Cohesion And Coherence: Theory And Application

Research on discourse coherence enjoys a long history, during which the linguistic circle have had intense debate mainly surrounding this topic. There are researchers who approached discourse coherence from cohesive devices in a discourse. There are also researchers who studied discourse coherence by adopting latest findings in cognitive science. This thesis argues that discourse coherence is an outcome of interplay between discourse and its recipient. One is not only required to study coherence from the discourse proper but also to investigate ways in which discourse participants interact with the discourse to arrive at a coherent interpretation.Coherence was originally a concept of rhetoric, where coherence was an important prerequisite of discourse unity. Nowadays, coherence has become one of the objects of investigation in discourse analysis. Halliday is among the earliest scholars who studied coherence through his analysis of cohesive devices available in the English language. But many scholars in the linguistic circle hold different views to his idea on the relation between cohesion and coherence. There are diverse opinions such that there is not a unified understanding and interpretation of coherence even up till now. In the present thesis, the author is going to summarize findings in this field before he adopts a cognitive-pragmatic perspective in his investigation of discourse coherence.The author holds the view that discourse coherence is a linguistic concept on the interface between semantics and pragmatics. It refers to connectivity and consistency between the concepts and relations underlying the discourse under discussion. It can be explicit, manifesting itself in the form of cohesive devices and propositional relations in a discourse. It can also be implicit, requiring investigation from factors outside the text such as social norms of interaction and cognitive operations on the part of the discourse recipients. Therefore, the author holds that discourse coherence should not only be studied from discourse proper but also be studied from the perspective of listener's or reader's participation in discourse. Discourse coherence can be manifested in discourse cohesion, which, in turn can be realized in the cohesive devices used. Discourse coherence can also be implicit, in which case the investigation of it must take into consideration such factors as pragmatic inference and cognitive operations on the part of the discourse recipients. One should not neglect the significant role played by discourse recipients in the recovery or creation of discourse coherence, in that even if discourse coherence is explicit, it also requires active identification on the part of them. Discourse coherence is not an inherent property of discourse. Discourse should be seen as one medium where communicational participants interact.The present thesis is just such an effort based on this line of thought.