Lexical Cohesion In English Text

Cohesion, as one of the most important components of a text, contributes much to the coherence of a text and has aroused the interests of many linguists and scholars ever since. In 1976, Halliday and Hasan published the famous work Cohesion in English, which made the word cohesion a widely accepted term in text linguistics. Some relevant research has been undertaken by such famous scholars as Winter, Philips, Hoey, etc.Cohesion can be divided into two types: grammatical cohesion and lexical cohesion. Grammatical cohesion is achieved through grammar while lexical cohesion through vocabulary choice. Lexical cohesion is the most important one in various cohesive means. It is the only type of cohesion that regularly forms multiple relationships and therefore the dominant mode of creating texture. The most part of research into cohesion is on lexical cohesion. After comparing Halliday & Hasan's Cohesion in English to Hoey's Patterns of Lexis in Text, we can find the former one can be applied more widely and it is also easier for students to understand. Therefore, it can be used in English class more successfully. So the current paper is mainly based on the results of Halliday's research, together with some Hoey's viewpoints. It will analyse different types of lexical cohesion in English text and also their functions. In order to make it more pertinent, all the examples will be taken from College English.The theory of lexical cohesion is obviously quite useful to English teaching. Firstly, it can help students get a better understanding of the characteristics of English lexical cohesion and thus understand better the structure and purpose of the text. Secondly, it can be applied in the teaching of vocabulary, reading, translation, writing, etc. Only in this way can the students' communicative ability on the textual level be improved.