BEYOND THE SENTENCE

CHAPTER 2 – WHAT MAKES A TEXTS?

A good text must:

be self-contained be well-formed be cohesive (hand together) be coherent (make sense) have a clear communicative purpose) be recognizable text type be appropriate to its context of use

COHESION Cohesion is the grammatical and lexical linking within a text or sentence that holds a text together and gives it meaning. It is related to the broader concept of coherence. A text is made cohesive by a combination of lexical and grammatical devises.

LEXICAL COHESION: refers to the way in which related words are chosen to link elements of a text

Direct repetition: ensures that the reader cannot misinterpret which item you are referring to. However,

direct repetition has one drawback. It becomes monotonous and boring if overused. Thus, you should try to

vary your strategy using other techniques. the definite article ‘the’ is used to signal that this is ‘given’

information. This is an important grammatical clue that helps the reader determine whether you are

introducing a new topic or simply referring to a previous topic.

Word families: they are words that share a common root. Eg: clearer, clean, clear, cleansing. The fact that

these words are prominent is not accidental because they carry the main thrust of the message.

Synonyms: a word or expression that has the same or nearly the same meaning as another.

Antonyms: a word that means the opposite of another word

Substitution with ONE/ONES: to avoid unnecessary repetition.The pronouns one and ones commonly

stand in for nouns or noun phrases.

See those two girls? Helen is the tall one and Jane is the short one.

GRAMMATICAL COHESION:

REFERENCE: pronouns and articles

SUBSTITUTION of clause elements using so, not, do/does/did.

The use of do/does to substitute for a preceding verb phrase is called substitution. Words like so and not

commonly substitute for whole clauses

Will it rain? I think so (=I think it will rain)

Will it rain? I think not (= I think it won’t rain)

ELLIPSIS of clause element: the omission of parts of a sentence when they can be presumed from what

has already taken place in the text.

SUBSTITUTION BY ZERO: the leaving out of elements that can be retrieved from elsewhere.

CONJUCTS: (LINKERS) additive, adversative, casual, temporal

TENSE

RETHORICAL COHESION

QUESTION-ANSWER: the presence of a question is the text raises the expectation of finding an answer in the test that follows.

PARALLELLISM: where sentences “echo” one another.

REFERENCE: is such an important aspect of cohesion and is commonly achieved through the use of pronouns (he, we, it: this and that, these and those) and articles (a and the)

ANAPHORIC:: back-reference: a word in a text refers back to other ideas in the text for its meaning. Eg: I went out with Jo on Sunday. She looked awful.' ´She` clearly refers to Jo, there is no need to repeat her name.

In actual fact, the pronouns are directing pout attention not at something back in the text but at a concept that has been introduced into our evolving mental construction of the narrative as a result of our reading of the text. this mental construction is called schema.

CATAPHORIC: a word in a text refers to another later in the text and you need to look forward to understand.

'When he arrived, John noticed that the door was open'.

EXOPHORIC: occurs when a word or phrase refers to something outside the discourse.

ARTICLES: like pronouns, the definite article the can also make connections back, forward and outside the text. The can imply a previous mention of the noun that it determines. The function of the is to signal knowledge that is shared between writer and reader. The reason we know is because the nouns have been introduced to us previously in the text, using the indefinite article a to flag new information: a dog, a rabbit…

A dog…the dog is a clear example of the way new information becomes given information. However, very often the noun is not repeated verbatim in this way but expressed differently by a synonym or a more general term. A noun can be made definite, not by what has already been said about it but by what is to be said about it. In this case, the refers forward in the text rather than back.

Definiteness is a quality that is not only inferred from clues in the text, but also conferred by resource to common knowledge of the world outside the text

NOMINALIZATION: A type of word formation in which a verb or an adjective is used as a noun. Pronouns and articles are used to refer backwards, forwards or outwards, to specific referents. But we can also make references in a less focused, more general way using certain nouns. a process called nominalization. Nouns that are typically used to nominalize acions and events include situation, process an way. Very commonly, words like explanation, criticism, proposal, suggestion, etc, are used to refer to what has been written.

CONJUNCTS: can express a number of different categories of logical relation between parts of a text. the main categories are:

ADDITIVErelations of addition, exemplification,

similarity, emphasis

also, too, moreover, what’s more, in addition, for example, likewise, similarly, furthermore, additionally.

ADVERSATIVE relations of contrast or alternatives

but, though, however, on the other hand, in fact, alternatively, rather, only, yet, nevertheless, still

CASUAL relations of cause and result

this is why, so, as a result, then, for, because, for this reason, in this respect, although, as a result, because, by, consequently, despite, due to, for that reason, in case, in order, in this way, otherwise, since, so, so as to, so that, therefore, though, thus, to that end, unless, until, yet

TEMPORAL relations of sequence in time

next, then, finally, in the meantime, ever since, as, after, as soon as, at first, at once, before, finally, just, meanwhile, next, now, now that, since, then, until, when, whenever,while