This book approaches cohesion and coherence from a perspective of interaction and collaboration. After a detailed account of various models of cohesion and coherence, the book suggests that it is fruitful to regard cohesion as contributing to coherence, as a strategy used by communicators to help their fellow communicators create coherence from a text. Throughout the book, the context-sensitive and discourse-specific nature of cohesion is stressed: cohesive relations are created and interpreted in particular texts in particular contexts.

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This book approaches cohesion and coherence from a perspective of interaction and collaboration. After a detailed account of various models of cohesion and coherence, the book suggests that it is fruitful to regard cohesion as contributing to coherence, as a strategy used by communicators to help their fellow communicators create coherence from a text. Throughout the book, the context-sensitive and discourse-specific nature of cohesion is stressed: cohesive relations are created and interpreted in particular texts in particular contexts.

By investigating the use of cohesion in four different types of discourse, the study shows that cohesion is not uniform across discourse types. The analysis reveals that written dialogue (computer-mediated discussions) and spoken monologue (prepared speech) make use ofsirnilar cohesive strategies as spoken dialogue (conversations): in these contexts the communicators' interaction with their fellow communicators leads to a similar outcome. The book suggests that this is an indication of the communicators' attempt to collaborate towards successful communication.

Acknowledgements ix

CHAPTER 1

Introduction: Cohesion in discourse

1.1 Introduction 1

1.2 Text and discourse 3

1.3 Context 5

1.4 Cohesion and coherence 7

1.5 The place oflexis in text and discourse studies

1.6 Word versus lexical unit 9

1.7 Aims and outline of the book n

CHAPTER 2

Cohesion, coherence, collaboration 15

2.1 Introduction 15

2.2 Cohesion and coherence: Independent but intertwined 15

2.3 Cohesion and coherence in communication 21

2.4 Towards a collaborative view of cohesion and coherence 23

CHAPTER 3

Building the method of analysis: Lexical cohesion relations  31

3.1 Introduction 31

3.2 Previous approaches to lexical cohesion 31

3.2.1 Halliday and Hasan 31

3.2.2 Other early studies: Enkvist, Kallgren and Danes 37

3.2.3 An application for analysing technical writing: Jordan 38

3.2.4 An application for analysing conversation: McCarthy 39

3.2.5 A computational approach: Morris and Hirst 40

3.2.6 Patternsoflexis: Hoey 41

3.2.7 Redefinition of Halliday and Hasan: Martin 45

3.3 Categories oflexical cohesion recognised in the present study 46

3.3.1 General considerations 46

3.3.2 Reiteration relations 49

3.3.3 Collocation relations 6o

3.4 Towards the analysis 69

CHAPTER 4

Spoken and written discourse  73

4.1 Introduction 73

4.2 From speech versus writing to the spoken-written continuum 74

4.3 Material to be analysed 80

4.3.1 General considerations 80

4.3.2 Segmentation and quantitative treatment of the material 84

CHAPTER 5

The spoken dialogue: Face-to-face conversation  91

5.1 Introduction 91

5.2 Material 91

5.3 Patterns of cohesion in face-to-face conversation 94

5.4 Cohesion across speakers 99

5.5 Cohesion across turns 102

5.6 Chains of cohesion 104

5.7 Collaborating with cohesion in a spoken dialogue 111

CHAPTER 6

The written dialogue: Mailing-list language 115

6.1 Introduction 115

6.2 Material 115

6.3 Patterns of cohesion in e-mail messages 117

6.4 Cohesion across writers and messages 121

6.5 Chains ofcohesion 126

6.6 Collaborating with cohesion in a written dialogue 130

CHAPTER 7

The written monologue: Academic writing   133

7.1 Introduction 133

7.2 Material 133

7.3 Patterns of cohesion in academic writing 135

7.4 Chains of cohesion 137

7.5 Cohesion and discourse organisation 141

7.6 Collaborating with cohesion in a written monologue 149

CHAPTER 8

The spoken monologue: Prepared speeches  151

8.1 Introduction 151

8.2 Material 151

8.3 Patterns of cohesion in prepared speeches 153

8.4 Chains of cohesion 156

8.5 Cohesion and discourse organisation 158

8.6 Collaborating with cohesion in a spoken monologue 162

CHAPTER 9

Lexical cohesion across spoken and written discourse  163

9.1 Introduction 163

9.2 Collaborating with cohesion in spoken and written discourse 164

9.3 Limitations of the study and suggestions for further research 173

9.4 Concluding remarks 174

References  175

Name index  189

Subject index  191