Cohesive devices in the opening paragraphs of selected short stories by olivier henry

o
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A. THESIS

COHESIVE DEVICES
IN THE OPENING PARAGRAPHS OF SELECTED SHORT STORIES
BY OLIVIER HENRY
(PHƯƠNG TIỆN LIÊN KẾT TRONG ĐOẠN MỞ ĐẦU TRUYỆN NGẮN
CHỌN LỌC CỦA OLIVIER HENRY)

ĐỖ THỊ NGỌC TÚ

Hanoi, 2016


MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A. THESIS

COHESIVE DEVICES
IN THE OPENING PARAGRAPHS OF SELECTED SHORT STORIES
BY OLIVIER HENRY
(PHƯƠNG TIỆN LIÊN KẾT TRONG ĐOẠN MỞ ĐẦU TRUYỆN NGẮN
CHỌN LỌC CỦA OLIVIER HENRY)

ĐỖ THỊ NGỌC TÚ

Field: English Language

Code: 60220201

Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Thanh Huong, Ph.D

Hanoi, 2016


CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY
I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project
report entitled ‘Cohesive devices in the opening paragraphs of selected
short stories by Olivier Henry’ submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of Master in English Linguistics. Except where
the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without due
acknowledgement in the text of the thesis.

Hanoi, 2016

Do Thi Ngoc Tu

Approved by
SUPERVISOR

Date:……………………

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This thesis could not have been completed without the help and
support from a number of people.

First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to
Nguyen Thi Thanh Huong, Ph.D, my supervisor, who has patiently and
constantly supported me through the stages of the study, and whose
stimulating ideas, expertise, and suggestions have inspired me greatly
through my growth as an academic researcher.
My sincere acknowledgement also go to all my lecturers and officers
of Faculty of Graduate Studies, Hanoi Open University, who have
facilitated me with the best possible conditions during my whole course of
studying.
Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family, my friends for
the sacrifice they have devoted to the fulfillment of this academic work.

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ABSTRACT
The study deals with the types of cohesive devices used in the
opening paragraphs of selected short stories by Olivier Henry. The
objectives of study are to identify and to derive the types of cohesive
devices dominantly used in the opening paragraphs of selected short stories.
The data are taken from selected short stories from online edition. This
research is conducted by using descriptive method. Halliday & Hasan
framework of cohesion was used to analyze the frequent use of two aspects
of cohesive devices, namely grammatical cohesion and lexical cohesion.
The result of the cohesive devices shows that reference and repetition are
the most frequently used followed by conjunctions and substitutions. The
study will become a useful tool for teachers of English to improve their
teaching and will serve as a good reference for those who love stories by
Olivier Henry in particular and literary works in English in general for a good
academic writing.

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
PR.:

Personal Reference

DR.:

Demonstrative Reference

CR.:

Comparative Reference

NS.:

Nominal Substitution

VS.:

Verbal Substitution

CS.:

Clausal Substitution

NE.:

Nominal Ellipsis

VE.:

Verbal Ellipsis

CE.:

Clausal Ellipsis

Ad.Conj.:

Additive Conjunction

Cau. Conj.:

Causal Conjunction

Temp. Conj.:

Temporal Conjunction

Rep.:

Repetition

Syn.:

Synonym

Sup.:

Super ordinate

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LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
Table 2.1: Type of Cohesion ........................................................................16
Table 2.2: Grammatical and Lexical Cohesion ............................................17
Table 2.3: Demonstrative reference..............................................................22
Table 4.1: Grammatical cohesive devices in the opening paragraphs .........43
Table 4.2: Lexical Cohesive Devices in the opening paragraphs of short
stories by O. Henry. ......................................................................................53

Graph 4.1. Frequency of occurrence of grammatical cohesive devices in the
opening paragraphs of O. Henry’s stories ...................................................65
Graph 4.2. Frequency of occurrence of lexical cohesive devices in the
opening paragraphs of O. Henry’s stories ...................................................66

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Certificate of originality...................................................................................i
Acknowledgements .........................................................................................ii
Abstract.......................................................................................................... iii
List of abbreviations ........................................................................................iv
List of tables and figures...................................................................................v

Table of content ...........................................................................................vi
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION..................................................................1
1.1. Rationale for the research ........................................................................1
1.2. Aims of research ......................................................................................3
1.3. Objectives of research..............................................................................4
1.4. Scope of research .....................................................................................4
1.5. Significance of research...........................................................................4
1.6. Organizational structure of thesis ............................................................5
Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .............................................................6
2.1. Review of previous studies......................................................................6
2.1.1. Previous studies overseas .....................................................................6
2.1.2. Previous studies in Vietnam..................................................................7
2.2. Review of theoretical background...........................................................9
2.2.1. The concepts of text and discourse .......................................................9
2.2.2. Concepts of Cohesion .........................................................................13
2.2.3. Cohesive devices .................................................................................15
2.2.4. Paragraphs and Opening paragrahs..................................................32
2.3. Summary................................................................................................36
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY................................................................37
3.1. Research-governing orientations ...........................................................37
3.1.1. Research questions .............................................................................37
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3.1.2. Research setting..................................................................................37
3.1.3. Research approach .............................................................................37
3.1.4. Criteria for intended data collection and data analysis.....................38
3.2. Research methods ..................................................................................38
3.2.1. Major methods vs. supporting methods..............................................38
3.2.2. Data collection techniques .................................................................39

3.2.3. Data analysis techniques ....................................................................39
3.3. Summary................................................................................................40
CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ..........................................42
4.1. Findings .................................................................................................42
4.1.1 Grammatical Cohesive Device

in the opening paragraphs of O.

Henry’s stories ..............................................................................................42
4.1.2. Lexical Cohesive Device in the opening paragraphs of O.
Henry’s stories ................................................................................... 52
4.1.3. Cohesive devices of the opening paragraphs in the relation with other
parts of short stories .....................................................................................57
4.1.4. Brief description of O. Henry’s style in writing opening paragraphs63
4.2. Discussion..............................................................................................64
4.3. Implications ...........................................................................................67
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION .....................................................................69
5.1. Recapitulation ........................................................................................69
5.2. Concluding remarks...............................................................................70
5.3. Limitations of the study .........................................................................71
5.4. Suggestions for future research .............................................................72
REFERENCES .............................................................................................73
APPENDICES ..............................................................................................75

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Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION

1.1. Rationale for the research
One form of written language that is useful to convey knowledge to
the people is discourse. A discourse should have requisite as a good text.
Beugrande and Desseler (1981:3-10) state that a text is a communication
occurrence which meets seven standards of textuality. The requisites of a
good text are intentionality, acceptability, informativity, situationality,
intertextuality, coherence and cohesion.
A good discourse has some factors. Some of those factors are
described in terms cohesion or ties which exist within text. Gutwinsky
(1976:26) in Tarigan states that cohesion is a syntactical organization, and is
a ‘container’ where the sentences are arranged in harmony intensively to
produce discourse.” In other words, cohesion is the grammatical and lexical
relationship within a text or sentence that holds a text together and gives its meaning.
Text cohesion in the broadest sense is a universal feature shared by all
languages (Hoey 1991, Halliday & Hasan 1976, Nunan 1993). Cohesive
devices play an essential role in producing and interpreting texts. Linguists
agree that text belonging to different registers vary in cohesive ties as well.
For instance, literary texts allow a wider use of synonyms while technical
texts give preference to lexical repetition in order to avoid ambiguity
(Buitkiene 2005). Ellipsis and substitution are more common in more
interactive types of discourse (Berzlanovich 2008). Conjunction is a
favoured cohesive link by academic discourse (Verikaite 2005). Moerover,
even literary texts themselves present differences in the distribution of
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cohesive devices. It is determined by the writer’s style of writing.
Furthermore, a text of the source language and its translation into the target
language exhibit interesting cases in the distribution of cohesive ties.
Cohesion is an important factor of discourse which has attracted a lot

of attention from linguists. The most significant research on cohesion is
“Cohesion in English” by Halliday and Hasan (1976). Cohesion is
considered one of the most challenging aspects of translation, as any
language has its own unique manners in which it employs cohesive devices
in the creation of a cohesive text. Each language has its own patterns to
convey the interrelationships of persons and events; there is not any
language that these patterns may be ignored, if the translation is to be
understood by its readers (Callow, 1974). The topic of cohesion has always
appeared as the most useful constituent of discourse analysis that is applied
to translation. English and Vietnamese have different grammatical and
lexical structures, and it is only natural that they pose great difficulties and
challenges for a translator to deal with, especially in the field of literature.
Literature, which plays a very important role in our spiritual life, has
been greatly developing as a consequence of high living standards. As a
matter of fact, there have been more and more people choosing to work in
literary field and their efforts have created so many famous works. It is open
to questions as to which factors have to be taken into consideration to make
a successful work? How important are those factors to the completion of a
coherent and cohesive text? Added to this, the knowledge of cohesion and
coherence are actually regarded as the crucial aspects of the language usage.
As a one form of written discourse, opening paragraphs of short
stories should be composed in a well-formed text in order to give much
information to the readers. They have to be united and connected between
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sentences as well as the concept of cohesiveness so that the readers can
understand the intended information easily.
William Sydney Porter, whose pen name was Olivier Henry or O.
Henry was an American short story writer. He has been recognized among

the greatest American authors by his great devotion to American literature.
With the huge and unique collection of short stories, he is deserved to be
called “one of the greatest masters of modern literature", said Stephen
Leacock. Nearly 200 short stories published have gained the notice of the
public as well as created the lasting popularity of O Henry’s literary style.
He also employs cohesive devices in his short stories in making cohesive
effect to the short stories. So, it helps the readers to understand the unity of
the text easier.
Those reasons mentioned above are the most important ones that have
encouraged the author to conduct “Cohesive devices in the opening
paragraphs of selected short stories by Olivier Henry” as the topic of this
study. Based on the detailed classification of cohesive devices in English by
Halliday and Hasan (1976), this study provides a close analysis of particular
cohesive devices in order to identify whether opening paragraphs have a
good cohesive relation or not. The study is also expected to be a good
reference for those who love stories by O. Henry in particular and literary
works in English in general for a good academic writing.
1.2. Aims of research
The study aims at investigating the prevailing cohesive devices in the
opening paragraphs of selected short stories by O. Henry so as to apply in
teaching and learning English.

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1.3. Objectives of research
The main objectives of the thesis are as follows:
- To identify the types of cohesive devices used in the opening
paragraphs of selected short stories by O. Henry
- To investigate how frequently the cohesive devices are used in the

opening paragraphs of selected short stories by O. Henry
- To discover O. Henry’s style in writing the opening paragraphs
- To suggest some implications of the findings for the teaching
Vietnamese learners of English to learn the cohesive devices in a better way
1.4. Scope of research
The analysis which is done by the writer is the field of discourse
analysis. All materials were taken from selected short stories by O. Henry
for his diversity in using cohesive devices. The types of cohesive devices
are derived from the theory of Halliday and Hasan (1976).
In this case, the writer would like to scope this thesis only about the
analysis of cohesive devices: grammatical and lexical cohesion found in the
opening paragraphs of 100 selected short stories by O. Henry. It is hoped
that the outcome of this research thesis, to some extent, would be able to
make a certain contribution to enhance the quality of English writing skills
of students at the University of Hai Duong.
1.5. Significance of research
This analysis is expected to be able to give some significance both
practically and theoretically. It is expected that this analysis is practically
very significant for better understanding about the very basic principles of
cohesive devices. Analysis of these cohesive links within a text gives us
some insight into how writers structure what they want to say and shows
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how one sentence or paragraph relates with another sentence. Thus, it helps
us to understand the unity of the text easier.
Further, this analysis is theoretically also expected to be useful as one
reference for the readers who are interested in analyzing the same subject.
1.6. Organizational structure of thesis
Within the scope mentioned above, the study consists of five

chapters:
Chapter 1 is the INTRODUCTION that presents rationale, aims,
scope, significance, research questions, organizational structure of the study.
Chapter 2 is the LITERATURE REVIEW that discusses the
theoretical background of the study, in which the definition of text and
discourse, cohesion and coherence as well as cohesive devices are presented.
Chapter 3 is the METHODOLOGY that concentrates on detail of the
research questions and research approach with various methods and
techniques employed for conducting the whole thesis.
Chapter 4 is the FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION that describes and
analysis the prevailing cohesive devices in the opening paragraphs of
selected short stories by O. Henry, and his style in writing the opening
paragraphs
Chapter 5 is the CONCLUSION that summarizes the main points
presented in the thesis, the limitations of the study as well as suggestions for
further research.

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Chapter 2
LITERATURE REVIEW

The literature review serves two main purposes. Firstly it gives a
review of previous studies related to discourse analysis in general and
cohesive devices in particular. Secondly it presents and discusses the
theoretical background which guide and inform this research.
2.1. Review of previous studies
Cohesive devices which are an important factor in discourse analysis
by English as well as a foreign language speaker have attracted the great

attention of linguistics all over the world. Hence, it is no surprise that a large
number of studies on English cohesive devices in terms of various fields of
language have been undertaken.
2.1.1. Previous studies overseas
There are some researches analyzing cohesion using theory from
Halliday and Hasan (1976). The first is a work by Morley. He presents
about the lexical cohesion and rhetorical structure. This article looks at this
argument-structuring function of lexical cohesion first by considering single
text using the techniques of classical discourse analysis and then by using
the methodology of corpus linguistics to examine several million words of
text. In his research, he analysis the lexical cohesion in several headlines
newspaper and point out the register before analyze the lexical cohesion. He
also uses the theory by Halliday and Hassan (1976).
Another study that relates to this research is a study done by Rosalina
LBN.Tobing (2008) “The use of cohesive devices in selected short stories of
Ernest Hemingway”. In his research, he focuses on the types of cohesive
devices occurred in selected short stories of Ernest Hemingway and the
frequency of each type of cohesive devices is used.
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Another study that relates to this research is a study done by Teich
and Frankhouse (2005). They present a system for linguistic exploration and
analysis of lexical cohesion English text. They use semantic concordance
version of the Brown Corpus which comprises 352 texts. Each text was
divided into paragraphs, sentences and words. Their work is based on
Halliday and Hasan theory (1976:2), “cohesion is defined as the set of
linguistic means we have available for creating texture”. Based on their
analysis, they found ten types of lexical cohesion, such as synonymys,
hyponyms,

hypernyms,

cohypernyms,

cohyponyms,

meronyms,

comeronyms, coholonyms, and antonyms.
The last research is conducted by Stokes (2004). This analysis
investigates the appropriateness of using lexical cohesion analysis to
improve the performance of Information Retrieval (IR) and Nature
Language Processing (NLP) application that deals with documents in the
news domain. Stokes explores the effect of lexical cohesion analysis on
New Story Gisting (ex: a type of summarization that generates a news story
title or headline). In his analyzing, he used the theory proposed by Halliday
and Hasan (1976). He found that lexical is property text that is responsible
for the present of semantically related vocabulary in written and spoken
discourse. The types of lexical cohesion which are found such as repetition,
synonym, and collocation.
2.1.2. Previous studies in Vietnam
In Vietnam, a number of linguists and researchers have made great
contributions to the study of discourse analysis. Nguyen Thien Giap (2000)
mentions a set of different aspects as context and semantics, information
structures, especially discourse and discourse analysis. He particularly
emphasizes the necessity of coherence and cohesion in creating a clear and
comprehensible discourse/text. Do Huu Chau (2001) points out some of the
7

communicative factors deciding the successful communication, they are
situational context, language and its varieties, and discourse. He also defines
discourse as a continuous stretch of talk, normally larger than an utterance
to make the conversation a coherent unit.
Together with these theoretical studies relating to discourse and
discourse analysis, some practical ones on this topic have been conducted so
far, such as the master thesis “An Analysis of Coherence and Cohesion and
a Contrastive Analysis of Lexical Cohesive Devices in English and
Vietnamese” by Phuong To Tam (2003). The data for this thesis is from a
chapter (chapter 5) on International Trade in the textbook “International
Business – An integrated Approach” (1998). The attention of the study is
paid to considering contrastive analysis of lexical cohesive devices
(including reiteration and collocation) in English (source language) in the
original textbook and their equivalents in Vietnamese (target language) in
the translation version. The author then attempts to collect data in both
English and Vietnamese to see the frequencies, similarities and differences
of each device and sub-device of lexical cohesive devices in the discourse of
both languages.
The next research in another M.A thesis by Le Thi Mai Hien (2004)
entitled “An Analysis of Cohesive Devices in English Application Letter”.
The process of researching on twenty English application letters has enables
her to reach the results of the frequency of occurrence of lexical cohesive
device. The data present repetition in English application letter also
occupies the first position among the four kinds of reiteration with up to
53.4%. Different from English sales letters, super ordinates rank the second
with a considerably higher percentage, 24.9% compared with 11%.
Synonyms and Near-synonyms account for nearly the same portion, which
is respectively 10.4% and 11.3%.
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The next research conducted by Nguyen Thi Hoa (2011) “A
contrastive study of grammatical cohesive devices in English and
Vietnamese” has pointed out the similarities and differences in grammatical
cohesive devices in English and Vietnamese. The results of this research
help teachers of English and students avoid making mistakes in using
grammatical cohesive devices and translating between these two languages.
The last research review is Cao Thi Huyen Nga (2012) entitled “An
analysis of cohesive devices in the ESP textbook on accounting at the
University of Labor and Social Affairs”. This study is mainly aimed at
analyzing cohesive devices in the reading texts on Accounting at ULSA,
finding out teachers’ attitudes towards cohesion teaching”. The analysis
reveals that lexical cohesive devices are used more often in the textbooks
than grammatical cohesive devices. The data from interview indicates that
the teachers often teach cohesion in class but they cannot cover all types of cohesion.
Although several studies which analyze cohesion and coherence have
been carried out, there is no evidence that any researchers have conducted a
study relating to cohesive devices in the opening paragraphs of short stories
in general, and those by O. Henry in particular as this study aims to explore.
Therefore, in this study, the matter of cohesive in the opening paragraphs of
short stories by O. Henry is taken into consideration with the aim at helping
learners of English create their own writing products coherently; as a result,
improve their academic essay writing.
2.2. Review of theoretical background
2.2.1. The concepts of text and discourse
The concepts of text and discourse have always presented a degree of
confusion. Different linguists treat the two terms differently. The concepts
were sometimes regarded as identical, sometimes opposed, or even
9

unconnected. Due to conventional linguistics, both of them were developed
in different scientific contexts. The necessity for research program on both
text and discourse occurred when a significant amount of independent
analysis appeared.
Linguists refer to a text as “any passage, spoken or written, of
whatever length thatforms aunified whole” (Halliday and Hasan, 1976:1). In
order to create a text as a unifiedwhole, itis necessary to know what makes
text coherent. Firstly, it can be said that text is not defined by its size, it is
not a grammatical unit and it differs from a sentence. As observed earlier a
collection of random sentences cannot be regarded as the text, it can be said
that “in its deep structure, the text is a sequence of mutually related clauses,
which after the application of appropriate textualizing operations, are turned
into text sentences” (Valeikaand Buitkienė, 2006:168). Furthermore in order
to create mutually connected sentences the meaning that is semantic relation
of the words is important, because words and context are in separable. If we
take any word for example, we can make predictions about the textual
environment it can occur, and if we know something about the environment,
then we can make predictions about the words which are likely to occur
there (Stubbs, 2002:100). The main conclusion, however, is that the
meaning and logical relation of words and sentences are important when
creating a coherent text. That is why the text is not composed of sentences it
is realized by sentences. (Halliday and Hasan, 1976: 1-2)
The word “text” refers to any instance of language, in any medium,
that makes sense tosomeone who knows the language. We can produce text,
when we speak or write. Halliday and Hasan (1976:1) purpose that text can
be in the form of spoken or written. A spoken language is in the forms of
conversation, speech, storytelling, while written language is reflected in the
forms of newspaper, magazine, book.

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Fadjrin (2011:3) states that cohesion is the most important thing
needed in cohesiveness of a text or discourse, including in the journalistic
text. It shows that cohesion helps the process of understanding a text by
using its connective so that the information will be easy to understand.
Within a text, if an item previously mentioned isreferred to again and
dependent with another element, it is considered a tie or cohesive device.
The cohesive devices are tools that when used appropriately enable the
writer tohang sentences and text segments together (Fakeuade and
Sharndama, 2012:300-318). Cohesive device or types of cohesion consist of
five such as reference,conjunction, substitution, ellipsis, and lexical
cohesion. Cohesive device will help the participants in interpreting a text.
For Bell (1991) a text must possess:
a. Generic structure (it must belong to a recognizable genre or register);
b. Textual structure (it must reflect the selection of options from the
same systems, theme and information);
c. Internal cohesion.
His definitions are as follows:
“Text: the formal product of selections of options from the theme
systems of the grammar; a unit which carries the semantic sense of the
proposition (the prepositional content and locutionary force of the speech
acts) through sentences which are linked by means of cohesion”.
Discourse: a communicative event which draws on the meaning
potential of the language (and other systems of communication) to carry
communicative value (the illocutionary force) of speech acts through
utterances which are linked by means of coherence”.
The Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied
Linguistics (1998) defines discourse as follows: “Discourse is a general

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term for example of language use, i.e. language has been produced as the
result of an act of communication.” Sharing the same concern, many other
linguists have so far given definitions of discourse. Widdowson (1979)
states: “Discourse is a use of sentences to perform acts of communication
which cohere into larger communicative units, ultimately establishing a
rhetorical pattern which characterizes the pieces of language as a whole as a
kind of communication.” Whereas Crystal (1992: 25) says: “Discourse is a
continuous stretch of language larger than a sentence, often constituting a
coherent unit such as a sermon, argument, joke or a narrative.” Quite
differently from the others, Halliday and Hasan (1976) give a simple
definition: “We can define text (discourse) in the simplest way perhaps by
saying that it is language that is functional.”
Linguists have paid much attention to the distinction between a
discourse and a text since confusion of these two terms may result in the
failures of discourse analysis. Even though that the distinction is not always
clear and the two terms are used interchangeably by some linguists. As in
the above-mentioned definition of discourse by Halliday and Hasan, “text”
is employed to refer to “discourse”; they see “text” as a “semantic unit”
characterized by cohesion. The two authors state: “A text is a passage of
discourse which coherent in these two regards: it is coherent with respect to
the context of situation, and therefore consistent in register; and it is
coherent with respect to itself, and therefore cohesive” (1976: 23). For some
other linguists, “text” is used for writing and “discourse” for speech. The
third group of linguists like Brown & Yule, Nunan, Widdowson, and Cook
see discourse as a process and text as a product. Brown & Yule argue that
text is the representation of discourse and the verbal record of a
communicative act.

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In this study, we would like to take Widdowson’s viewpoint of the
difference and the interrelationship between the two as the base: “Discourse
is a communicative process by means of interaction. Its situational outcome
is a change in state of affairs: information is conveyed, intentions made
clear, its linguistic product is Text.” (1984: 100)
2.2.2. Concepts of Cohesion
Cohesion, based on Halliday and Hasan (1976) “cohesion theory as
the major characteristic of coherence considering linguistic properties of the
language, gives a sequence of sentences a coherent texture. Cohesion occurs
where the interpretation of some elements in the discourse is dependent on
that of another”. Halliday and Hasan (1976, p. vii) pointed out that cohesion
is one of the linguistic system's major resources for text construction. In
fact, cohesion represents the presence of explicit cues in the text that allow
readers/listeners to find semantic relations within it as part of linguistic
system enhancing the semantic potentials of text. A text is meaningful only
when elements referring to each other in the text set up a relation. The
relation can be set up through reference, substitution, ellipsis, and
conjunction as grammatical and lexical cohesion. So, the grammar and
lexicon are two forms of cohesion. These cohesive devices used by speakers
and writers in order to express meaning based on the interpretations of the
listeners and readers provide semantic relations for the semantic units whose
interpretations they facilitate. Cohesion depicts how meaning-based
relationship is set up by lexical and syntactic features. These explicit lexical
and syntactic features are known as cohesive devices, signaling the
relationship in sentences and paragraphs. Halliday and Hasan (1976)
introduced five different types of cohesive devices in order to provide a
guideline for studying and judging the cohesion and coherence of writing:

(a) reference (i.e., the indication of information from elsewhere such as
personals, demonstratives, and comparatives), (b) substitution (i.e., the
13


replacement of one component by another), (c) ellipsis (i.e., the omission of
a component), (d) conjunction (i.e., the indication of specific meaning
which presupposes present items in the discourse, such as additive,
adversative, casual, and temporal), and finally (e) lexical cohesion (i.e., the
repetition of the same orrelative lexical items). They contended that through
analyzing the use of cohesive devices, one could evaluate or assess writing
quality from the perspective of coherence.
Cohesion is the term used to describe the structural, grammatical and
lexical means by which sentences and paragraphs in the texts are linked and
relationships between them established. The basic concept that is employed
in analyzing the cohesion of a text on the basis of the presented framework
of cohesion by Halliday & Hasan is that of the tie. It is a complex notion
which comprises not only the cohesive element by itself but also that which
is presupposed by it. The notion is interpreted as a relation between these
two elements. The relation may be anaphoric, with the presupposed element
preceding, or cataphoric, with the presupposed element following.
According to Halliday &Hasan (1976), other cohesive relations are:
1. Exophoric relation is found outside the text, i.e. in the situation
2. Paraphoric relation points to the information that is in the other text.
3. Homophoric relation is a self- interpreting relation. Entities are
unique under certain circumstances.
While analyzing cohesion, two facts about ties have to be taken
into consideration. In the first place, any sentence may have more than one
tie in it. In the second place, the distance between cohesive items may be
immediate, i.e. the presupposed item may be in the immediate preceding

sentence; or remote, i.e. the presupposed item may be not in the
immediately preceding sentence. Also, the presupposed item may include a
mediated tie. Distance between ties is relevant in terms of analysis of
cohesion (Halliday & Hasan 1976).
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In English, the basic means of establishing cohesion are through
the use of pronouns, determiners, conjunctions, and adverbials to substitute,
repeat, refer or omit items across a text and others, and lexical cohesive
devices. Cohesion occurs where the interpretation of some element in the
text is dependent on that of another. The one presupposes the other, in the
sense that it cannot be effectively decoded except by shift to it. When this
happens, a relation of cohesion is set up, and the two elements, the
presupposing and the presupposed, are thereby at least potentially integrated
into a text (Halliday &Hasan 1976: 4).
According to Halliday & Hasan in their book Cohesion in
English, language can be expressed through the concept of cohesion. The
concept of cohesion is a semantic one, it refers to relations of meaning that
exist within the text and that define it as a text. Cohesion is a semantic
relation between an element in the text and some other element that is
crucial to the interpretation of it.
A text should be a unified whole; it is not just a collection of
unrelated sentences. Therefore, to make a text as a unified whole, there
should be a device to tie it together. The device is cohesive devices.
2.2.3. Cohesive devices
Cohesive devices are the tool of cohesion to create unity of meaning
within atext. Millward in Muslimah’s thesis (2007:13) says that cohesive
devices are certain words or phrases and their location within the discourse
will activate a set of assuptions to the meaning of what has gone beforehand

or will generate a set of expectations to what may follow (Muslimah,
2007:13). From that statement, it can be concluded that cohesive devices are
words or phrases which their meaning are dependent on the other words or
phrases either precede them. In another word, their meaning are related to
each other.
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Connor (1984) defines cohesion as the use of explicit cohesive
devices that signal relations among sentences and part of a text (Rahman,
2013: 2). This means that the use of cohesive devices enables readers and
listeners to capture the connectedness orthe meaning between what precedes
and what follows. It also shows that cohesive device is important.
Cohesive devices are the ones used to stick one clause to another in a
sentence and one sentence to another in a paragraph and make the text
communicative. According to M.A.K. Halliday and Ruqaiya Hasan, there
are two main types of cohesion: grammatical, referring to the structural
content, and lexical, referring to the language content of the piece. Five
general categories of cohesive devices that create coherence in texts can be
identified are: reference, ellipsis, substitution, lexical cohesion and conjunction.
Logical cohesion is on the border-line of the grammatical and lexical,
the set of conjunctive elements can probably be interpreted grammatically in
terms of systems.
According to Halliday and Hasan (1976), the classification of
cohesion is based on the linguistic form. The types of cohesion depend
either on semantic relation in the linguistic system or on lexico-grammatical
relations. In other words, the cohesive relation can be interpreted as being
either lexico-grammatical in nature or semantic. It can be made clearer in
the following description:
Table 2.1: Type of Cohesion

Nature of cohesive relation

Type of cohesion

Relatedness of form

Substitution and ellipsis; lexical collocation

Relatedness of reference

Reference; lexical reiteration

Semantic connection

Conjunction

(Source: Halliday and Hasan, 1976:304)
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