A Pragmatic Study Of Cohesion And Coherence In English Discourse

The Use of cohesive devices has become our habit, something we tend to neglect. Their use is natural and"unmarked"so much so that the reader will find a text very smooth. The cohesive devices are probably commonly used in every language.It's based on the cohesion of theory that a suggested Framework of analysis of cohesion is presented. It consists of two aspects: overt cohesion and covert cohesion.Overt cohesion is the explicit lexicogrammatical cohesive devices. Halliday and Hasan put forward the Systemic Cohesive Model in their influential work"Cohesion in English", in this model, the cohesive devices are grouped into five categories: reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction, and lexical cohesion. Professor Hu Zhuanglin's Multi-Level Model of Cohesion and Coherence is a development of the Systemic Cohesive Model. On the basis of the two models, a framework for the overt cohesion is developed. And the author gives an illustration of each category of cohesive devices and analysis the pragmatic function of overt cohesion.Covert cohesion is context conditioned. Context refers to the environment in which language is used. It is a dynamic, not a static concept. Contextual coherence, with peculiar characteristics of its own, can not be realized only by grammatical and linguistic cohesive devices. Therefore, contextual coherence, has been a controversial issue. This thesis attempts to reveal the coherence mechanism of context by employing pragmatic theories. First, we applied Grice's Theory of Cooperative Principle and Implicature, and the Theory of Speech Act of Austin and Searle in the theoretical analysis of context, for the simple fact that the application of pragmatics can provide human language with fuller, deeper, and more reasonable interpretation and that some language phenomena have to be analyzed so as to be meaningful.In the first chapter, we generally describe the present study, explain its necessity, and define some related notions. In the second chapter, we review the previous research in this field and propose the theoretical framework of overt cohesion. In the third chapter, we review the previous researches in this field and propose the theoretical framework of pragmatic context. In the fourth chapter that follows, the author strives to give an illustration and elaboration of each category or sub-category of the cohesive devices and analysis the pragmatic function of overt cohesion; The fifth chapter touches upon the case study of contextual coherence. Having analyzed contextual coherence, we come to the findings that coherence is not inherent in context, it is a mental entity shown in the understanding utterances. The last chapter is conclusion.