Lexion Cohesion
7. Lexical Cohesion (TL)
Lexical cohesion (LC) embraces two distinct though related aspects which we refer to as reiteration and collocation. Reiteration is a form of lexical cohesion which involves the repetition of a lexical item, or the occurrence of a synonym of some kind, in the context of reference; i.e. where the two occurrences have the same referent. A reiterated item may be a repetition, a synonym or near-synonym, a superordinate or a general word; and in most cases it is accompanied by a reference item, typically “the”. Ex. 1. There was a large mushroom growing near her, … she stretched herself up on tiptoe, and peeped over the edge of the mushroom. (repetition of mushroom). 2. I took leave and turned to the ascent of the peak. The climb is perfectly easy… (climb refers back to ascent, of which it is a synonym.) 3. He clutched the sword and threw it. The great brand made lightnings…(here brand refers to sword, of which it is a near synonym). 4. Henry’s bought himself a new Jaguar. He practically lives in the car. (here car refers back to Jaguar; and it is a superordinate of Jaguar – that is, a name for a more general class.) All these instance have in common the fact that one lexical item refers back to another, to which it is related by having a common referent. This general phenomenon is regarded as reiteration. Collocation – ex. “Why does this little boy wriggle all the time? Girls don’t wriggle.” “girls” and “boys” are hardly synonyms, nor is there any possibility of their having the same referent; they are mutually exclusive categories. Yet their proximity in a discourse very definitely contributes to the texture. There is obviously a systematic relationship between a pair of words such as “boy” and “girl”; they are related by a particular type of oppositeness, called complementarity. We can therefore extend the basis of the lexical relationship that features as a cohesive force and say that there is cohesion between any pair of lexical items that
Lexical cohesion (LC) embraces two distinct though related aspects which we refer to as reiteration and collocation. Reiteration is a form of lexical cohesion which involves the repetition of a lexical item, or the occurrence of a synonym of some kind, in the context of reference; i.e. where the two occurrences have the same referent. A reiterated item may be a repetition, a synonym or near-synonym, a superordinate or a general word; and in most cases it is accompanied by a reference item, typically “the”. Ex. 1. There was a large mushroom growing near her, … she stretched herself up on tiptoe, and peeped over the edge of the mushroom. (repetition of mushroom). 2. I took leave and turned to the ascent of the peak. The climb is perfectly easy… (climb refers back to ascent, of which it is a synonym.) 3. He clutched the sword and threw it. The great brand made lightnings…(here brand refers to sword, of which it is a near synonym). 4. Henry’s bought himself a new Jaguar. He practically lives in the car. (here car refers back to Jaguar; and it is a superordinate of Jaguar – that is, a name for a more general class.) All these instance have in common the fact that one lexical item refers back to another, to which it is related by having a common referent. This general phenomenon is regarded as reiteration. Collocation – ex. “Why does this little boy wriggle all the time? Girls don’t wriggle.” “girls” and “boys” are hardly synonyms, nor is there any possibility of their having the same referent; they are mutually exclusive categories. Yet their proximity in a discourse very definitely contributes to the texture. There is obviously a systematic relationship between a pair of words such as “boy” and “girl”; they are related by a particular type of oppositeness, called complementarity. We can therefore extend the basis of the lexical relationship that features as a cohesive force and say that there is cohesion between any pair of lexical items that