A discourse analysis of english economics reports from VOA = phân tích diễn ngôn các bản báo cáo kinh tế từ VOA

Vinh university
Foreign language department
------------*****-----------Nguyễn văn sỹ

A discourse analysis of English economics reports from VOA
(Phân tích diễn ngôn các bản báo c¸o kinh tÕ tõ VOA)

Graduation thesis
Field: linguistics

Vinh, 2009

1


Acknowledgements

For the completion of the thesis, I have been fortunate to receive invaluable
contributions from many people. First, I would like to express my greatest
gratitude to M.A. Nguyen Thi Van Lam, my supervisor for her excellent
suggestions, valuable materials, and correction that help me to fulfill this
study.
I am grateful to my teachers in the Department of Foreign Languages for their
helpful suggestions and encouragements that help me overcome difficulties in
the process of my study.
My warmest thanks to my loved family and my good friends who are willing
to help me and always by my side, encourage me to complete my work.

Vinh, summer, 2009
Nguyễn văn sü

Table of contents
Acknowledgement ……………………………………………………….i
Table of Contents ……………………………………………………….ii
Part A: Introduction ………………………………………….1

2


1. Rationale of the Study ………………………………………………...1
2. Aims and of Objects of the Study ……………………………………2
3. Scope of the study ……………………………………………………2
4. Research Methods ……………………………………………………2
5. Design of the Study …………………………………………………..3
Part B: Development……………………………………………4
chapter I: theoretical background……………………4
1.1.

Discourse and Text ………………………………………………..4

1.2.

Coherence and Cohesion …………………………………………5

1.3.

Cohesive Devices ………………………………………………...6

1.3.1.

Grammatical

Cohesion

…………………………………………...7
1.3.1.1.

Reference …………………………………………………….7

1.3.1.2.

Substitution …………………………………………………..9

1.3.1.3.

Ellipsis ……………………………………………………….10

1.3.1.4.

Conjunction ………………………………………………….11

1.3.2.

Lexical Cohesion ……………………………………………12

1.3.2.1.

Repetition ……………………………………………………13

1.3.2.2.

Synonymy …………………………………………………...13

1.3.2.3.

Antonymy……………………………………………………14

1.3.2.4.

Hyponymy …………………………………………………..14

1.4. General Information about VOA Special English. ………………..14
1.5. The Concept of an Economic Report ……………………………...15
1.6. Some Major Characteristics of an Economics Report …………….15
1.6.1. Information on Finance Ministries ………………………………15
1.6.2. Union Budget ……………………………………………………16
1.6.3. Statistics and Data ……………………………………………….16
1.6.4. Specialized Economics Reports …………………………………16

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chapterII:

A

Discourse

analysis

of

English

economics report from VOA ……………………………...17
2.1. General Information about Material Selected ……………………..17
2.2. Cohesive Devices ………………………………………………….17
2.3. Grammatical Cohesive Devices ……………………………………18
2.3.1. Reference ……………………………………………………… ...18
2.3.2. Substitution ………………………………………………………20
2.3.3. Ellipsis ………………………………………………………… ...21
2.3.4. Conjunction ……………………………………………………...22
2.4. Lexical Cohesive Devices …………………………………………24
2.4.1. Repetition ………………………………………………………...24
2.4.2. Synonymy ………………………………………………………..25
2.4.3. Antonymy ………………………………………………………..26
2.4.4. Hyponymy ……………………………………………………….26
2.5. The Frequency of Occurrences of Cohesive Devices in English
Economics Reports from VOA …………………………………………27
Chapter III: findings and applications of the study
………………………………………………………………………… 29
3.1.

Discussion …………………………………………………….... 29

3.2.

Applications of the Study……………………………………….. 30

3.2.1. Application of Discourse Analysis to Teaching Grammar……... 31
3.2.2. Application of Discourse Analysis to Teaching Vocabulary…… 33

3.2.3. Application of Discourse Analysis to Teaching Text Interpretation
……………………………………………………………………37
Part C: conclusion……………………………………………..38
1. Recapitulation…………………………………………………… .38
2. Suggestion for Further Study…………………………………….38
References
appendix
4


Part A: Introduction

1. Rationale of the study
Nowadays, English becomes the international language for most fields
in our life, especially economy. The amount of material related to economy
comes from so many companies all over the world, mainly English reports.
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Therefore, they will be necessary for all people, who want to open company
or to do business. In fact, less information from our partners lead to the
breakdown or failure after a short time we are doing our business.
In addition, during the time we carry out this research, we found that
English Economics Reports are said to be a useful and typical demonstration
of grammatical as well as lexical cohesion usage. Therefore, in the processes
of producing and receiving in learning English, learners are usually guided
to pay their attention on the logicality of the text. In other words, they
should be taught how to recognize or create coherence of the text. Textual
coherence can be obtained by various cohesive devices that consist of both
grammatical cohesive devices and lexical ones. Each of them has its own

role in creating complexity and unity the text. Grammatical cohesion usually
involves closed systems, but lexical one involves a kind of choice that is
open-ended. They are considered the most common and contribute most to
textual coherence.
Finally, English economics reports contain a lot of cohesive devices that
make us difficult to understand, so it is necessary to study how English
economics reports are built and how meaning of the author as well as
cohesive devices are used in them. Economic report has become one of the
most popular and powerful means of communication and plays a
displaceable part in man’s life. It not only provides information but also
from VOA, it is a place for us to learn and to enrich our knowledge. We
hope that the choice of the study would help businessmen and all people
who are interested in doing business get more knowledge and understand
more about the importance of English Economics Reports in general and
especially from VOA. For all reasons above, the author decides to choose to
study on “A Discourse Analysis of English Economics Reports from
VOA”
2. Aims of the study
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Originating from all reasons above, the aims of the study are:
- To emphasize the importance in English reports to business.
- To clarify some special features of language used in them.
- To give some statistics and descriptions of Cohesive Devices used in
English Economics Reports from VOA.
- To suggest some implications for English Economics Report writers in
creating an effective English Economics Report and students in learning
cohesive devices.
3. Scope of the study

Due to the time and resource limitation, this study only focuses on the
analysis of ten English Economics Reports from VOA. The grammatical and
lexical cohesion provided by Halliday and Hasan’s (1976) description are
used as the framework for data analysis. The data in this thesis come from
VOA Special English Economics Reports, written by Mario Ritter in order
to show the state of economy in many countries over the world for the large
number of readers, mainly businessmen.
4. Methods of the study
To achieve the mentioned aims, the following methods are used:
- The descriptive method: to describe and investigate data through the
study.
- The analytical method: to analyze English Economics Reports.
5. Design of the study
This study consists of three parts:
Part A is the introduction. In this part the rationale of the study, aims of
the study, scope of the study, methods and design of the study are presented.
Part B is the development. This part is divided into three chapters:
+ Chapter I

Theoretical background.

7


+ Chapter II

A discourse analysis of English Economics Reports from

VOA.
+ Chapter III Discussion and Implication

Part C is the conclusion. In this part, it summarizes what is discussed in
chapter I, II, and III of the study. Some suggestions for further study are
provided in this part.
This study ends up with References and Appendix.

Part B: DEVELOPMENT
Chapter I: theoretical background

1.1.

Discourse and text

Discourse and text are still difficult for students to solve because of some
similarities. Sentences are linked in sequences, which may be called

8


‘discourses’. These units have a semantic representation, a “discourse
representation structure”, in terms of Kamp and Reyle (1993: 59), which is
incremental, according to Kamp (1995: 254): “in order to make sense of a
discourse-internal sentence the interpreter must connect it with the
interpretation he has assigned to the sentences preceding it”. In turn,
discourses are organized into larger structures, up to texts. Texts are not
defined in terms of coherence or relevance, but by the connection existing
between their component discourses. Similarly, a discourse is not defined in
terms of contextual information, but it is the result of connecting its
component sentences. In order for this connection to take place, additional
information must be included. This happens whenever a unit is connected to
others. Connection is the general process that accounts for syntactic structure

itself. In every complex unit, there is information that is not represented by the
component units, but rather added to them so that the result is the complex
unit itself. Frequently this additional information is added as default, but it
may also originate in preceding units. Thus, words are linked to each other
into phrases, phrases into clauses, clauses into sentences, sentences into
discourses, and discourses into texts. Text types, or genres, account for the
way discourses are connected; styles, or discourse types, organize in general
ways the connection between sentences within discourses.
Also basing on a number of differences between them that some
linguists have ever defined. Crystal (1992), for example, consider that
discourse is “ a continuous stretch of spoken language especially larger than
a sentence, often constituting a coherent unit, such as a sermon, argument,
joke or narrative”; meanwhile, text is “a piece of natural occurring spoken,
written, or signed discourse identified for purposes of analysis. It is often a
language unit with a definable communicative function, such as a
conversation, a poster”. According to Cook (1989): discourse is “stretches

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of language perceived to be meaningful, unified and purposive”. Text is “a
stretch of language interpreted formally, without context”.
In a short word, the term text is used to refer to any written record of a
communicative event. The event itself may involve oral language or written
language. The term discourse refers to the interpretation of the
communicative event in context.
1.2.

Coherence and cohesion

Nunan (1993:116) clearly indicates the difference between cohesion and
coherence: “coherence is the extent to which discourse is perceived to hang
together rather than a set of unrelated sentences or utterances and cohesion
is formal links showing the relationships among clause and sentences in
discourse”
Cohesion can be thought as all the grammatical and lexical links that tie
one part of a text to another. This includes use of synonyms, lexical sets,
pronouns, verb tenses, time references, grammatical reference, etc. For
example, 'it', 'neither' and 'this' all refer to an idea previously mentioned.
'First of all', 'then' and 'after that' help to sequence a text. 'However', 'in
addition' and 'for instance' link ideas and arguments in a text.
Coherence can be thought as how meanings and sequences of ideas relate
to each other.
Coherence helps the text make sense as a whole at an idea level, and
cohesion as rather more mechanical links at a language level. You can
imagine that it is possible for a piece of writing to contain plenty of
cohesion yet little coherence.
Cohesion is the glue that holds a piece of writing together. In other
words, if a paper is cohesive, it sticks together from sentence to sentence
and from paragraph to paragraph. Cohesive devices certainly include
transitional words and phrases, such as therefore, furthermore, or for
instance, that clarify for readers the relationships among ideas in a piece of
10


writing. However, transitions are not enough to make writing cohesive.
Repetition of key words and use of reference words are also needed for
cohesion.
Coherence is that when sentences, ideas, and details fit together clearly,
readers can follow along easily, and the writing is coherent. The ideas tie

together smoothly and clearly.
Now, we consider the example below:
Mark is very conservative. He comes from America.
These above sentences are cohesive because of existing anaphoric
reference (Mark, he), but are only coherent if one already knows the culture
back ground of America or westerners we will be easy to understand the
relation between conservative and America, or is prepared to assume a
cause-effect relationship between the two sentences.
1.3. Cohesive Devices
Cohesion is the grammatical or lexical relationship between the different
elements of a text. Since cohesive relations are not concerned with structure,
they may be found within (a) sentence(s). Halliday and Hasan (1976:4)
stated that cohesion refer to “relations of meaning that exist within the text,
and that define it as a text” and according to McCarthy (1991) “Cohesion
occurs where the interpretation of some element in the discourse is
dependent on that of another”. While cohesive devices in a text or language,
according to Halliday (1985), are “the tools, means, words that are used in
sentences as the link between one part and other part of sentences in the
texts.” In other words, cohesive devices are the tools to show the
relationship between parts of a text or sentences in a text. Since, it is the
relationship between one part and other part of sentences in the texts, so it
deals with grammar and vocabulary. Thus, we shall discuss four types of
grammatical cohesion: reference, substitution, ellipsis and conjunction, and

11


the lexical cohesion as reiteration including repetition, synonymy, antonymy
and hyponymy.
1.3.1. Grammatical Cohesion

Grammatical cohesive devices are the grammatical items that are used in
a text to connect sentences within it; articles can be the good example.
Spoken and written discourses display grammatical connections between
individual clauses and utterances. These grammatical links can be classified
into sub-categories of cohesive devices: reference, substitution, ellipsis and
conjunction.
1.3.1.1. Reference
Reference shows the same thing in a text that appears in the second time.
Halliday and Hasan (1976:308) said that “reference is the relation between
an element of the text and something else by reference to which it is
interpreted in the given instance”. According to them, reference can be seen
from both situational (exophoric reference) and textual (endophoric
reference) context.
Exophoric reference is “not simply a synonym for referential meaning”
(Halliday and Hasan, 1976:33). The item referred is not in the text or
referred to another item in the text but it is referred to other item outside the
text. Since each cohesive link has cohesive devices and presupposed items
but in this case, the reader cannot see the presupposed items in the text
because the link in exophora seems incomplete.
We consider the following example:
The election results were widely seen as strong statement by voters on the
economy. A public opinion study reported by the Wall Street Journal found
that about sixty percent of voters considered the economy the top issue. (VOA
Special English Economics Report - 2008).
In this paragraph, “the Wall Street Journal” exists in the real world

12


Endophoric reference is the relationship where their interpretation lies

within the text. It occurs when an item in the text refers to another item in
the same text. Therefore, the reader can see the referred item in the text.
This reference is divided into anaphoric and cataphoric reference.
For anaphoric reference, the reader has to look back for the referred item
in the text in order to find the interpretation of the item. Brown and Yule
(1983:192) stated that it means, “The reader looks back in the text for their
interpretation”.
For example: Sam Zell, one of the nation's biggest property owners, took
control a year ago. He led a stock buyout for eight billion dollars. He
borrowed almost all of it.
(VOA Special English Economics Report-11 December 2008)
The above example, the word “He” refers back to “Sam Zell” and “it”
refers back to “eight billion dollars” to find our interpretation.
Cataphoric reference is the reference which the referred item is in the
following part in the text. Therefore, in order to find the interpretation of the
item, the reader has to look forward the text. McCarthy (1991:42) stated it is
“the reverse of anaphora reference and is relatively straightforward.” In
addition, Brown and Yule (1983:192) stated that it means, “The reader looks
forward in the text for their interpretation”.
For example, in the sentence, The news only confirmed what many people
already knew: that the world's largest economy is weak and may not recover
soon.
(VOA Special English Economics Report-4 December 2008)

13


“The news” refers to “the world largest economy is weak and may not
recover soon”. In this way, the writer guide the readers to the item forward
in terms of cataphoric.

1.3.1.2. Substitution
Substitution is the referred item replaced by another item in the text.
Brown and Yule (1983:201) said substitution is “the replacement of an
expression that is obvious from the context by another element in a text”. In
English the substitute may function as a noun, as a verb, as a clause. These
correspond to the three types of substitution: nominal, verbal, and clausal
substitution.
Nominal substitution occurs when a noun in the previous sentence is
substituted by another word or element usually by one, ones, and same.
Nevertheless, the meaning of the nominal group containing the substitute is
never exactly the same as the nominal group that is presupposed.
Example: 1. I like to read this short story because the long one would make
me bored.
2. I love you. - - I wish I could say the same to you.
The verbal substitution in English is do. (Halliday and Hasan, 1976,
p.112). which may substitute either for a verb or for a verb plus certain other
elements in the clause.
Example: Do John visit you everyday? - He can’t do at weekends, because
he has to visit his parents.
Clausal substitution is the substitution in which the presupposed item is a
clause. In clausal substitution the entire clause is presupposed and the
contrasting element is outside the clause.
Example: Is there going to be an earthquake? – It says so.
Here the “so” presupposes the whole of the clause “There is going to be
an earthquake” and the contrastive environment is provided by the “say”
which is outside it.
14


1.3.1.3. Ellipsis

Ellipsis is omitting some items in the text, which is required by the
grammar, but the writer thinks the items are clearly understandable by the
reader, for that reason it does not need to be repeated. Actually, ellipsis is
substitution by zero or in other words, the item referred is replaced by
nothing. Here is the case where ellipsis occurs, when sentences or clauses
whose structure has the missing information. The missing information is like
an empty slot and in ellipsis; nothing is inserted into the slot but the item
itself. There are three types of ellipsis discussed below.
Nominal ellipsis means ellipsis with the nominal group. The structure of
the nominal group is that a head with optional modification. The modifying
elements include some that precede the head and some that follow it. In
other words, in nominal ellipsis, “the noun may be omitted and replaced by
deictic, numerative or epithet.” Halliday and Hasan (1976:147). The
function of head is normally served by common noun.
E.g: The father and the mother were so busy making money that the two
children left to their own devices. Naturally, both ≤≥ were resentful.
In this case, the father and the mother are omitted after the word “both”
in term of deictic element.
Verbal ellipsis is the omission of verb. There are two types of verbal
ellipsis; they are lexical ellipsis and operator ellipsis. In lexical ellipsis, it is
the lexical verb that is always omitted. Lexical ellipsis is ellipsis ‘from the
right’; it always involves omission of the last word, which is the lexical
verb. Any verbal group consisting of a modal operator only can be
recognized as operator ellipsis. Unlike lexical ellipsis, operator ellipsis is
ellipsis ‘from the left’ that involves the omission of operators. In this
ellipsis, the subject also is always omitted from the clause. We consider
these following examples:
A. Have you been swimming? – Yes, I have <>. (lexical ellipsis)
15

B. What have you been doing? – <>Swimming (operator ellipsis)
Clausal ellipsis often occurs in the form of answer to the question. In this
case, the answer whether yes or no or other response can be considered as
the substitute.
Example: Can you put my car in the parking lot?
1. Yes (I can)
2. If you get out
Both answers 1 and 2 are the substitutes for the question “Can you put
my car in the parking lot?” as the clause. Yes in (1) omits “I can put your
car in the parking lot” and “if you get out” in (2) also omits “I can put your
car in the parking lot”
1.3.1.4. Conjunction
Conjunction is the relation of a wit of idea with the others. By means of
conjunction, we see the way in which what is to follow is systematically
connected to what has gone before. Conjunction does not depend on either
referential meaning or on identity or association of wording.
The additive relation of conjunction is the addition to the things that
have been said or discussed earlier. It is different from those of coordination relation. Additive relation often seems to have the sense of ‘there
is something more to be said’ while co-ordination does not. Additive
devices are such as and, in addition to, moreover, furthermore, or,
similarity, for example, in particular, likewise, e.g.: Some economists
think the plan needs to provide as much as one trillion dollars or more to be
effective.
Adversative conjunction is one type of conjunctions and the basic
meaning of the adversative relations are contrary to expectation or the things
that expected from the previous sentence are different from the end of the
whole text. The expectation may come from the content of what is being
said or from the communication process. Adversative conjunction includes
16

but, however, nevertheless, yet, on the other hand, in fact, conversely,
etc., as in:
Some papers fell more than ten percent. The two largest newspapers,
however, USA today and the wall street journal, reported little change.
Causal conjunction expresses the causal relation including the relation of
result, reason, and purpose. Example of causal conjunction are because, as
the result, so, consequently, for this reason, as in:
But over the next year the nonprofit network predicts a big deficit because of
less giving by companies in the downturn. So this week it cut seven percent of
its jobs and canceled two programs.
In this example, “because of” and “so” are causal conjunction.
Temporal conjunction specifies the time sequence relationship, which
exists between sentences such as: then, subsequently, before, after that,
finally.
E.g.: economists generally wait for production to shrink for six months in
arrow before they declare a recession.
1.3.2 Lexical Cohesion
Lexical cohesive devices are the reiteration including the exact repetition
of words and the role played by certain basic semantic relations between
words in creating textuality. Lexical relation is the stable semantic
relationships that exist between words and which are the basis of
descriptions given in dictionary. In this study, we focus on reiteration one
kind of lexical cohesion that consists of major types such as: repetition,
synonymy, antonymy and hyponymy.
McCarthy (1991) stated, “Reiteration means either restating an item in a
later part of the discourse by direct repetition or else reasserting its meaning
by exploiting lexical relations”. A reiterated item may be a repetition of the
same item in the previous text, a synonymy, an antonymy, a hyponymy or a

17


general word. (Lexical reiteration are mostly accompanied by the reference
item typically ‘the’).
1.3.2.1. Repetition
Repetition is a type of reiteration in which the writer repeats exactly a
lexical item previously appearing in the text
Example: One of America's largest media companies has sought protection
from its creditors in bankruptcy court. The Tribune Company owns the Los
Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Baltimore Sun and other
newspapers. It also owns twenty-three television stations and the Chicago
Cubs baseball team.
(VOA Special English Economics Report- 11 December 2008)
In this example, “Company”, “Tribune”, and “Chicago” are all repeated
twice
1.3.2.2. Synonymy
“Synonyms are words belonging to the same part of speech and possessing
one or more identical or nearly identical denotational meanings,
interchangeable in some contexts” (Nguyen Manh Hung, M.A. and Le Quoc
Hanh, M.A. 2006: 71)
In other words, synonymy is the same thing as paraphrase and it has been
used with reference to lexical items. In other words, it has two or more
forms, with very closely related meaning or pairs of words that have the
same or nearly the same meaning in one or more connotation or association
in the same language.
For example, “rose” in the following is synonymous with “increase”

18

The LIBOR for overnight loans between banks rose above six percent. Banks
are holding onto money in case they need it for a sudden increase in
withdrawals.
(VOA Special English Economics Report-2 October 2008)
1.3.2.3. Antonymy
Antonymy refers to the relationship between the words one of which is
opposite in meaning to the other.
For example: Businesses large and small are finding it harder to get credit -a bad sign for an already weak economy.
(VOA Special English Economics Report-2 October 2008)
1.3.2.4. Hyponymy
Hyponymy is a relationship between two or more words, in which the
meaning of one of the words includes the other word.
For example: President Bush invited leaders of the group of twenty countries
to Washington on November fifteenth to discuss financial crisis. The group
includes leading industrial economies and large developing ones like China
and India.
(VOA Special English Economics Report-23 October 2008)
In this example, the word “country” is the superordinate of “China and
India”. In contrast, China and India are hyponym of Country
1.4. General Information about VOA Special English
VOA Special English communicates in clear and simple English by radio
with people whose native language is not English. It also helps people learn
more about American English. Also, it provides listeners, even those who
are native English speakers with information. Especially,
Special English owns three important elements which make it unique.
First, it has a limited vocabulary of 1500 words and it is often used with
simple words that describe objects, actions or emotions. Some are more
19

difficult. They are used for reporting world events and describing
discoveries in medicine and science.
Also, Special English is written in short, simple sentences that contain
only one idea.
In addition, Special English is spoken at a slower pace, about two-thirds
the speed of Standard English. This helps people learning English hear each
word clearly. It also helps English speakers understand complex subjects.
Special English broadcasts around the world seven days a week, five
times a day. Each half-hour broadcast starts with ten minutes of the latest
news followed by 20 minutes of feature programming. There is a different
short feature about science, development, agriculture and environment, and
on the weekend, about news events and American idioms. These programs
are followed by in-depth 15 minute features about American culture,
history, science medicine, space, important people or short stories.
1.5. The Concept of an Economics Report
An economic report is a document which contains detailed information
and analysis of an economy. In present day, financial issues of an economic
report has become extremely important as it provides very important data.
Economic reports are normally available on a monthly basis but they are
also published quarterly or yearly at times.
1.6. Some Major Characteristics of an Economics Report
There are many characteristics of an economics report. However, four
following ones seem most important and necessary.
1.6.1. Information on Finance ministries
An important characteristic of economic reports is information provided on
finance ministries of respective countries. Normally there are a number of
factors involved in a finance ministry, but most common among them are
departments on economic affairs, financial services, and expenditures.

20


A union budget plays an important role in either making or breaking an
economy. It provides directions in which an economy would be top in a
special financial year. Economic reports include various important details
of union budgets like speech which is made by finance minister upon
presentation of budget, economic surveys and details of union budget. They
also incorporate areas where budget may have changed as well as
highlighting areas that have achieved in prominence in that particular union
budget.
1.6.3. Statistics and Data
Another important feature in context of economic reports is Statistics and
data. They are held in high regard as they provide an accurate picture of
condition of an economy. There are several important features in this aspect
like monthly economic reports, information on state loans, summary of
national data, external debts and borrowings of governmental bodies like
central government.
1.6.4. Specialized Economics Reports
Nowadays a number of specialized economic reports are available that
focus on particular areas of an economy like a certain industry. Normally,
both government-appointed entities as well as independent organizations
that are well known for their authenticity write these economic reports.
These reports provide detailed analyses of these industries and provide a
certain amount of idea regarding their potential for growth. It also provides
information on companies that form an integral part of that particular
industry.
Chapter

II:

A

Discourse

analysis

economics reports from VOA
2.1. General Information about Material Selected
21

of

English


As the title of the thesis, we show much our concern about English
economics reports from VOA, one of the most typical and hottest events in
the world. Ten pieces of material have been selected from VOA special
English, which tell us about the financial issues: bankrupt, financial crisis,
credit and crisis of confidence, financial choices, aid of Congress and loans
of Auto industry. Some more concern about economic problems: high fuel
price, economic recovery plan and US seizes Fannies Mac and Freddies
Mac. The following table will give the general information about the
material selected.
Paragraphs
Sentences
Total
On average

Total
On average
pieces
92
9.2%
257
25.7%
Table10 General information about the selected material
2.1:
Total of

The above data show us the relationship between paragraphs and
sentences in discourse and text. Based on the statistics we can easily find out
the average proportion of paragraphs per sentences is about one per three.
On average, each paragraph includes two or three sentences. This tells that
the function of English economics reports from VOA is to summarize and
give the detailed and short information that an event happened.
2.2. Cohesive Devices
Cohesive devices are considered common in different discourses or texts
e.g. narratives, instructions, reports, business letters etc. They reflect
specific text structures or genres and will be judged by readers as more or
less appropriate and coherent according to the closeness of the particular
text's structure and the genre that is expected for that type of text. The
difference between discourses is the frequency of using of cohesive devices.
Some discourse use this device frequently but others use other devices that
depend on impressive purpose of the writer. However, all devices are used
with the aim of making the coherent discourse. In this part, we indicate the
average proportion of cohesive devices, which is introduced by Halliday and
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Hasan including five different types of cohesion: reference, substitution,
ellipsis, conjunction and lexical cohesion. They play an important part in the
text and combine together to create a coherent text.
2.3. Grammatical Cohesive Devices
Grammatical cohesion may be defined as the surface making of the
semantic links between clauses and sentences in written in discourse and
between utterances and turns in speech. Halliday and Hasan (1976) states
that grammatical cohesion consists of four types: Reference, Ellipsis,
Substitution, and Conjunction. The following table will show you the results
of our investigation of ten pieces of English Economics Reports from VOA.
Total
pieces

Occurrences

Anaphoric

Cataphoric

Ellipsis

Substitution

Conjunction

328

38.5%

8.0%

2.3%

2.7%

48.5%

Table 2.2: Total occurrences of grammatical cohesive devices.
2.3.1. Reference
In term of reference, grammatical cohesive devices appeared in VOA
Special English Economics Reports. It includes two types: exophoric
reference and endophoric reference. Exophoric reference is the reference
outside the text. Thus, our survey will not include it. We focus on two main
types of endophoric reference: anaphoric and cataphoric. Reference is one
of the most common devices used in English Economics Reports from
VOA. It is rather understandable for the fact that it is an effective cohesive
device to make an Economics Report clearer and more coherent. This is
illustrated in the example below:
Sam Zell, one of the nation's biggest property owners, took control a year ago.
He led a stock buyout for eight billion dollars. He borrowed almost all of it.
(VOA Special English Economics Report-11 December 2008)

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“He” is called anaphoric reference because of referring back to Sam Zell
and “It” Eight billion dollars, which have been said before. These items are
directively indicating that information is to be retrieved from elsewhere. This
relation has the effect of linking the two parts into a coherent unity of a single

text. Besides, by using anaphoric reference, the drafter can avoid overusing
and repeating the items before but the clause is still clear and airtight.
Actually, our survey results in the most typical occurrences of anaphoric
reference accounting for 38.5% (130 occurrences of the whole 328
grammatical cohesive devices). This is easily explained by the fact that we
always need the definiteness when mentioning any people or events not only
in economics reports but also in any other written material.
Another type of reference is cataphoric reference that also exists in English
economics reports:
The news only confirmed what many people already knew: that the world's
largest economy is weak and may not recover soon.
(VOA Special English Economics Report- 4 December 2008)
As we can see from the above example, “the news” is cataphoric reference
because it looks forward to another item in this text. From that we can easily
understand: “what is the news?” and “how is the news?”. According to our
survey, the using of this device is rather little, about 8% (28 occurrences in
whole of 328 grammatical cohesive devices) but it is a fairly effective
grammatical cohesive device in the creation of coherence.
2.3.2. Substitution
The term of substitution can be defined as the replacement of one item by
another. There are some special words in English, which contribute to
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cohesion by substituting for words that were already used. The most typical
words are one, do and so. Halliday and Hasan (1976) divided substitution into
three types: nominal substitution, verbal substitution and clausal substitution.
In VOA Special English Economics Reports, substitution is not popular
cohesive devices even rarely seen as the economics reports aim to create the
clarity and sufficiency of information of the events. It only holds 2.7% (9

times in whole 328 grammatical cohesive devices). However, our survey will
show you some examples about it.
For example: (1) The group includes leading industrial economies and large
developing ones like China and India.
(VOA Special English Economics Report- 4 December 2008)
(2) Spreading the risk this way meant high returns with little danger. Or so they
thought
In the above two examples, the word “ones” in (1) substitutes a previous
word “economies” used before. In (2), the word “so” substitutes the clause
“spreading the risk this way meant high returns with little”.

2.3.3. Ellipsis
Another cohesive device taken into consideration in this selected material is
ellipsis. In a certain context, it is possible to leave out a word or phrase rather
than repeating it. This device called ellipsis, consists of three types: nominal
ellipsis, verbal ellipsis and clausal ellipsis. The following typical examples
provide excellent illustrations of this kind:

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