Lexical Cohesion In The Discourse And Its Coherent Construct Function

As an important aspect of discourse analysis, cohesion arouses the interest of many text analysts, both in China and abroad. However, the efforts they make in the study of lexical cohesion, a member in the family of cohesion, are relatively little. At present, studies on lexical cohesion are mainly guided by cohesive theory proposed by Halliday & Hasan in 1976 in which lexical cohesion is parallel to the other four grammatical cohesive devices. This kind of classification of cohesive ties narrows the scope covered by lexical cohesion and reduces its contributions to textual coherence as a result. In fact, texts are all made up of words. The cohesive ties between lexical items cast great influence on textual coherence. Based on the current research in this field, this paper develops an extended pattern of lexical cohesion, which derives ideas from the lexical cohesive theories of Firth (1957), Halliday & Hasan (1976), Hoey (1991), Hu Zhuanglin (1994) and many other text analysts. With this revised framework of lexical cohesion, discussions are made about the role that lexical cohesive ties play in the coherence of a text. Here coherence is divided into two kinds: micro-coherence and macro-coherence. The criterion adopted is the domain in which the lexical cohesive tie matters, whether within the clause or above the clause level. With the help of lexical cohesion, the micro-coherence is achieved through the thematic structure within the clause together with its development as the text develops; while the macro-coherent is achieved through the construction of a central topic and a coherent context. In the end, this theoretical framework of lexical cohesive patterns is applied to thecoherence analysis of Samuel Erman's classic essay Youth, which further proves that this lexical framework is a quite practical and efficient tool for the coherence analysis of a text.