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1. Introduction


Linguists have always regarded the complexity of language to be such that it is
necessary to set up more than one level of analysis, where there are three main
levels of analysis semantics, syntax, and phonology (Leech, 1974: 178). In this
paper we are concerning with the semantic analysis which figure out the meaning
of linguistic input and construct meaning representations. Semantic analysis is a
language process which produces common-sense knowledge about the world
(extract data and construct models of the world).Through analyzing certain text;
we can reach the meaning that sometimes not clear for some people especially for
students of English or those who study English as a second language. The goal of
such analysis was to find the meaning of the forms of language by finding the
cohesive devices which participate in organizing the meaning and analyze them.
Cohesion relates to the semantic ties within text whereby a tie is made when
there is some dependent link between items that combine to create meaning.

Cohesion is defined as the set of linguistic means we have available for creating
texture (Halliday and Hasan, 1976, 2), i.e., the property of a text of being an
interpretable whole (rather than unconnected sentences). Cohesion occurs when
the interpretation of some element in the text is dependent on that of another. The
one presupposes the other, in the sense that it cannot be effectively decoded except
by recourse to it. (Halliday and Hasan, 1976: 4).

Speakers and writers often provide internal cues as to how the parts of a text are
linked together. These cues create cohesion in texts.

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2. Semantic Analysis by Using Cohesive Devises

The best-known treatment of cohesion is that of Halliday and Hasan (1976).
Halliday describes five general grammatical and lexical strategies that speakers use
(and hearers expect) for showing how the meanings of parts of different sentences
are related to each other. By linking some elements in one sentence with some
element in another, these cohesive devices create ties between sentences
(J ohnstone, 2008: 118).

These five cohesive devises are:
1- Reference: referential ties are created when an item in one sentence refers to an
item in another sentence such as pronouns.

2- Substitution: a linguistic element is not repeated but is replaced by a
substitution item such as so, one, another one, the second one, etc.
For example: (Daan loves strawberry ice-creams. He has one every day)

3- Ellipsis: in which one of the identical linguistic elements is omitted and the
cohesive ties are created via omission, as the interpreters have to go elsewhere in
the text, or in the context of the discourse to fill in the blanks.

4- Conjunction: conjunction is the use of any one of a variety of strategies to show
how sentences are related in meaning to other sentences. One of the signals is the
use of conjunctions, words such as however, because, so, nevertheless, and
and. Conjunctions explicitly tie the meanings of utterances together, making the
meaning of one coordinate with or subordinate to the meaning of the other.
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5- Lexical cohesion: this means using the same words repeatedly, or using words
that point to one another in various ways, such as by having similar or antonymous
meanings or by being meronyms or hyponyms.

Using the Newsweek article The Dangers of Teen Driving from the Readers
Digest Magazine which was retrieved from the web site (www.rd.com) as a basis,
the textual aspect of meaning through cohesion will be analyzed. The principles of
referencing, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction, and lexical cohesion put forth by
Halliday and Hasan (1976) will be applied to the article and analyzed to
demonstrate the relevance of the cohesive elements that are present in texts which
contribute to the overall meaning of the text. Understanding how cohesion
functions within text will create semantic links that could be beneficial to us and
helps decoding meaning.


3. The Text
The word text is used in linguistics to refer to any passage, spoken or written, of
whatever length that does form a unified whole (Halliday and Hasan, 1976:1).
Recently there is an increasing interest in the analysis of texts. The common
interest is the interpretation of text in terms of the meaning(s) it encodes, be that
rhetorical structure, information distribution or informational content.

The following text is used for the purpose of analysis focusing on the meaning
carried by the most important devices specified by Halliday and Hasan.




4

The Dangers of Teen Dri vi ng
1. Kylie Grayden, 17, of Shorewood, Minnesota, glanced at her iPod while driving
with her cousin and a friend, both 17. When she veered off the road and flipped her
car into a ditch, she and her friend were killed.
2. Heading home from practice, J onathan Chapman, a 16-year-old high school
basketball player from La Plata, Maryland, was reportedly speeding when his car
rammed an SUV. He and three friends, ages 14 to 16, were killed.
3. Five days after graduating from high school, Bailey Goodman, 17, of Fairport,
New York, and four classmates were on their way to her familys cottage.
Moments after text messages were exchanged on Baileys cell phone, she slammed
into an oncoming truck. All five teens were killed.
4. More than 5,000 teenagers die in car accidents every year. If we saw these
numbers coming back from a war zone, it would be on the front page every day,
says Vincent Leibell, a state senator from New York, where some 200 teens died in
crashes in 2006.
5. The numbers arent budging. Fatalities did drop from the mid-70s through the
early 90s, mainly because of tougher seat belt and drunk driving laws. But since
then, the statistics have remained stubbornly high, despite improved safety features
in cars.
6. Some of this is due to teens themselves. Anytime you have immaturity
combined with inexperience, you have the potential for disaster, says Nicole
Nason, head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. And thats
what you get with a 16-year-old behind the wheel.
7. But thats not the whole story. Speed, distraction, and driver inexperience cause
most crashes-and those things can be controlled. These deaths should not be
considered an inevitable part of the teen experience, says J ustin McNaull, director
of state relations for AAA. We can change this. Here are three steps that will
prevent crashes and save countless lives of teens and others on the road.
8. TEACH YOUR KIDS: One problem is that teens fail to see certain behaviors as
dangerous. Only 28 percent said using a cell phone is a risk, and 10 percent said
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the same about having other teens in the car. (Theyre both big distractions, and
boys in the car are more distracting than girls.) Only half cited speeding or not
wearing a seat belt.
9. The message for parents: Spell out the dangers for your kids. Its up to you
because only 20 percent of schools offer driver ed today, down from 90 percent in
the 1980s. Nason says, You have a responsibility to make sure your child isnt
going to drive into someone else head-on because hes busy chatting on his cell
phone and nobodys told him, Hang up the phone and drive the car.
10. FIGHT FOR STRICTER STATE LAWS: You dont suddenly become a good
driver when you turn 16, Nason says. We need to ease teens into a lifelong habit
of good driving.
11. Thats the goal of graduated driver licensing laws, which impose restrictions
before teens earn a full license. An ideal law would set the minimum age for a
permit at 16, limit passengers to just one, ban cell phones, prohibit driving between
10 p.m. and 5 a.m., and not allow a full license until age 18.
12. Currently, 47 states have phase-in laws, but few are as effective as they could
be. Only eight set the minimum age for a permit at 16. Fewer than ten prohibit
driving after 10 p.m. And only 12 have strict limits on passengers.
13. GET TOUGH AT HOME: Even if your state has weak laws, you can still set the
rules for your own teen. Youre the parent, says AAAs McNaull. You control
when your child gets licensed, you control the keys, and you control the car. You
can put significant conditions in place.
14. Start by making sure your teen always wears a seat belt. Its the single most
effective safety device in your car, says Nason. But more than half of teen drivers
killed on the road in 2006 werent buckled up.
15. In the same way, you can also lay down your own phase-in law. Set your teens
night driving limit to no later than 10 p.m., dont allow more than one passenger,
and ban cell phones-even with a headset. Using a phone with a headset is of no
benefit to an inexperienced driver, says University of Utah researcher David
Strayer.
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4. Analysis
4.1 Reference words
In written text, referencing indicates how the writer introduces participants and
keeps track of them throughout the text (Eggins 1994: 95). Referencing can be
divided into three areas: anaphoric, cataphoric, and esphoric. Anaphoric refers to
any reference that points backwards to previously mentioned information in text.
Cataphoric refers to any reference that points forward to information that will be
presented later in the text. Esphoric refers to any reference within the same
nominal group or phrase which follows the presupposed item. For cohesion
purposes, anaphoric referencing is the most relevant as it provides a link with a
preceding portion of the text (Halliday and Hasan 1976: 51).
Functionally speaking, there are three main types of cohesive references: personal,
demonstrative, and comparative. Personal reference keeps track of function
through the speech situation using pronouns like he, him, she, her, etc. and
possessive determiners like mine, yours, his, hers, etc. Demonstrative reference
keeps track of information through location using proximity references like this,
these, that, those, here, there, then, and the. Comparative reference keeps track of
identity and similarity through indirect references using adjectives like same,
equal, similar, different, else, better, more, etc. and adverbs like so, such,
similarly, otherwise, so, more, etc. (ibid: 3739).
4.1.1 Personal Reference
In the first paragraph, there are 6 reference words used. When we come across the
word her which is used 4 times we know that we have to find the human being to
whom the word refers. Kylie Grayden is the one referred to by the personal
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reference her. The same thing is applied to she. These pronouns, used many
times in the first paragraph all refer backwards to Kylie, are called anaphora. This
means that it points to an earlier sentence that included the noun it refers to. This
represents a cohesive tie that links these sentences and gives cohesion to these
sentences.
Similarly, in the second paragraph the words his car and he cannot be fully
interpreted until we know whose car it is and for what person the word he refers,
in this case it is the car of teenage J onathon Chapman. The same thing is applied
with he which refers to the same person mentioned previously in the paragraph.
Thus, this pronoun also presents an anaphora one.
The pronoun we is used twice in the fourth paragraph if we saw and in the
seventh paragraph we can change this. The speaker used this word to refer to the
American society including himself as a member of this society referring to their
responsibility toward the danger of teenagers accidents.
In using the pronoun you three times by Nicole Nason, head of the National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in the sixth paragraph, the speaker didnt
address a certain person in front of her. But she is pointing to the whole society or
may be all people because she is speaking about general information and
reasonable result for the driver being immature and having no experience which
leads to a disaster (accident).
The anaphoric pronoun their in the expression their way in the third paragraph
is ambiguous unless we know to whom it refers since many persons have been
mentioned previously, but as soon this ambiguity is removed when we know that it
refers to a group of persons that were mentioned before (Fairport + four
classmates).
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4.1.2 Demonstrative Reference
There are 8 demonstrative references in the text (these 2 times, then, this 2
times, that 2 times, those, and here).
The demonstrative (this, that, these, those), according to Halliday and Hasan, all
refer to the location of something, typically some entity, person or object that is
participating in the process; they therefore occur as elements within the nominal
group. They belong to the class of determiners, and have the experiential function
of deictic. In the logical structure they function either as Modifier or as Head.
In the fifth paragraph we have the expression these numbers in which the
demonstrative these is cataphora because it refers to something forward in the
text which is numbers.
The demonstrative this in the expression some of this in the sixth paragraph acts
as the head of the sentence and it is used by speaker to refer to something has been
said by himself. This is a general tendency for the use of this that is because this
is near to the speaker.
The demonstrative that in the expression thats not the whole story in the
seventh paragraph also acts as the head of the sentence and refer to all information
given in the whole text before this point to prepare giving additional information
such as (other causes of car crashes).
The circumstantial (adverbial) demonstrative then which, according to Halliday
and Hasan (1976: 57), besides there, now, and here, refer to the location of a
process in space or time, and they normally do so directly, not via the location of
some person or object that is participating in the process. Thus, then is used in the
fifth paragraph in the expression since then as a time referring demonstrative
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after certain time in the past. This demonstrative then is to be distinguished from
conjunction then as in the sentence (then youve quite made up your mind?)
The same is applied with here which is used as near demonstrative in the
following sentence Here are three steps that will prevent crashes (7
th
paragraph).

4.1.3 Comparative reference
1- Identity
- (In the 8
th
paragraph) -- said the same about having other teens in the car.

2- Difference (i.e.: non-identity and dissimilarity)
- (In the 9
th
paragraph) Your child isnt going to drive into someone else head-on.

3- Comparison, quantity
- (In the 4
th
paragraph) More than 5,000 teenagers die in car accidents every year.

4- Comparison, quality
- (In the 8
th
paragraph) Teens fail to see certain behaviors as dangerous.
- (In the 8
th
paragraph) Boys in the car are more distracting than girls.
- (In the 14
th
paragraph) Its the single most effective safety device in your car.
- (In the 12
th
paragraph) But few are as effective as they could be.
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4.2 Substitution
Cohesion through substitution is the second source of cohesion discussed by
Halliday and Hasan. They (1976:88) define substitution as the replacement of one
item by another. It is a relation between linguistic items, such as words or phrases,
rather than a relation between meanings and this distinguishes it from reference.
Halliday and Hasan (1976:90) divide substitution into three types based on their
inherent characteristic. The three types of substitution in English include nominal
substitution, verbal substitution, and clausal substitution.
In our text we have discovered two types of substitution verbal and nominal
substitutions:

4.2.1 Verbal Substitute
For verbal reference that
- (In the 11
th
paragraph) Thats the goal of graduated driver licensing laws.
Substitute for to ease teens into a lifelong habit of good driving.
Although the word that has many uses. It is used as a demonstrative reference
and others. Here, it is a substitute for the verbal clause to ease teens into a lifelong
habit of good driving



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4.2.2 Nominal Substitutes

For noun Head one
- (In the 11
th
paragraph) limit passengers to just one. Substitute for passenger

For nominal complement the same
- (In the 8
th
paragraph) and 10 percent said the same. Substitute for using a cell
phone is a risk.
Only two types of nominal substitution are discovered in our text (for noun head
one and for nominal complement the same). The substitute one always
functions as the head of a nominal group and can substitute only for an item which
is itself the head of a nominal group. Thus, the word one is a substitute for
passenger which works as the Head and instead of repeating the same word the
writer use one as it undertakes the same function. While we use the same
,according to Halliday and Hasan (1976: 105), to presuppose an entire nominal
group including any modifying elements. The presupposed item is almost always
non-human, and it cannot be a proper name. This is the case with our example,
where the same is a substitute for using a cell phone is a risk which is neither
human nor a proper name.




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4.3. Ellipsis
Though substitution and ellipsis are similar in their function as the linguistic link
for cohesion, ellipsis differs in that it is substitution by zero (Halliday and Hasan,
1976: 142). Ellipsis refers to a presupposed anaphoric item although the reference
is not through a place-marker like in substitution. Ellipsis is, thus, a relation
within the text; where there is ellipsis in the structure, there is a presupposition that
something is to be supplied or understood, and in the great majority of instances
the presupposed item is present in the preceding text. Three types of ellipsis can be
found in English: nominal ellipsis, verbal ellipsis, and clausal ellipsis. Halliday and
Hasan further classify ellipsis in systemic linguistic terminology as deictic,
enumerative, epithet, classifier, and qualifier. Because most cases of ellipsis are
anaphoric to something written in a previous clause, the effect is highly cohesive.
In our text, we have the following ellipsis cases:
4.3.1. Nominal ellipsis
1- (In the Second paragraph) He and (-) three friends. (his)
In this sentence the writer avoided the possessive adjective (his) since it is obvious
that these friends belong to J onathan and what helps in making it more clear that
the three friend followed the pronoun he. Thus, it is easy for the reader to guess
that these are the friends of he which is (J onathon).
2- (In the Fourth paragraph) If we saw these numbers (-) coming back from.
(of deaths)
It is clear that the writer is not speaking about a mathematical calculations or
numbers themselves, but he is speaking about the number of deaths among teens,
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since any one read the text from the beginning will get the idea of the text which is
focusing on the big number of deaths among teens.
3- (In the Fourth paragraph) it would be on the front page (-) every day. (of
news paper, web sites, etc. )
In this sentence the ellipsis happened not because the deleted item was mentioned
before, but because it is obvious to all people when we mention the word front
page, we mean by that the front page of newspaper, magazines, web sites etc. The
ellipsis used here is exophoric one and it is the context of situation that provides
the information needed to interpret this. It is something like common knowledge
that all people have, this made the writer to use this ellipses to a void routines since
he knows that all people will understand it.
4- (In the 5
th
paragraph) The numbers (-) arent budging. (of deaths)
Since ellipsis is a relation within the text, and in the great majority of instances the
presupposed item is present in the preceding text. That is to say, ellipsis is
normally an anaphoric relation (Halliday and Hasan, 1976: 144). Thus, the
presupposed elliptical item here is also the word deaths and it is anaphoric
ellipses because it refers to information that has been mentioned before.
5- (In the 5
th
paragraph) (-) fatalities did drop from--. (The number of -)
This ellipsis happened because the information has been mentioned many times
previously. Since the writer was speaking about number and statistics of deaths, so
it is easy for the reader to know that the writer when mention the word fatalities
alone, he means by that the number or statistics of fatalities.
6- (In the 8
th
paragraph) Only 28 percent (-) said using a cell phone is a risk,
and 10 percent (-) said the same. (of teens)
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The main focus in these two sentences is on the word teens although it is omitted,
if we use it every time we want to refer to teens, it will be boring. Instead, the
speaker prefers to delete them to avoid repetition.
7- (In the 12
th
paragraph) Only eight (-) set the minimum age for a permit at i6.
Fewer than ten (-) prohibit driving after 10 p.m. And only 12 (-) have strict
limits on passengers. (of the states)
Here we have three cases of ellipsis for the expression (of the state) which was
mentioned previously.
4.3.2 Verbal ellipsis
1- (In the 5
th
paragraph) Because of (-) tougher seat belt and drunk driving
laws. (applying -)
We know the word law is usually collocated with apply, enforce, implement etc.
so it is obvious for us that there is such a verb that has been deleted from the
sentence to refer that the applying of these law was the reason for the decrease of
the number of fatalities not the laws themselves.

4.4. Conjunction
Conjunction, as described by Bloor and Bloor (1995: 98) acts as a cohesive tie
between clauses or sections of text in such a way as to demonstrate a meaningful
pattern between them, though Halliday and Hasan (1976: 227) indicate that
Conjunctive relations are not tied to any particular sequence in the expression
Conjunction, as described by Bloor and Bloor (1995: 98) acts as a cohesive tie
between clauses or sections of text in such a way as to demonstrate a meaningful
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pattern between them, though Halliday and Hasan (ibid: 227) indicate that
conjunctive relations are not tied to any particular sequence in the expression.
Therefore, amongst the cohesion forming devices within text, conjunction is the
least directly identifiable relation. Halliday and Hasan (1976:238) identify four
types of conjunction in English: additive, adversative, causal, and temporal.
The conjunctions used in our text are as follows:
4.4.1 Causal
Causal conjunction is a cause-effect relation. According to Halliday and Hasan
(1976:256), the specific relations of result, reason and purpose are included under
the heading of causal relations.
Reversed causal (Because)
- (In the 9
th
paragraph) its up to you because only 20 percent of schools offer
driver ED today.
4.4.2. Adversative
The adversative conjunction is a relation used as contrary to expectation
(Halliday and Hasan 1976:250). Since the expectation may be derived from the
content of what is being said, or communication process, cohesion can be found as
being either external or internal adversative relation.
Contrastive, simple (but)
- (In the 12
th
paragraph) But few are as effective as they could be.
- (In the 14
th
paragraph) But more than half of teen drivers killed on the road in
2006 werent buckled up. (substitution +comparative reference)
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4.4.3. Additive
Additive conjunction is a generalized semantic relation in the text-forming
component of the semantic system that is based on the logical notion of and.
Since sentences follow one another at a time as the text unfolds; they cannot be
rearranged in different sequences and different bracketings. Therefore each new
sentence either is or is not linked to its predecessor.
Simple (and)
- (In the 12
th
paragraph) And only 12 have strict limits on passengers.
Comparison, similar (in the same way)
- (In the 15
th
paragraph) In the same way, you can also lay down your own phase-
in law.

4.5. Lexical Words
Lexical cohesion differs from the other cohesive elements in text in that it is non-
grammatical. Lexical cohesion refers to the cohesive effect achieved by the
selection of vocabulary (Halliday and Hasan, 1976: 274). The two basic
categories of lexical cohesion are reiteration and collocation. Reiteration pertains
to the repetition of a lexical item, either directly or through the use of a synonym, a
superordinate or a generally related word. Collocation pertains to lexical items that
are likely to be found together within the same text. Collocation occurs when a pair
of words is not necessarily dependent upon the same semantic relationship but
rather they tend to occur within the same lexical environment (ibid: 286). The
closer lexical items are to each other between sentences, the stronger the cohesive
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effect. Through the use of vocabulary, cohesion exists when ties between lexical
items can be identified.

4.5.1. Reiteration
Instead of repeating exactly the same word, some texts employ a different cohesive
device: they use a word and then use a synonym or semi-synonym of that word
(Salkie, 1995: 9). A synonym is a word that has the same meaning as another
word.
We have a number of direct or indirect reiterations in our text:
4.5.1.1. Direct (reiterations) synonym:
- Teens Teenagers
- Cell phone phone cellular phone
Both of the words (teens, teenagers) have referential relation to all teens, so this
relation is called inclusive. The same thing is applied with the words (cell phone,
phone, and cellular phone) where all of them refer to the same thing. Although
they are used in different places in the text, they succeed in making a semantic
relation through lexical ties.

4.5.1.2. Indirect (reiterations) semi-synonyms:
- Accidents Crashes (general word)
- Deaths Fatalities (general word)
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- Home Cottage (general word)
- Ban prohibit not allow
- kids children teens
- Lay down impose
- Laws limits rules
- Car (Superordinate) truck, SUV (hyponyms)
Actually, as Salkie (1995: 9) remarks that finding two words which have exactly
the same meaning isn't easy. The words home and cottage do not always have
exactly the same meaning. But, they are very close in meaning, and in this example
they refer to the same thing (house), so we can call them synonyms. It can get
boring if the same word is repeated, and this is one reason why synonyms are used
instead. It would have been possible to use home on both occasions in the text,
but using synonyms instead adds variety.
The words (ban, prohibit, and not allow) all of these words refer to the same thing
(prevention from doing something) since they were all used in the same sentence.
The speaker tried to make his sentence more acceptable rather than repeating the
same word. Besides, the speaker has the reasonable reason to use the word ban
since he is speaking about an official rule where this word is suitable for this use,
prohibit which is used with laws and so on. Thus, although these words have
different functions inside the text, we can say that they are all indirectly refer to the
same meaning.


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4.5.1.3. Repetition of words
Many words are used more than once in this text. The words is, a, and, and
others occur many times. Although these words play a part in making the text
coherent, simply repeating them is not what counts. Any text in English is likely to
contain many examples of these words: they are sometimes called function words.
On the other hand, the text contains certain words which are used less often than
these but occur more than once: these are called Content Words; we wouldn't
expect to find them in every text, and they do help to make this a coherent text.
Teens, for instance, occurs nine times +two teenagers, the word driving
occurs 4 times, car four times, crashed three times, and were killed three
times. These are important words in this text. We can show this in two ways:
First, if we had to give a summary of what this text is about, we might say
something like teens driving a car were killed in crash using these repeated
words we just picked out from the text, we can get the main idea of the text in
using these few repeated words. Because teens are the main point in the text, we
expect this word to occur more than once.
Second, we can show that if these words were not repeated, the text would make
very little overall sense. If many different words occur in the text that speak about
different or even similar subjects, there would not be main focus in the text and the
unity of the text would disappear.
Simply repeating words can sometimes not be enough to make a text coherent, but
mostly they do (Salkie, 1995: ). Obviously, whoever wrote this passage repeated
these words because that is what she or he wanted to write about. When we see
such repeated words, we would assume that the text is coherent and there are
cohesion ties that link its sentences.
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- The word control has been repeated 3 times in the 13
th
paragraph where it says
You control when your child gets licensed, you control the keys, and you control
the car. In addressing the parents, it is actually a matter of emphasis meant to
control their teens and it emphasizes the role of parents in controlling and teaching
their kids; when and how they drive, as they are responsible for them.
- The words headset, law, inexperience, seat belt, parent, license,
passenger, phone, speed, and distraction have been used many times
throughout the text to put emphasis on the main ideas, main problems, and main
solutions mentioned in the text. We see that repetition is a good tool used in the
text to make cohesion ties and hence semantic relations that serve the purpose of
the text and contribute in highlighting the most important points.
4.5.2. Collocation
Collocation is a form of lexical cohesion achieved through the association of
lexical items that regularly co-occur. This not only brings extension to the basis of
the lexical relationship that features a cohesive force but also indicates that
cohesion lies between any pair of lexical items that relate to each other in some
recognizable lexicosemantic (word meaning) relation.
Here are the collocations used in our test:
- Impose restrictions
- Licensing laws
- Basketball player
- Hung up the phone
- Drive the car