Coherence and Cohesion
COHERENCE AND COHESION
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Abstract
This paper discusses that a meaningful English text is always coherent. Also, the role of cohesion in a coherent English text is discussed in the light of literature. In order to further understand the significance of cohesion in discourse, we have analysed two English texts; a poem, 'Daffodils ' by William Wordsworth and an advertisement from a UK website gumtree.co.uk. A report is then developed on the textual analysis, which discusses that different genres have different elements that bring coherence. However, it is noticed that lexical cohesion forms strong cohesive ties and bring coherence in case of both the texts analysed. The paper argues that although cohesion is an important aspect of developing a coherent text, yet coherence is also possible without cohesion.
Key words: Coherence, Cohesion, Text, Discourse, Analysis
1. INTRODUCTION
The focus of this paper is to review the concept of coherence and the importance of cohesion in coherent texts. Coherence and cohesion are important aspects of language structure and knowledge of the usage of the two devices is essential for the scholars who write in English. Therefore, this paper has special significance for the readership of this journal as this paper helps understand the two concepts through their application. It tries to make the concepts interesting and easily grasped by the South Asian readers, through textual analysis of two simple texts. The paper also brings forth the importance of some other devices, apart from cohesion, in developing a coherent English text; these are also investigated in the sections discussing coherence. Firstly, we will introduce the terms cohesion and coherence as used in discourse analysis. Coherence is the device which identifies a text (a passage that forms a unified whole), spoken or written, in any language. On the other hand, cohesion is only one of the various elements which
==========================================================
Abstract
This paper discusses that a meaningful English text is always coherent. Also, the role of cohesion in a coherent English text is discussed in the light of literature. In order to further understand the significance of cohesion in discourse, we have analysed two English texts; a poem, 'Daffodils ' by William Wordsworth and an advertisement from a UK website gumtree.co.uk. A report is then developed on the textual analysis, which discusses that different genres have different elements that bring coherence. However, it is noticed that lexical cohesion forms strong cohesive ties and bring coherence in case of both the texts analysed. The paper argues that although cohesion is an important aspect of developing a coherent text, yet coherence is also possible without cohesion.
Key words: Coherence, Cohesion, Text, Discourse, Analysis
1. INTRODUCTION
The focus of this paper is to review the concept of coherence and the importance of cohesion in coherent texts. Coherence and cohesion are important aspects of language structure and knowledge of the usage of the two devices is essential for the scholars who write in English. Therefore, this paper has special significance for the readership of this journal as this paper helps understand the two concepts through their application. It tries to make the concepts interesting and easily grasped by the South Asian readers, through textual analysis of two simple texts. The paper also brings forth the importance of some other devices, apart from cohesion, in developing a coherent English text; these are also investigated in the sections discussing coherence. Firstly, we will introduce the terms cohesion and coherence as used in discourse analysis. Coherence is the device which identifies a text (a passage that forms a unified whole), spoken or written, in any language. On the other hand, cohesion is only one of the various elements which
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