URS
21-11-2005, 08:27 AM
[[align=left]color=#size=4]Hi All
Hopefully, this subject clarify something about discourse analysis. If you are interested let me know to post more about cohesive devices.The concept of cohesion is a semantic one; it refers to relations of meaning that exist within the text. As the definition supposes, cohesion is a semantic concept. That means that whenever a reader accepts the relationship between a text’s parts, it will be consider cohesive. Let us [align=left]consider the following example:[/center]
“the weather is beautiful today. John is from New York.” If we look at each sentence separately, we find that they are grammatically correct. However, when we look at the two sentences as a text, we notice that they are not semantically related and therefore, they are not cohesive. In other words, there is no relationship between the weather being beautiful today and John being from New York. Let us now consider this example:
“The weather is beautiful today. Yesterday it was not, it was raining heavily.” When a reader reads this text, he/she will accept it naturally without even analyzing it. That is because the text is well joined and semantically cohesive. When we analyze this example, we notice the use of two cohesive devices. We used a reference “it” to refer to the noun “the weather” then we used ellipses by deleting the adjective “beautiful” after the verb “was not”. The purpose of using these devices in discourse is to avoid repeating the same words without needing to. In other words, its an economical purpose.[/size][/][/center]
Hopefully, this subject clarify something about discourse analysis. If you are interested let me know to post more about cohesive devices.The concept of cohesion is a semantic one; it refers to relations of meaning that exist within the text. As the definition supposes, cohesion is a semantic concept. That means that whenever a reader accepts the relationship between a text’s parts, it will be consider cohesive. Let us [align=left]consider the following example:[/center]
“the weather is beautiful today. John is from New York.” If we look at each sentence separately, we find that they are grammatically correct. However, when we look at the two sentences as a text, we notice that they are not semantically related and therefore, they are not cohesive. In other words, there is no relationship between the weather being beautiful today and John being from New York. Let us now consider this example:
“The weather is beautiful today. Yesterday it was not, it was raining heavily.” When a reader reads this text, he/she will accept it naturally without even analyzing it. That is because the text is well joined and semantically cohesive. When we analyze this example, we notice the use of two cohesive devices. We used a reference “it” to refer to the noun “the weather” then we used ellipses by deleting the adjective “beautiful” after the verb “was not”. The purpose of using these devices in discourse is to avoid repeating the same words without needing to. In other words, its an economical purpose.[/size][/][/center]