Cohesion and

Coherence
Jihan Khairunisa
1613042019
Cohesion and Coherence
One of the most salient phenomena of discourse is the
fact that sentences/utterances are linked together.
Two types of connections that tie discourse together:
1. Endophoric connections (which have their
manifestation in the discourse itself) ⇒ cohesion
2. Exophoric connections (which can be made based on
information/knowledge outside the discourse) ⇒
coherence
Consider the following example:
“Susan got pregnant and she married."

• This is an endophoric connection, which

contributes to cohesion.
• This is an exophoric connection, which creates
coherence.
Discourse must be both cohesive and coherent.
Example:
“A week has seven days. Every day I feed my cat. Cats
have four legs. My leg hurts. Hurts is a verb.”
This sequence is highly cohesive, as each sentence is
connected to the previous one at the level of
discourse.
However, it is not coherent, because no plausible
connections can be made outside the discourse.
“Liverpool shot a goal. The whistle blew.”
The sequence is not cohesive, since no clear
connections are made at the level of discourse.
Nevertheless, the sequence is coherent, as the
reader/listener can draw plausible conclusions about
what happened based on his/her knowledge of the
context.
Cohesion
Cohesion is the connections that have their
manifestation in the discourse.
Types of cohesion:
1. Grammatical cohesion
2. Lexical cohesion
Grammatical coherence
1. Reference
2. Substitution
3. Ellipsis
4. Conjunction
Reference
Reference refers to how the speaker or writer
introduces participants and then keeps track of them
once they are in the text (Eggins, 1994:95).
Types of reference:
• Personal reference
• Demonstrative reference
• Comparative reference
Personal reference
The category of personal reference includes:
1) personal pronouns, e.g I, me, you, him, she, he,
her, we, us, they, them, it;
2) possessive determiners, e.g my, yours, their, its,
our, his, her;
3) possessive pronouns, e.g. mine, yours, hers, theirs,
ours.
Demonstrative reference
Demonstrative reference is reference by means of
location, on scale of proximity. It is essentially a form of
verbal pointing.
The categories of demonstrative reference:
• nominative demonstrative (this, that, these, those)
• circumstantial demonstrative (here, there, now, then)
• definite article (the).
Comparative reference
Comparative reference is indirect reference by means
of identity or similiarity. With comparative reference,
the identity of the presumed item is retrieved not
because it has already been mentioned (or will be
mentioned) in the text, but because an item with
which it is being compared has been mentioned
For example:
"The most tragic accident that I have ever seen was
the accident happened last year."
The phrase the most tragic accident in the sentence
above is comparative reference (in superlative
degree)
Substitution
Substitution is the replacement of one or more words
(typically a noun, a verb, or an entire clause) by a ‘dummy’
word, like in the examples below:
a) “This pen doesn’t work. Give me another one.”
b) “You asked me to call them but I haven’t done it yet.”
c) “Are they still arguing in there?” - “No, it just seems
so.”
The main function of substitution is to make texts more
economic and concise by avoiding tedious repetition.
Ellipsis
Ellipsis is the omission of a word or part of a
sentence/utterance.
a) “These biscuits are stale. Those biscuits are fresh.”
b) “He participated in the debate, but you didn’t
participate.”
c) “Who wants to go shopping? Do you want to go
shopping?”
a) “These biscuits are stale. Those are fresh.”
b) “He participated in the debate,
but you didn’t.”
c) “Who wants to go shopping? You?”
Conjunction
Conjunction concerns the relationships between clauses or
between sentences. This is usually achieved by the use of
connectives.
Types of conjunction:
1. Addition: “Besides being handsome, he is also clever.”
2. Temporality: “I called her before we met.”
3. Causality: “He didn’t come because he’s sick.”
4. Condition: “I will do that if you are nice to me.”
5. Adversative/Contrast: “We agree on the principle
but disagree on the method.”