The Functions of Cohesion in Analyzing the Structure of a Text

Songkai

【Abstract】This paper aims to analyze the text with the cohesion approach. Two often-mentioned cohesion devices， grammatical cohesion and lexical cohesion are to be discussed are used in the article， which help improve students reading comprehension and undoubtedly give implication to our teaching method.

【Key words】cohesion； reading comprehension； teaching method

Grammatical cohesion is usually of four kinds： reference， ellipsis， substitution， and conjunction. Lexical cohesion， according to Halliday & Hasan ， was divided into reiteration and collocation. The author begins with grammatical cohesion， and endophoric reference. That is to say， of the two references， exophoric reference is beyond discussion. Endophoric reference falls into two categories， one is anaphoric reference （looking backward in the text for the interpretation）， and the other is cataphoric reference （looking forward in the text for the interpretation）. Firstly some examples about anaphoric reference are listed as follows.

Population and Development of City

1 After millennia of growth so slow that each generation hardly noticed it， the 2 cities are suddenly racing off in every direction. The world population goes up by 3 two percent a year， city population goes up by four percent a year， but in big 4 cities the rate may be as much as five and six percent a year. To give only one 5 example of almost visible acceleration， Athens today grows by three dwellings 6 and 100 square meters of road every hour. There is no reason to believe that this 7 pace will slacken. As technology gradually swallows up all forms of work， 8 industrial and agricultural， the rural areas are going to shrink， just as they have 9 shrunk in Britain， and the vast majority of their people will move into the city. In 10 act， in Britain now only about four or five percent of people live in rural areas 11 and depend upon them； all through the developing world the vanguard of the 12 rural exodus has reached the urban fringes already， and there they huddle，13 migrants in the favelas and barrios of Latin America， in shanty towns in Africa， 14 in those horrifying encampments one sees on the outskirts of Calcutta and 15 Bombay. We are heading towards an urban world. 16 This enormous increase will go ahead whatever we do， and we have to17 remember that the new cities devour space. People now acquire far more goods 18 and things. There is a greater density of household goods； they demand more19 services such as sewage and drainage. Above all the car changes everything： 20 rising incomes and rising populations can make urban car density increase by 21 something like four and five percent in a decade； traffic flows rise to fill 22 whatever scale of highways are provided for them. The car also has a curious 23 ambivalence： it creates and then it destroys mobility. The car tempts people 24 further out and then gives them the appalling problem of getting back. It makes 25 them believe they can spend Sunday in Brighton， but makes it impossible for 26 them to return before， say， two in the morning. People go further and further 27 away to reach open air and countryside which continuously recedes from them， 28 and just as their working weeks decline and they begin to have more time for 29 leisure， they cannot get to the open spaces or the recreation or the beaches which 30 they now have the time to enjoy. 31 Recently some studies were made in the behavior of mice when exposed to more 32 than a certain degree of density， frustration， and noise and the mice just became 33 deranged. I think some sociologists wonder whether it might not be the same for 34 men. This combination of very high density of population， goods and services， 35 and machines， all increasing with almost brutal speed， does account for some 36 really antisocial tendencies in modern urban growth.

In line 1 ‘After millennia of growth so slow that each generation hardly noticed it shows that the pronoun ‘it is linked back to ‘growth.

The second example is in line 6 ‘There is no reason to believe that this pace will slacken. ‘This should be confirmed by looking back in the previous sentence—Athens today grows by three dwellings and 100 square meters of road every hour.

In lines 8-9， ‘the rural areas are going to shrink， just as they have shrunk in Britain， and the vast majority of their people will move into the city， the ‘they and ‘their refer back to the ‘the rural areas of the preceding sentence.

In lines 10-11， ‘in fact， in Britain now only about four or five percent of people live in rural areas and depend upon them， the ‘them links back to ‘the rural areas. The reason I list this pronoun ‘them also referring to ‘the rural areas is that ‘the rural areas in line8-9 refer to the rural areas in Athens， however， ‘the rural areas in line 10-11 are ones in Britain.

In lines 18-19， ‘People now acquire far more goods and things. There is a greater density of household goods： they demand more services such as sewage and drainage， the ‘they refers back to ‘household goods of the previous sentence， not to ‘people， of course.

The last example， in line 31-34， ‘Recently some studies were made in the behavior of mice when exposed to more than a certain degree of density， frustration， and noise and the mice just become deranged. I think some sociologists wonder whether it might not be the same for men，here the ‘it refers back to the phenomena of the density， frustration and noise and shows that the pronoun ‘it can link back to a word， a whole phase and a clause； the ‘same can relate back to ‘become deranged of the previous sentences； and also the definite article before ‘mice links back to the preceding mice.

There are a few cataphoric references in this text. In line 25， ‘but makes it impossible for them to return before， only by looking forward can we find the ‘it is cohesive with ‘to return before， the purpose of which is to avoid top heaviness. In line 35， ‘This combination of very high density of population， goods and services， and machines， all increasing with almost brutal speed can demonstrate that the ‘this is cohesive with the ‘density of population， goods and service， and machines， in following parts of the sentence.

Now move on to lexical cohesion， repetition is the most frequently used device covering from the beginning of this passage to the end in this passage. They are on display as follows

The underlined words are repeated a lot，such as in ‘growth （in lines 1 and 36）， ‘population （in line 2， 20 and 34）， ‘cities （in lines 2， 3， and 9 ）， ‘rural areas or rural （in line 8， 10 and 11）， ‘urban （in line 12， 15， 20 and 36）. Because this article discusses the growth of city population， the forgoing words repeated frequently are necessary to be repeated many times. Otherwise the topic cannot move on. ‘density （in line 20，32 and34）， ‘increase （in line 16， 20 and 35）， ‘car （in line 22 and 23）， And also due to the growth of the city population and the development of the city， some problems accordingly arise like the preceding repeated words population density， urban car increase and so on. As in ‘shrink and shrunk （in line 8）， compared with the city， the rural areas are going to shrink just as they have shrunk in Britain， which reminds us of the British ‘sheep devour people， so this repetition warn us the danger of the overdevelopment of the cities. The repletion as in ‘further （in line 24 and 26） shows the degree to which the development of the city does harm to human beings. The repletion set us into a remote imagination， which meanwhile helps remind people to think over what they have done to their world. As in ‘mice （in line 31 and 32）， scientists are doing experiment with mice to study how to cope with the existing problems and finding that mice also cannot endure the environment of high density， frustration and noise.

Some synonyms and one example of general words and some antonyms appear frequently. The synonyms or near synonyms are ‘racing off， ‘goes up， ‘grows ‘rising and ‘increase in lines 2， 5and 20， and the antonyms of these words or phrases are also easily found， as ‘slacken ‘shrink ‘decline are in lines 7， 8 and 28. Through reading the article， weve known this short article focuses on the developing of cities and its tendencies are on the increase， so a lot of synonyms of ‘increase are used in the text to have the city development problems haunted us. On the contrary， the rural areas are going to shrink， so the synonyms of shrink like ‘slacken ‘decline are used adequately， and they are also the antonyms of the abovementioned ‘go off ‘grows etc. These employments of synonyms can more reveal their adverse living condition and further prove the harm the overdevelopment of cities do to rural areas. And antonyms the ‘creates and ‘destroy in line 23 show the advantages and disadvantages of using car.

One example of general words： ‘people now acquire far more goods and things are general words of the following household goods. These general words indicate that people will face various problems threatening human beings， which far more exceeds what the household goods bring to people.

The analysis of this short article shows how very closely interlocked it is in terms of grammatical and lexical cohesion， enables us to fully understand the importance of coherence of a text， helps us improve reading comprehension and will undoubtedly give implication to our future teaching career. However， such small paper cannot cover many methods of discourse analysis and my analysis has much room for improvement， I sincerely invite any suggestions from those concerned especially from my honorable teachers and peers.

References：

[1]Michael McCarthy Discourse Analysis for Language Teachers.

[2]黃国文.语篇分析概要[M].湖南教育出版社，2003.

作者简介：宋凯（1974.8-），女，汉族，陕西米脂人，研究生，讲师，研究方向：英语语言学、语言教育、职业教育。