安徽大学大学英语教学部.docx

安徽大学大学英语教学部.docx

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安徽大学大学英语教学部

Cohesion,CoherenceandCommunication

安徽大学大学英语教学部

胡学文

Acknowledgement

ForthethreeyearsofmyfurtherstudyinTheSchoolofForeignStudies,IwouldliketoexpressmyappreciativethankstoProfessorHuaQuanqun,ProfessorHongZengliu,ProfessorZhouFangzhu,ProfessorZhangZuwu,ProfessorLiYongfang,ProfessorHambeckandmanyothersfortheirunfailingencouragementanddelicateinstructions.Inparticular,IamindebtedtoProfessorZhuYuewhosecriticalunderstandingandwiseguidanceinthispaperhasbeeninvaluableandmuchappreciated.Finally,Iwouldliketoacknowledgethatthispaperwouldnothavebeenpossiblewithoutthehelpofmydirectorsandmanyofmycolleagues.

Contents

1.Introduction………………………………………………….1

1.1Discourse1

1.2Cohesionandcoherence2

1.3Communication5

2.Cohesion………………………………………………………6

2.1Reference8

2.2Substitution9

2.3Ellipsis11

2.4Conjunction12

2.5Lexicalcohesion15

2.6Sub-conclusion17

3.Coherence……………………………….…………………..18

3.1Context18

3.2Thematicorganizationandknown-newinformation23

3.3Speechacts27

3.4ConversationalimplicatureandCooperativePrinciples32

3.5Sub-Conclusion36

4.Communication…………………….……………………...37

4.1Sentence,propositionandillocutionaryact37

4.2Cohesionandpropositionaldevelopment40

4.3Coherenceandillocutionarydevelopment43

5.SummaryandConclusion…………………………….….46

Reference49

Abstract

Thispaperfocusesontherelationshipbetweencohesion,coherenceandcommunication.Cohesionisasemanticcategory.Itreferstotheexplicitrelationshipbetweenlinguisticitemswhichisrealizedbycohesivedevicesorcohesiveties.Coherenceisapragmaticcategory.Itreferstotheimplicitrelationshipbetweenlinguisticelementswhichisrealizedbypragmaticconnections,suchascontext,conversationalimplicature,illocutionaryforce.Communicationinvolvestheinterpretationofboththesurfaceorsententialmeaningandtheimplicatureandintentionofadiscourse.Intheverbalcommunication,cohesionhelpsthecommunicatorsfollowthepropositionaldevelopmentwithinadiscourse,whilecoherencehelpsthemtracetheillocutionarydevelopmentinacommunicationunit.Bothcohesionandcoherencearenecessaryfortheproductionandtheinterpretationofacommunicationdiscourse.Whenevercommunicatorsfailtoidentifycohesioninadiscourse,theyreturntocoherence.Acommunicationdiscoursemustbecoherent,butnotnecessarilycohesive.

KeyWords:

cohesion,coherence,communication,propositionaldevelopment,illocutionarydevelopment

内容提要

衔接和连贯是交际篇章的必要条件。

衔接属于语义范畴，指篇章组成成分之间的显性的连接。

这种显性连接是由衔接手段或称衔接节实现的。

连贯属于语用范畴，指的是篇章成分之间的隐性连接。

这种连接是由一些语用关系来实现的，如语境、会话含义、言外之意等。

交际既涉及到字面的、表面的意义的理解，又涉及到深层的含义和意图的理解。

在语言交际中，衔接可以帮助交际者按照命题的推进来组织话语和理解话语，而连贯则可以帮助交际者理清篇章中意图推进的脉络。

衔接和连贯对于话语或篇章的产生和理解都是相当重要的。

一段篇章可以不必是衔接的，但必须是连贯的。

关键词：

衔接、连贯、交际、命题推进、意图推进

1.Introduction

1.1Discourse

Inthediscussionofdiscourse,therehavealwaysbeenargumentsandconfusionaboutwhatmakesstringsofwordsorstringsofsentencesadiscourse.Inotherwords,whatisitthatmakesapassagewrittenorasetofutterancesspokenaunifiedwholeinsteadofjustacollectionofunrelatedsentences?

Arethereanycertainfeaturesthatarecharacteristicofdiscourse?

Inordertoanswerthesequestions,aprobeneedstobemadetolookintotheinnermechanismsthatgovernthemakingofadiscourse.

Normallinguisticbehaviordoesnotconsistintheproductionofseparatesentencesbutintheuseofsentencesforthecreationofdiscourse.Adiscoursemaybespokenorwritten,proseorverse,dialogueormonologue.Itisaunitoflanguageinuse.Itismisleadingtoenvisageadiscoursetobeakindofsuper-sentence,agrammaticalunitthatislargerthanasentencebutisrelatedtoasentenceinmuchthesamewaythatasentenceisrelatedtoaclause,aclausetoagroupandsoon.Adiscourseisdifferentfromasentencenotinsizebutinkind.

AtextisbestregardedasaSEMANTICunit:

aunitnotofformbutofmeaning.ThusitisrelatedtoaclauseorsentencenotbysizebutbyREALIZATION,thecodingofonesymbolicsysteminanother.AtextdoesnotCONSISTOFsentences;itisREALIZEDBY,orencodedin,sentences…weshallnotexpecttofindthesamekindofSTRUCTURALintegrationamongthepartsofatextaswefindamongthepartsofasentenceorclause.Theunityofatextisaunityofadifferentkind.

（Halliday&Hasan,1976:

2）

Adiscoursehastexture,andthisiswhatdistinguishesitfromsomethingthatisnotadiscourse.Ifapassageofalanguagecontainingmorethanonesentenceisregardedasadiscourse,therewillbecertainlinguisticfeaturespresentinthatpassagewhichcanbeidentifiedascontributingtoitstotalunityandgivingittexture.Thetextureisprovidedbythecohesiverelationthatexistsbetweentwoormoreitemsinthediscourse.Suchrelationiscalled"tie"byHalliday&Hasan（1976:

3）,andtheyhavediscussedthecohesivetiesinsomedetailandtheirdiscussionhasbecomeastandardreference.

1.2CohesionandCoherence

Manylinguistshavediscussedthequestionofcohesionandcoherence.Buttheiropinionsonthesetwonotionsdiffer.Some（suchasCrystal,1985）thinkthatcohesionrealizestherelationbetweenmeaninganditssuperformsandcoherencerealizestherelationbetweenmeaningandthecontext.Some（suchasBrown&Yule,1983）thinkthatwhenpeopleinterpretadiscoursetheydonotneedtextualmarkers（cohesiveties）,andtheyassumethatthediscourseiscoherentandmaketheinterpretationunderthisassumption.Some（suchasWangZongyan,1992）thinkthatcohesionisthelexicalandgrammaticaldevicesinatextandcoherenceistheeffectrealizedbythesedevices.Stillsome（suchasWiddowson,1978）thinkthatcohesionistheexplicitrelationshipbetweenpropostionsofsentencesandcoherenceistherelationshipbetweenillocutionaryactsofutterances.InthispaperIrefertocohesionasanythingatthesemanticlevelthatmakespartsofcommunicativeelementsrelated,andrefertocoherenceasanythingatthepragmaticlevelthatmakespartsofcommunicativeelementsrelated.

Cohesionoccurswheretheinterpretationofsomeelementsinthediscourseisdependentonthatofanother.Theconceptofcohesionisasemanticone;itreferstotherelationsofmeaningthatexistwithinadiscourse.Theinterpretationofadiscoursedoesnotonlyrelyonthelexicogrammaticaldevices;onehastorefertothecohesiverelationsthatexistbetweentheelementsinadiscourse.Thatistosay,inadiscourse,someelementspresupposeandsomeotherelementsarepresupposed.Theinterpretationoftheelementthatpresupposescannotbereachedwithoutrecoursetothepresupposed.Takethefollowingdiscourseasanexample:

（1）Findaproperwordforthesentence.Putitintotheblank.

Itisclearthatitinthesecondsentencerefersbacktoaproperwordinthefirstsentence.Thiskindofrelationiscalledanaphoricanditisthisanaphoricfunctionofitthatgivescohesiontothetwosentences,sothatweinterpretthemasawhole;thetwosentencestogetherconstituteadiscourse.Whatismore,theinterpretationofitcannotbemadeifwedonotrelyontherelationthatexistsbetweenitandaproperwordinthetwosentences.ThereareseveralothercohesiverelationsthatmakeadiscourseintoawholewhichIwilldiscussinthesecondpartofthisarticle.

Certainlywerelyonthecohesivedevicesfortheinterpretationofthemeaningofalinguisticmessage,butitisamistaketothinkthatmeaningcanbeorisonlyachievedbysyntacticstructuresandlexicalitemsusedinalinguisticmessage.Sometimeswecanrecognizeadiscourseinformbutcannotclaimtohaveunderstood,simplybecauseweneedmoreinformation.Toshowthispoint,letuscheckthefollowingexchangetakenfromWiddowson（1978:

29）.

（2）A:

That'sthetelephone.

B:

I'minthebath.

A:

O.K.

Howdowemakesenseofthis?

Wecannotfindanycohesivetiesinthisexchange.Butourmindtellsusthesefragmentsoflinguisticmessagesdoformaunifiedwholeinsteadofsomeunrelatedsounds.Thatistosay,wedorecognizethisasacoherentinstanceofdiscourse.Whatwedo,ofcourse,istoenvisageasituationinwhichtheutteringofthefirstsentenceisregardedasarequest.Thereasonwegiveitthevalueofarequestisthatwerecognizethewayinwhichitrelatestotheotherpartsoftheexchangehere.Forthesamereason,wetakeB'sremarkasareplytoA'srequestandashavingthecommunicativevalueofanexcusefornotcomplyingwithA'srequest,andwetakeA'ssecondremarkasanacceptanceofB'sexcuseandasanundertakingtodohimself（orherself）whathe（orshe）originallyaskedBtodo.Havingrecognizedtheserelations,wecan,therefore,supplythemissingpropositionallinksandproduceaversionwhichiscohesive:

（3）A:

That'sthetelephone.（Canyouanswerit,please?

）

B:

（No,Ican'tansweritbecause）I'minthebath.

A:

O.K.（I'llanswerit）.

Theelementsinthebracketsarenotsuppliedbythetwospeakers（neitherAnorB）butareprovidedbythetwolisteners（bothBandA）.

Inadiscourse,suchelementswhicharenotsupplieddirectlybutcanbecomplementedbythelistenerorthereaderconstitutethecoherentrelationshipwithinadiscourse.Adiscoursewithcoherentrelationsmayclaimtohavecoherenceinit.

1.3Communication

Asisdiscussedabove,theinterpretationofadiscoursecannotbeachievedwithouttakingthecohesiveorthecoherentdeviceswithinitintoconsideration.Theproperuseofthetwodevicesbythespeaker/writertoencodethemeaningandbythelistener/readertodecodeitthrowslightonthelinguisticcompetence