Cohesion in English Discourse (10 Hours / Theory: 8, Practice: 2)
Cohesion in English Discourse (10 Hours / Theory: 8, Practice: 2)
Cohesion in English Discourse (10 Hours / Theory: 8, Practice: 2)
REFERENCE
We always take the car since we can just put the kids, the dog
and the luggage into it.
It rained all day and night for two weeks. The basement
flooded and everything was under water. It spoilt all our
calculations.
And the living room was a very small room with two
windows that wouldn’t open and things like that. And it
looked nice. It had a beautiful brick wall.
You entered into a tiny little hallway and the kitchen was off
that.
(iii) Cataphoric reference: points the reader or
listener forwards. It draws us further into the text
in order to identify the elements to which the
reference items refer. This is a classic device for
engaging the reader’s attention; referents can be
withheld for quite long stretches of text. For
example:
1.
A pioneering ‘school-based management’
programme in Miami-Dade County’s 260 schools
has also put some budget, salary and personnel
decisions in the hands of local councils, composed
largely of teachers . ‘It’s recognition that our voices
and input are important,’ says junior highschool
teacher Ann Colman.
2.
Like the idea of deterring burglars with a big, ferocious
hound – but can’t stand dogs? For around £45 you
can buy an automatic dog barking unit – Guard Dog,
or the Boston Bulldog, both available by mail order
from catalogues like the ones you‘re sent with credit
card statements. You plug it in near the front door and
its built-in microphone detects sharp noises.
II. Identify the cataphoric reference item and its referent in
this extract, and state its role in the discourse.
The judge said the Crown had to prove an agreement to murder so that
the jury was sure. It was not sufficient to prove it as a possibility or
probability, but it must be proved beyond reasonable doubt.
iv. Personal reference:
Personal reference items are expressed through
personal pronouns, possessive pronouns and
possessive determiners (or possessive adjectives). They
serve to identify individuals and objects that are named
at some other points in the text, for example:
- Personalization of he/she:
Adam said that he did have an old dog. She was eleven years old,
and of course nobody would want to buy her.
Only the 3rd person is inherently cohesive, in that a 3rd person form
typically refers anaphorically to a preceding item in the text. First
and second person forms do not normally refer to the text at all, and
hence they are normally interpreted exophorically by reference to
the situation.
-In some cases 1st and 2nd person forms can be
used endophorically:
I like the lions, and I like the polar bears. These are my
favourites.
Those are my favourites too.
We went to the opera last night. That was our first outing
for months.
‘Where do you come from?’ said the Red Queen. ‘And where are
you going? Look up, speak nicely, and don’t twiddle your fingers all
the time.’
Alice attended to all these directions, and explained, as well as she
could, that she had lost her way.
A: I’ve ordered two turkeys, a leg of lamb, some cooked ham and
tongue, and two pounds of minced beef.
B: Whatever are you going to do with all that food?
c. Head and Modifier:
Do you want to know the woman who designed it? That was Mary
Smith.
Don’t go. The train is coming. (This differs from A train is coming)
Mind the step.
Pass me the towel.
The snow is too deep.
She found herself in a long, low hall which was lit up by a row of
lamps hanging from the roof. There were doors all round the hall,
they were all locked.
Last year we went to Devon for a holiday. The holiday we had there
was the best we’ve ever had.
Notes:
Demonstrative there vs pronoun there as in there’s a
man at the door.
Her eyes rested on the writing table behind him. It was here they
had worked.
He knew the horse could take him to where there was luck, if only
he forced it. So he would mount again and start on his furious ride,
hoping at last to get there.
‘Of course it would be all the better,’ said Alice: ‘but it wouldn’t be all the
better his being punished.’
‘You’re wrong there, at any rate,’ said the Queen.
This time, he stayed until the end of April. By then, he had so many furs
that he had to leave his strays behind.
As soon as we get there, he’ll understand everything. Xia will know then
that....
The plane touched down at last. Now we could breathe freely again.
vi. Comparative reference:
Comparative reference is expressed
through adjectives and adverbs and
serves to compare items within a text in
terms of identity or similarity. The system
is as follows:
COMPARISON
GENERAL
IDENTITY
same, equal, identical/identically
SIMILARITY
such, similar/so, similarly, likewise
DIFFERENCE
other, different, else/differently, otherwise
PARTICULAR
NUNERATIVE
more, fewer, less, further/so-as-equally-+ quantifiers,
e.g. so many
EPITHET
Comparative adjectives and adverbs, eg. better/
so-as-more-less-equally-+ comparative adjs & advs, e.g. equally good
+ General comparison:
General comparison expresses likeness and
unlikeness between things, without respect to
any particular property: two things may be the
same, similar or different, for example:
So big! (pointing)
Would you like the water cooler?
Go more slowly!
Examples of anaphora: