on hill.”
• “About a mile and a half from the village "
• Locally, the relation between this sentence and
the previous one is elaboration.
• Globally, What possibilities are there? A
prison? A cemetery? Others?
 Example
• Shares in Palm Heights fell by 50% after 3
days.
• The company had suffered budget
discrepancies.
• Locally, the relation between the second
sentence and the previous one is causal.
• Globally, the company’s financial situation is
deteriorating as a result.
 Wrap up
• Which is less explicit, cohesion or coherence?
• How can it be recovered?
• Do cohesion and coherence always go hand in
hand?
• What are different kinds of coherence?