Understanding Coherence, Appropriateness, and Cohesion in Text

What is a Text?

A text is a complete unit of oral or written communication, produced by a sender in specific circumstances.

Key Features of a Text

Every text possesses distinct characteristics that define its nature:

• It functions as a total unit of communication, always serving a specific communicative intention.
• It represents a communicative act (e.g., informing, persuading, narrating) where the sender expresses a clear purpose.
• It is deeply embedded in a specific situation or context; removed from this context, it may lose its intended meaning.
• It possesses an inherent structure that interrelates its elements, providing both coherence and unity.

Essential Textual Properties

For any communication to be considered a true "text," it must fulfill certain fundamental requirements, known as textual properties. These crucial properties ensure effective communication and include:

• Appropriateness (or Adequacy) to the communicative situation.
• Coherence, ensuring logical unity and meaning.
• Cohesion, providing linguistic connections between elements.

The appropriateness of a text largely depends on the linguistic register employed (e.g., standard, formal, informal, conversational).

Appropriateness in Communication

Appropriateness refers to how well a text adapts to its specific communicative situation. To determine if a text is appropriate, one must assess whether it successfully achieves its intended communicative purpose.

Crafting an appropriate text requires a strong command of language in all its facets, including vocabulary, syntax, and linguistic varieties. This ensures the text effectively accommodates the needs of its audience. The overall presentation of the text also plays a vital role in its appropriateness.

Achieving Text Coherence

Coherence is the property that allows a text to be interpreted as a unified body of information. All its elements must be logically related to each other to form a global, meaningful whole.

For a text to be coherent, it must also exhibit other textual properties: it must be appropriate to the communicative situation, and its constituent elements must be cohesive. Cohesion involves using linguistic markers (such as textual connectors) that clearly demonstrate the connection between ideas.

Key aspects of coherence include the careful selection of information and its logical structuring.

Rules for Coherent Text

To ensure textual coherence, the following rules are essential:

• Rule of Repetition: Statements within the text must be linked by a common theme or themes that are consistently reiterated throughout.
• Rule of Progression: The text should develop by continuously introducing new information, moving the discourse forward.
• Rule of Non-Contradiction: Statements must not contradict previously stated content within the text.
• Rule of Relation: The topics or facts referenced in the text must be logically connected to the real or imaginary world from which they arise.