A Study on English Textual Analysis

姚佳力

【Abstract】Some linguistic experts use the term ‘discourse analysis to mean the study of how the sentences in an oral or written ‘text pattern together to create meaning and coherence. Other functional linguists have recognized the powerful role that language plays in our lives and seen meaning-making as a process through which language shapes and is shaped by the contexts. All in all， in order to make sense of a text， readers or listeners have to depend on some textual and contextual elements of a particular situation. And this brings us the concept of ‘cohesion and ‘coherence， which has been studied as part of the field of discourse analysis.

【Key words】text； contextual elements； cohesion； coherence

【摘要】一些語言學專家使用專業(yè)術語“篇章結構分析”來形容文章中的句子以怎樣的形式組合成有意思的篇章讓讀者能夠理解。其他功能語言學家們也已經(jīng)認識到了語言在我們生活中所起的作用， 尤其是在篇章結構中所傳達出來的意思是怎樣被讀者理解的。因此， 在閱讀和說話過程中， 人們總是會依賴于一些篇章或句子中的提示語或提示因素來辨別其內(nèi)在含義。這個觀念在語言學中就被稱為“一致性”或“連貫性”， 也是應用語言學中的一個分支學科。

【關鍵詞】篇章 篇章因素 一致性 連貫性

Introduction

Discourse analysis （DA） is defined as the study of language above the level of a sentence， of the ways sentences combine to create meaning， coherence and accomplish purposes （Gee & Handford， 2012）. Some linguistic experts use the term ‘discourse analysis to mean the study of how the sentences in an oral or written ‘text pattern together to create meaning and coherence. Other functional linguists have recognized the powerful role that language plays in our lives and seen meaning-making as a process through which language shapes and is shaped by the contexts. All in all， in order to make sense of a text， readers or listeners have to depend on some textual and contextual elements of a particular situation. And this brings us the concept of ‘cohesion and ‘coherence， which has been studied as part of the field of discourse analysis.

Cohesion and Coherence—Definition and Discussion

· Cohesion：

Cohesion is very much related to texts that have textual and semantic relations in a text form the basis of cohesion. A text is a semantically unified passage both in spoken and written forms. The concept of textual is usually to express the property of ‘being a text. If a text has textual， it means that stretch of language is held together by cohesive devices. Cohesion is part of the linguistic system and it occurs where the interpretation of some element in the discourse is dependent on that of another. The one presupposes the other， in the sense that it cannot be effectively decoded except by recourse to it （Halliday & Hasan， 1976）. The potential for cohesion lies in the systematic resources of reference， ellipsis and so on that are built into the language itself. For example， if I see a word ‘potato in a text， it will not have cohesive force by itself unless there is a same word or another meaning related word， say， ‘vegetable that has occurred previously in the text. Therefore， the realization of cohesion depends not only on the selection of some option from within the resources but also on the presence of some other element which resolves the presupposition that this sets up （Halliday & Hasan， 1976）.

· Coherence：

Although cohesive devices help a text hang together or to be cohesive， they do not necessarily give it coherence. That is to say， a text can be cohesive without being coherent under particular situations. If cohesion refers to the internal properties of a text， coherence on the other hand refers to its contextual properties， which is to say， it is the way in which it relates to and makes sense in the situation in which it occurs （Paltridge， 2000）. Just like Crombie （1985） said， people communicate not by means of individual words or clauses or even of individual sentences but rather by means of coherent stretches of interrelated clauses and sentences， the meaning of them can be understood only in relation to the linguistic and situational context in which it occurs. Generally speaking， there is situational coherence， a situation in which it could occur and generic coherence， which needs to occur within the context of a particular communicative context， event or genre. Chimombo and Roseberry （1998） noted that many contextual devices can work to facilitate coherence. However， the sharp point to be noticed in these is the situational and communicative context in which the text occurs.

· Discussion

As we have noted above that cohesion refers to the explicit linguistic devices that link the sentences in a text. Since these devices are manifested at the surface level of a text， cohesion should be relatively straightforward to identify. In order to make sense of connectedness in a text， cohesion is an essential linguistic element to turn to so that readers can successfully interpret that connectedness of the text. While there is not much controversy on grammatical cohesion， the notion of lexical cohesion attracts quite a few discussions among linguists， especially on Collocation， because it is quite difficult to define lexical cohesion.

If cohesion refers to the explicit linguistic devices in a text， then coherence is the implicit links within a text. It is clear that only the cohesion approach to connectedness is not adequate， thus， another not so obvious tie that exists below the surface level has been identified as coherence， which requires readers mental interpretation of the text （Paltridge， 2000）. The connectedness conceived in this way is often called Psycholinguistic Approach. Language users establish coherence by actively relating the different information units in the text. Generally speaking， there are two respects in which texts can cohere， one is Referential Coherence （smaller linguistic units， often nominal groups， may relate to the same mental referent） and the other is Relational Coherence （text segments， often conceived as clauses， are connected by coherence relations like Condition—Consequence between them）. Crombies taxonomy mentioned previously is related to the relational coherence.

Implications for Teaching and Learning English

Non-native teachers of English would always find teaching sentence structure very important.

Subsequently， we should focus on meaning rather than form when it comes to teaching syntax. Sentence or text analysis is helpful under the condition that learners have firstly understood the meaning relations within or between the sentences. Therefore， it can provide significant insight into the cognitive processes of reading and writing. It can also assist teachers to effectively evaluate the text quality in the context of written composition design.

The approach of cohesion seems to be easier to teach than coherence because it is more on the surface level. Overt linguistic elements and structures can be located to find the connectedness in the text. What is more， some concepts of cohesion， such as repetition and substitution， have exactly the same equivalence in Chinese language， which makes it more sensible to learners. In addition， by applying cohesion， lexical terminologies can also be taught to learners. For example， by introducing synonyms and antonyms will enlarger learners vocabulary.

The difficulty then lies in the approach of coherence since it requires the function of learners cognitive domain. Without the concept of coherence， learners will not be able to write and read proficiently. But to language teachers it is indeed a headache to impart this kind of knowledge to learners because thinking is a complicated process. In this case I think consciousness-raising is an appropriate approach to adopt. By providing learners with models and useful tools of coherence， they will eventually make sense of semantic and pragmatic relations of the language. Finally， one resource readers use in interpreting texts is background knowledge which allows them to identify implicit links between the concepts and propositions in the text. These conceptual links are the basis of propositional coherence which plays a great role in providing unity to written texts. To analyze propositional coherence， teachers could use topical structure analysis and apply it to classroom. It could allow teachers to identify coherence breaks or points in the texts at which the implicit links of propositional coherence could be considered problematic and since this approach has been used successfully to analyze students writing too （Connor & Farmer， 1990）. If this is the case， the application would be beneficial to language teaching.

Conclusion

Cohesion and coherence are two concepts fundamental to English language learning and teaching. Contrary to traditional grammars， they are relatively new to language teaching practice. From the two analyses of the advertising text， we can say that cohesion and coherence are two different processes of understanding the semantic relations in the text. While cohesion is more identifiable on the page， coherence depends more on readers mental activity and their capacity of interpreting the message that the producer of the text intends to convey. When learners get to know the two terminological terms， they will gradually improve their reading and writing skills. If learners intend to reach advanced level of reading and writing English， inter-propositional relations are essential for them to learn because it will help them to obtain a profound linguistic ability to the interpretation of a text and subsequently produce their own versions more native-like.

References：

[1]Crombie，W.（1985）.Process and relation in discourse and language learning.Oxford，England：Oxford University Press.

[2]Halliday，M.A.K.& Hasan，R.（1976）.Cohesion in English.Burnt Hill，England：Longman.

[3]Muller，S.（2005）.Discourse markers in native and non-native English discourse.Amsterdam/Philadelphia：John Benjamins Publishing Company.