| Since Halliday and Hasan first proposed cohesion theory in 1976, cohesion has become one of the widest research fields in discourse analysis. Between the two types of cohesion, most former studies concentrate on lexical instead of grammatical cohesion. Previous studies also focused on general styles, and ignore the comparison between different styles. Based on such conditions, the thesis aims to figure out 1) whether a significant difference exists in the occurrences of grammatical cohesion and its subcategories; 2) whether some difference exists in the distribution of grammatical cohesion and its subcategories.By comparing the frequency of grammatical cohesion and its subcategories, the major findings are summed up as follows: in both discourses, there is a significant difference in the occurrences of grammatical cohesion. Among the four types of grammatical cohesion, the use of conjunction in EST is significantly higher than in general English while the use of reference, substitution and ellipsis is significantly lower.Besides, the distribution in grammatical cohesion and its subcategories is partially similar and partially different.Here are the similarities:1. Among the four major grammatical cohesive devices, reference is the most frequently used, with conjunction in the second place. Substitution and ellipsis are seldom employed.2. In reference, demonstrative reference is the most frequently employed, with personal reference the second and comparative reference the last.3) In conjunction, additive and adversative conjunctions are more often used instead of causal or temporal conjunctions.4) In substitution, nominal substitution is most frequently used. In ellipsis, clausal ellipsis is the most common and verbal ellipsis is the least common.Meanwhile, the thesis finds the following differences: 1) Third persons in personal reference are significantly more often used in EST than in general English.2) In substitution, the rank of verbal and clausal substitution is different.3) More present tenses and passive tenses are used in JDEST while continuous and perfect aspects are significantly less used. |
