1. Presented By: Marine Milad, Ph.D.
E303B: English Grammar in Context Unit 15: Making a Text Hang Together: The Role of Lexical Cohesion
Presented By:
Marine Milad, Ph.D.

2. Introduction Look at the two advertisements below.
Which one hooks you in and make you more aware of /interested in the product?
Their hunt the roast
vegetable sauce
Our hunt
vegetable sauce
Sainsbury’s
Our fresh roasted …….contains 190% more real pieces of roast vegetables

3. Introduction
One the left ad ‘Their’ refers to sauce produced by other competitors than Sainsbury’s.
On the right ad ‘Our’ refers to sauce produced by Sainsbury’s.
The small print at the bottom hooks us into thinking about the text surrounding the visual images.
The longer we linger over an advertisement to try to make sense of its message, the more likely we are to remember the product.

4. Objectives: By the end of this unit you will :
Explore the way in which both grammar and lexis (lexicogrammar) work to weave together our ideas and thoughts.
Maintain information flow throughout cohesive and coherent speaking and writing by focusing on types of cohesive links:
1. Lexical Cohesion (Unit 15)
2. Grammatical Cohesion (Unit 16)
Evaluate/judge the communicative effectiveness of a text by analyzing it for lexical cohesion.
See figure 1 the mode-grammar ‘hook-up’, p. 151

5. 1. What makes a text hang together?
Activity 1, p.153. Read texts 1and 2 can you make sense of them easily?
Text 1 is an extract from an introductory book on Economics.
It is coherent and cohesive.
Text 2 is ‘non-text’.
Although each of the three sentences is a perfectly grammatical English sentence, together they do not form a meaningful text.

6. 1.1 Coherence and cohesion
It is a mental phenomenon, generated by the experience of a reader or listener rather than by the text itself.
A text is coherent when meanings in a text make sense in relation to the context and the listener's or reader's prior experience and cultural knowledge.
For example:
A: Phone!
B: I'm in the bath
A: OK

7. 1.1 Coherence and cohesion
It is when meanings are related or tied by linguistic devices e.g. repetition, linking adverbials, reference, etc.
A text has texture when strings of connected words (lexical chains) come together to create an overall impact and meaning. The text is said to be lexically cohesive.

8. 1.1 Coherence and cohesion
Cohesive devices:
A coherent text is the result of effective use of cohesive devices.
Text 2 is incoherent because it lacks cohesive relations or cohesive ties/devices.
In text 2, each sentence is self-contained and does not contribute to the interpretation of any other (no semantic relationship).
Thus, text 2 does not hang together as an internally cohesive piece of language.

9. 1.1 Coherence and cohesion
Reference:
Reference is a cohesive device used to signal that the identity of what is being talked or written about can be recovered from the surrounding text.
The weaving or binding together of meanings to create a unified text is referred to as giving texture to a text.
See figure 2 types of cohesion , p. 156

10. 2. Using Lexis to make a text hang together 2.1 lexical chains
Strings of connected words within a text are referred to as lexical chains.
Lexical chains provide evidence of the unity of meaning (simultaneous/ sequential), consistency and tight focus (topic) of the text.
When several of these chains come together in a text to create overall impact and meaning, the text is said to be lexically cohesive.

11. 2. Using Lexis to make a text hang together 2.1 lexical chains
Activity 2, p Read texts and find the field, tenor and mode.
Note that …….
Text 3 is a publication (article) that is directed at a non- expert readership interested in scientific issues.
It has a conversational relationship through the use of a question.
The mode is written and can be place two thirds towards the written end of the mode continuum.

12. 2. Using Lexis to make a text hang together 2.1 lexical chains
Note that ……..
Text 4 is a piece of fiction that consists of a conversation between two people, yet it does not display any of the features of naturally-occurring speech (no interruptions or hesitators).
It contains clear authorial intervention (he said, in a musing sort of voice).
Text 5 is a transcript of a spoken conversation evident in the speakers use of:
turn taking (dots <…> show not immediately sequential turns)
Interrogatives (Does he come in on Saturday?)
Informal linker (well)

13. 2. Using Lexis to make a text hang together 2.1 lexical chains
Note that ……..
Text 6 is an extract from a news text.
The mode is written and can be place two thirds towards the written end of the mode continuum.
This is evident in the use of:
Technical terms (sweeper role, the back four)
Colloquial expressions (cat and mouse game)
Informal conversational tone by personal pronouns (those of us)
Fairly tightly-packed noun phrases (the 35-year-old Belfast man).

14. 2. Using Lexis to make a text hang together 2.1 lexical chains
Note that ……..
Text 7 is a piece of written prose written by a journalist-turned-writer who writes books recounting his experience of living in Italy.
It is designed to entertain rather than merely inform the reader.
The text has an amount of description built up through noun phrases.
The use of ‘I’ voice makes the reader think it was an extract from an autobiography.
The use of repetition, synonyms and antonyms in evoking contrasting sensations of heat and cold related to the overall advantages and disadvantages of the different beach resorts.

15. 2. Using Lexis to make a text hang together 2.1 lexical chains
Activity 2 illustrates that…
meanings can be lexically reiterated across both written and spoken English.
Reiteration gives texture to the text and produces different communicative effects.
Biber et al. (1999) observe that synonyms are:
relatively frequent in news and fiction registers where lexical variation is valued.
rare in conversation where ambiguous form of reference is frequently more in use.

16. 2. Using Lexis to make a text hang together 2
2. Using Lexis to make a text hang together 2.2 Improving cohesion through taxonomic relations
Lexical reiteration:
creates texture through repetition of similar or opposite meanings.
indicates class-subclass and part-whole relations.
Activity 4, p Mapping relationships through taxonomies of related meanings.

17. 2. Using Lexis to make a text hang together 2
2. Using Lexis to make a text hang together 2.2 Improving cohesion through taxonomic relations
Hyponomy (Superordinate/ Classifying):
This tie specifies the relationship between class-subclass (e.g. the seal is a type of mammals).
Co-hyponomy is an item that refers to a more general class and links to members of its class (e.g. bread of horses, class of insects)
Key words related to class-subclass classification are: class, type, kind, variety, genre, sort, category, species, family.

18. 2. Using Lexis to make a text hang together 2
2. Using Lexis to make a text hang together 2.2 Improving cohesion through taxonomic relations
Activity 5, p Complete the diagram in figure 9 to represent relations between part-whole and classifying relations.
Meronomy (whole-part taxonomy):
It refers to the composition, relationship between parts of a whole, for example book = chapters.
Keywords that refer to meronomy and co-meronomy are: part, content, ingredients, constituent, element, component, piece , segment, portion.

19. 3. Lexical cohesion and communicative effectiveness
Lexical chains are constructed by showing all the lexical items that occur sequentially in a text which can be related to an immediately prior word.
Part-whole relations can be seen when the text provides a comprehensive and carefully staged introduction to a topic and its related ideas (e.g. the circuits and their component parts).
Activity 7 and 8 p

20. 4. Lexical cohesion and register variation
Conversation:
In conversation repetition is called lexical bundles whereby the speaker repeats partially or exactly what has been said.
It is a sign of dysfluency. In casual conversation, repetition has the following functions:
It is time-gaining device to plan and gather thoughts
It gives conversation unity and cohesion
It shows that the participants are following each other's line of thought (it creates solidarity among speakers.)
In less casual conversation, repetition gives emphasis to certain key words and creates cohesion by echoing what other speakers say.

21. 4. Lexical cohesion and register variation
Academic prose:
Repetition by restating the item is done to extend different aspects of phenomenon.
By repeating an item and thematising it, the writer is able to maintain a clear focus for the reader.

22. 5. Cohesion and lexical focus in speech (read only)
Intonation can be used to make the text cohesive.
It will show that certain words or information is retrievable from the text.
There are two ways in which intonation brings cohesion to a text:
The information focus fall on a lexical item.
The information focus falls on a function item.
The focal item is always the final item: unmarked form

23. 5. Cohesion and lexical focus in speech (read only)
Focus could be marked form when:
It falls on non-final item.
It falls on non-lexical item.
When focal item is not final, it means all the following words are given (old information).
Focal non-lexical item presupposes a contrast with some other item in the text.

24. 5. Cohesion and lexical focus in speech (read only)
Marked lexical focus:
Focal item usually contains new information, not retrievable from the text or context (p.185).
A word could be:
Anaphorically retrievable: refers to a word that comes before.
Cataphorically retrievable: refers to a word that comes after
Exophorically retrievable: refers to something outside the text (p.186)
If final words are empty words (have no relative semantic weight, if omitted, there is no loss in message), they do not become focal points. It is the context that determines the relative semantic weight (p. 189).

25. Conclusion
Finally, in this unit, we have explored the way in which both grammar and lexis (lexicogrammar) work to weave together our ideas and thoughts.
First, we have analyzed coherent speaking and writing texts based on the reader’s previous experience or cultural contexts.
Secondly, we have practiced how to maintain information flow throughout spoken and written texts with cohesive devices.
It has been proposed that by analyzing a text for lexical cohesion, we can evaluate/judge the communicative effectiveness of it.