Cohesion (linguistics)

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.

There are two main types of cohesion: grammatical cohesion, which is based on structural content—and lexical cohesion, which is based on lexical content and background knowledge. A cohesive text is created in many different ways. In Cohesion in English, M.A.K. Halliday and Ruqaiya Hasan identify five general categories of cohesive devices that create coherence in texts: reference, ellipsis, substitution, lexical cohesion and conjunction.

A conjunction sets up a relationship between two clauses. The most basic but least cohesive is the conjunction and. Transitions are conjunctions that add cohesion to text and include then, however, in fact, and consequently. Conjunctions can also be implicit and deduced from correctly interpreting the text.

There are two referential devices that can create cohesion:

There is one more referential device, which cannot create cohesion:

Ellipsis is another cohesive device. It happens when, after a more specific mention, words are omitted when the phrase must be repeated.

A simple conversational example:

The full form of B's reply would be: "I am going to dance".

A simple written example: The younger child was very outgoing, the older much more reserved.

The omitted words from the second clause are "child" and "was".

A word is not omitted, as in ellipsis, but is substituted for another, more general word. For example, "Which ice-cream would you like?" – "I would like the pink one," where "one" is used instead of repeating "ice-cream." This works in a similar way with pronouns, which replace the noun. For example, "ice-cream" is a noun, and its pronoun could be "it", as in, "I dropped the ice-cream because it was dirty."

In linguistics, grammar refers to the logical and structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology and syntax, often complemented by phonetics, phonology, semantics, and pragmatics.

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