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Information: Cohesion in English
Information: Cohesion in English
COHESION IN ENGLISH
M.A.K. Halliday& Ruqaiya Hasan
Longman Group Limited London, 1976
1. Introduction 1
Linguistics and English Teaching: Papers,
No.7, 1968 which consisted of Chapters 1,2,
The book under review is about cohesion and 3 in their original form. Then the later
in English which had been outlined by chapters were jointly written by both Ruqaiya
M.A.K.Halliday in his writings on stylistics, Hasan and M.A.K.Halliday, and were prepared
and the concept was developed by Ruqaiya for publication in the follow-up series
Hasan in her University of Edinburgh (School Council Programme in Linguistics
doctoral thesis. The book was first named and English Teaching: Papers Series II).
as Grammatical Cohesion in Spoken and Nevertheless, they came to a decision that the
Written English, Part I with earlier chapters earlier chapters would be revised and the two
by Ruqaiya Hasan, Communication Research halves be published as a book. The revision
Center (University College London) and was undertaken by M.A.K. Halliday, who also
Longmans, Green & Co, Programme in added the last two chapters.
Cohesion in English is 340 pages long in
*
eight chapters. The first chapter introduces the
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concept of cohesion. Chapters 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6
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N.T.T.Hoa/ VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, Vol.35, No.4 (2019) 181-186
describe five major sorts of cohesion, including to the occurrence of pronouns when a word
reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction and or phrase refers to something outside the
lexical cohesion. The final chapters – chapters discourse, and the use of exophoric reference
7 & 8 – refer to the meaning of cohesion and requires some shared knowledge between
the method for the analysis of cohesion in a two speakers or between writer and reader(s).
text. An overview of the eight chapters in this Moreover, the chapter refers situational
book is provided hereafter. reference to exophora or exophoric reference
and textual reference to endophora or
2. A journey of the book endophoric reference respectively. Therefore,
context plays a key role in making sense
Chapter 1, Introduction, discusses in details of the text. What we call context-bound
the properties of cohesion which include the (context-dependence) depends on exophoric
terms relating to cohesion, e.g. the definition of reference and less context-bound (free of the
text, texture, ties and cohesion, the relationship context). The chapter also introduces some
between cohesion and linguistic structure and categories of reference consisting of personal,
context. The chapter highlights the definition demonstrative, and comparative. All these
of the text which is a unit of language in use, types of reference are illustrated in details in
not defined as a grammatical unit and by it (pp. 38, 39). Notably, the chapter lists some
size. In addition, a text is envisaged to be some particular kinds of personal reference which
kind of super-sentence, a grammatical unit that does not refer to a single thing or subject but a
is larger than a sentence. Therefore, cohesive fact (p. 52), an instance of text reference and
relations are not concerned with structure. They a process, an instance of extended reference.
may be found just as well within a sentence. The reference is defined to be exophoric
The reason why they attract less attention which is interpreted by the context of situation
within a sentence is because of the cohesive or may be cataphoric, linking up with what
strength of grammatical structure. The idea follows. Regarding demonstrative references,
is illustrated in the following example: If you their expressions occur as adjuncts, typically
happen to meet the admiral, don’t tell him his at the beginning of a clause, which are
ship’s gone down. In this example, him and known as discourse adjunctions. With regard
his in the second half have to be decoded by to comparative reference, what intrigues
reference to the admiral just as they would have me is a clear classification consisting of
had to be if there had been a sentence boundary general (deictic) comparison and particular
in between. It can be concluded that relations (non-deictic) comparison. Basing on these
of meaning exist within the text and the two distinctions, language users would be able
elements, the presupposing and presupposed, to make use of appropriate comparative
are at least potentially integrated into a text to references to express identity, similarity,
produce cohesion relations. difference, numerative or epithet. The authors
Chapter 2, Reference, is interesting suggest that the classifications of reference
to read when the authors underline the and reference items in the language are based
differences between endophoric and on the criterion of reference potential without
exophoric reference. For the former, the regard to the endophoric /exophoric distinction
referent is not in the immediate context but is and their place in the linguistic system has to
assumed by the speaker/writer to be part of a be dependent on the generalized concept of
shared world with knowledge or experience. reference not on the particular concrete form
In the meantime, exophoric reference refers
VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, Vol.35, No.4 (2019) 181-186
that it takes incorporated into the text. American English. To illustrate, examples are
The beginning of chapter 3, Substitution given in the following sentences (1) I’ve been
makes a clear distinction between substitution very remiss about this - I think we all have been,
that is a relation on semantic level and reference, at times. (2) Paula looks very happy. She always
a relation on lexico-grammatical level. Another used to do, I remember. Similarly, the word do
difference between substitution and reference has other uses rather than substitute, naming
is the former has the same structural function lexical verb do, general verb do and verbal
whereas the latter has the grammatical function operator do. The set of related words do can be
that may be slightly different from that of its shown in such examples as What’s John doing
referent. The last part of the chapter describes these days? This question could be answered
several particular types of substitution such as as follows (1) John’s doing a full-time job. (2)
nominal, verbal and clausal. In terms of nominal That’ll do him a good (3) I’m glad he’s doing
substitution, pronouns such as one or ones are something (4) Does he like it there? (5) He likes
used as substitute which presupposes some it more than I would ever do. These instances
noun that is to function as Head in the nominal contain the lexical verb do, the general verb,
group and is always accompanied by some the pro-verb, the operator, and the substitute.
modifying element which functions as defining It can be concluded that verbal substitute do is
in the particular context. In this chapter, the almost always anaphoric: it may presuppose
authors make it easy to figure out the forms an element within the same sentence as itself,
of one or ones in which one is attached as so there is already a structural relation linking
Head, used with definite and indefinite articles. the presupposed to the presupposing clauses;
Looking at these classifications, readers would but it frequently substitutes for an element in a
be able to master the rules of using one or ones. preceding sentence, and therefore it is, like the
Besides, the chapter adds one more use of one, nominal substitute, a primary source of cohesion
which is used as a cardinal number, indefinite within a text.
article and pronoun rather than substitution. In The last section of this chapter is about
addition to one/ones being, do the same and be the clausal substitution. The chapter claims
the same are used to substitute either a noun or that the substitution “do” is not only a verbal
an adjective. Apart from nominal substitution, substitute but also may extend over other
do is used as verbal substitution. To clarify, elements in the clause. The verb do comes
the authors show several similarities between close to functioning as a substitute for an
nominal substitute and verbal substitute in entire clause, which can be shown in the
which they are parallel in the structure. That is example The children work very hard in the
to say the thing in nominal group is a person, garden. They must do. Besides, the word so
creature, object, institution or abstraction of presupposes the whole of the clause. This idea
some kind whereas in the verbal group it is can be found in the example Is there going to be
typically an action, event or relation. Another an earthquake? - It says so. Also, the authors
interesting point I have found out from reading list the three environments where clausal
the chapter is the unambiguous definition of substitution occurs such as report, condition
elliptical and substitute forms with substitution and modality, each of which takes either of the
by zero and with the use of do respectively. In two forms, positive or negative; the positive is
addition, the authors point out the conditions of expressed by so, the negative by not. It can be
use of the verbal substitute where it is used more said that the reported clause that is substituted
in speech than in writing and in British than by so or not is always declarative whatever the
N.T.T.Hoa/ VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, Vol.35, No.4 (2019) 181-186
mood of the presupposed clause. In the case that when the item is omitted from the structure
of substitution of reported clauses, reports and of the text, it can still be understood.
facts are distinguished clearly in which the If chapters 2, 3, and 4 see reference,
former are lexico-grammatical structures and substitution and ellipsis as a means of cohesion,
the latter are semantic structures. The final chapter 5, Conjunction reminds the readers
part of the chapter describes the similarities of a very popular type of cohesion used in
among the types of clausal substitution where academic writing which is called conjunction.
a modalized clause and a reported clause are The authors have a thorough discussion about
similar in meaning while a conditional clause structural equivalents on conjunctive relations
is semantically related both to a reported one that include time sequence and adversative
and to modalized one. Another similarity sequence. Examples could be viewed in After
among these three types is the property of the battle, there was a snowstorm (p.228)
being at one remove from (statements of) and Although he was very uncomfortable, he
reality; they are hypothetical. To conclude, fell asleep (p. 229). Notably, the chapter lists
this chapter presents the three types of different types of conjunction according to the
substitution: nominal, verbal and clausal, each four categories: additive, adversative, casual,
of which provides book users a wide view of and temporal whose examples can be found in
properties for using substitutes appropriately. pp. 238, 239. Besides, the end of the chapter
In brief, substitution forms discuss a textual brings me a new insight into conjunction which
relation; the primary meaning is anaphoric. uses some redundant language such as now, of
Besides, the use of substitution forms helps course, well, surely and after all, and also uses
speakers or writers avoid repetition in both intonation ranging from tone 1 (the falling) to
spoken and written texts, which creates tone 4 (falling-rising) as a function of cohesive
smooth flow of utterances and texts. device. It is believed that conjunctions help
In chapter 4, the author states that llipsis speakers/ writers to maintain a strong flow
and substitution are theoretically similar to of communication in both ways of verbal
each other. As presented in chapter 3, ellipsis is and written communication, which plays
simply “substitution by zero” or “something left an important role in academic and scientific
unsaid” but “understood nevertheless” (p. 142) contexts. In the previous four chapters, the
but it is helpful to treat the two separately for authors have described the four main types
practical purposes. Illustration of the point can of grammatical cohesion, namely reference,
be seen in the sentences Hardly anyone left the substitution, ellipsis, and conjunction. Also,
country before the war or Joan brought some chapter 6, Lexical cohesion provides another
carnations, and Catherine some sweet peas. picture of cohesive relations which is lexical
In the chapter, the authors show the condition cohesion, the cohesive effect achieved by the
with the use of presupposition in which ellipsis selection of vocabulary with the use of the
occurs. Especially, the chapter also deals with class of general nouns that are generalized
various genres of ellipses such as nominal into human noun, place noun and fact noun.
ellipsis, verbal ellipsis and clausal ellipsis. The Furthermore, general words have been viewed
first two types mentioned are ellipses related to as REITERATION that involves the repetition
words and phrases while the last type is related of a lexical item with different kinds like
to ellipsis at clausal level. In this chapter ellipsis synonym, near-synonym or superordinate. At
is considered an anaphoric relation because the same time, the chapter deals with the most
omission takes place within a text, which means problematical part of lexical cohesion that is
VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, Vol.35, No.4 (2019) 181-186