Mastering Textual Properties: Coherence and Cohesion Explained

Textual Properties: Fitness for Purpose

To understand the concept of language, we can establish a simile regarding the appropriateness of clothing: we have different attire for a party, a formal event, or staying at home. Similarly, we use specific language for informal relations, public speaking, or academic writing. Each situation presents us with a specific demand.

Key Considerations

• Relates to: Dialect and register.
• Take into account: The theme (general/specific), channel (oral/written), communicative purpose, and formality level (relationship between sender and receiver).

Coherence

Coherence is based mainly on a tight selection of information and consistent organization. It views the text as a whole from an external perspective.

Thematic Structure

Theme and Rheme: The theme is the known information, while the rheme contains the most important, new, and unknown information being exposed.

Consistency Rules

• Rule of Progression: The elaboration of a text is a process where we relate known information (theme) with new information (rheme). The equilibrium between these two types of data ensures consistency and progress.
• Rule of Non-Contradiction: For a text to be consistent, no statement can contradict the content expressed in previous statements.
• Rule of Relationships: All content in the text must relate to the theme; information that does not strictly respond to the purpose of the text is considered inconsistent.

Cohesion

Cohesion is the internal characteristic of a text that unites and relates each particular piece of information.

Lexical Cohesion Mechanisms

These resources establish a semantic link between two or more lexical items:

• Repetition: Using a word for stylistic necessity.
• Synonymy/Antonymy: Using synonyms or antonyms to refer to a single reality.
• Encapsulation: Summarizing a segment of text in a single word or syntagma.
• Hyponymy/Hypernymy: Using specific names (hyponyms) versus general names (hypernyms).
• Association: Linking words that belong to the same field of experience.

Reference Mechanisms

• Deixis: A linguistic function used to point to something present in the act of communication (e.g., here, there, I, he).
• Anaphora: A relationship between elements where a reference is made to something previously mentioned. This can be expressed through pronouns, lexical equivalents, or repetition.
• Cataphora: A reference to elements that are provided later in the text.
• Ellipsis: The substitution of an element with zero, meaning the absence of a lexical item where it is understood by context.