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An Analysis of Grammatical Cohesion Used in The Call of The Wild by Jack London. M.A Thesis Linguistics
An Analysis of Grammatical Cohesion Used in The Call of The Wild by Jack London. M.A Thesis Linguistics
HANOI – 2010
Vietnam national university, hanoi
University of languages and international studies
FACULTY of post- graduate studies
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HANOI - 2010
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TABLES OF CONTENTS
CONTENTS Pages
DECLARATION ..........................……………………………………………………… i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ………………….…………………………………………. ii
ABSTRACT …………………………………………………………………………… iii
TABLES OF CONTENTS ..............................................................................................iv
LISTS OF TABLES AND FIGURES ……………………………………………...… vi
PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
Discourse Analysis, or discourse studies, is a general term for a number of
approaches to analyzing written, spoken, signed language use or any significant semiotic
event. From the beginning of its appearance, Discourse Analysis has taken up in a variety
of social science disciplines. It is now a rapidly expanding field, providing insights into
various aspects of language in use and therefore of great importance to language teaching.
In the early days, language teaching has been concerned with pronunciation, grammar and
vocabulary; however, it was not until Discourse Analysis turned up that our awareness of
how to put this knowledge into action to gain successful communication was raised.
Literature, which plays a very important role in our spiritual life, has been greatly
developing as a consequence of the high living standards. As a matter of fact, there have
been more and more people choosing to work in the literary field and their efforts have
created so many famous works. It is open to questions as to which factors have to be taken
into consideration to make a successful work? How important are those factors to the
completion of a coherent and cohesive text? Added to this, the knowledge of cohesion and
coherence are actually regarded as the crucial aspects of language usage.
"The Call of the Wild", Jack London's most famous book, is a beautiful tale of a
"house dog" torn from the comforts of hearth and home into the unforgiving wild. The
main character of the story is a dog named Buck. Every aspect of life, including happiness,
hardship, misery, love and so on, is seen through the eyes of this dog. This is the
significance of the book. Buck's story is more than just a children's story or merely a dog's
story, it is our story. Jack London's book, therefore, makes great impression on the readers.
Those reasons mentioned above are the most important ones that have encouraged
the author to conduct "An analysis of grammatical cohesion used in "The Call of the
Wild" by Jack London" as the topic of this study. Hopefully, it may help teachers and
learners of foreign language have an overall viewpoint on grammatical cohesive devices as
well as the effectiveness of the application of such devices in Jack London's "The Call of
the Wild".
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PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
As mentioned before, Discourse Analysis has a very broad scope which has close
relationship with many other aspects of language study. Nevertheless, due to the
framework of a M.A. minor programme thesis, in this chapter, the authors just attempts to
discuss some theoretical background about Discourse Analysis in general and Cohesion in
particular.
1.1. Discourse and Discourse Analysis
1.1.1. Discourse Analysis
Discourse analysis is concerned with the relationship between language and the
context in which it is used. It grew out of the work of different disciplines in the 1960s and
early 1970s, including linguistics, semiotics, psychology, anthropology and sociology.
Discourse analysts study language in use: written texts and spoken data of all kinds under
the approach different from those old grammarians. For the time being, there have been
numerous interpretations to what is meant by Discourse Analysis.
British discourse analysis was mainly influenced by M.A.K. Halliday's functional
approach of language. Halliday's framework emphasizes the social function of language
and the thematic and informational structure of speech and writing. De Beaugrande (1980)
and Halliday and Hasan (1976) as well as Prague School of linguists have made their
significant contribution to this branch of linguistics in pointing out the links between
grammar and discourse.
Yule (1996:139) states: "In the study of language, some of the most interesting
questions arise in connection with the way language is 'used', rather than what its
components are (...) We were, in effect, asking how it is that language-users interpret what
other language users intend to convey. When we carry this investigation further and ask
how it is that we, as language-users, make sense of what we read in texts, understand what
speakers mean despite what they say, recognize connected as opposed to jumbled or
incoherent discours and successfully take part in that complex activity called conversation,
we are undertaking what is known as discourse analysis".
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1.2. Cohesion
1.2.1. The concept of cohesion
The concept of cohesion is closely connected with text. It is defined as the
grammatical and lexical relationship between different elements of a text. According to
Yule (1996), a text is usually considered to have a certain structure which depends on
factors quite different from those required in the structure of single sentence. Some among
those factors are described in terms of cohesion, or the ties and connection which exist
within a text.
Halliday and Hasan (1976:4) also define cohesion in a similar way: "The concept of
cohesion is a semantic one; it refers to relations of meaning that exist within a text, and that
defines it as a text". They also point out that cohesion often occurs where the interpretation
of some elements in the discourse is dependent on that of another.
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Reference, substitution and ellipsis are clearly grammatical; lexical cohesion, as the
name implies, lexical. Conjunction is on the borderline of grammatical and the lexical; the
set of conjunctive expressions involve lexical selection. However, it is better to put it in the
group of grammatical cohesion as it is mainly grammatical with a lexical component inside.
Consequently, we can refer to grammatical cohesion and lexical cohesion as follows:
Grammatical cohesion Lexical cohesion
Reference Conjunction Reiteration
Exophoric Additive Same word/repetition
Endophoric Adversative Synonym/near synonyms
- personal Causal Superordinates
- demonstrative Temporal General words
- comparative Others Collocation
Substitution Noun + Noun
Nominal substitution Adjective + Noun
Verbal substitution Verb + Noun
Clausal substitution Noun + Preposition
Ellipsis Adjective + Preposition
Nominal ellipsis Adverb + Adjective
Verbal ellipsis Verb + Preposition
Clausal ellipsis
The two authors also distinguish situational and textual reference very clearly by
contrasting exophora (or exophoric reference) and endophora (i.e, endophoric reference) as
follows:
Reference
[situational] [textual]
exophora endophora
They then conclude that reference items may be exophoric or endophoric; and if
endophoric, they may be anaphoric or cataphoric. These two authors also indicate: "There
are items in every language which have the property of reference". In English, those items
belong to anaphoric and cataphoric reference. The first consists of items which point the
readers or listeners backwards to a previously mentioned entity, process or state of affairs.
The second, on the other hand, points the readers or listeners forward further into the text
in order to identify elements to which the reference items refer.
To take an example, let us look at the opening lines of a famous English novel,
Jude the Obscure. The author, Thomas Hardy, shows different types of reference at work:
The schoolmaster was leaving the village, and everybody seemed sorry. The miller at Cresscombe
lent him the small white tilted cart and horse to carry his goods to the city of his destination, about
twenty miles off, such a vehicle providing of quite sufficient size for the departing teacher's effects.
In this example, there are both anaphoric and exophoric reference. The followings are
detailed analysis of such types of reference.
Anaphoric Reference:
In the first sense, him in "lent him the small white tilted cart" is the schoolmaster
introduced earlier, his destination is the schoolmaster's and such a links back to the cart in
the previous sentence; therefore, all the expressions “him, his destination, such a” are
referred to as anaphoric reference.
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Exophoric Reference:
The novel opens with "the schoolmaster" leaving "the village". We have no
information about which schoolmaster and which village that the writer is referring to. In
this case, the author expects us to share a world with him, independent of the text, with
typical villages and their populations (everybody), their schoolmaster and miller. These
ones are exophoric reference.
Now consider the following example of reference with the pronoun "she":
Although she was still tired, my sister managed to go to school.
In this particular text, neither anaphoric nor exophoric reference supplies the
identity of "she", we have to read on, and are given the identity in the following part of the
sentence. “She” here is cataphoric reference.
Also according to Halliday and Hasan, there are three types of reference: personal,
demonstrative, and comparative. The first is reference by means of function in the speech
situation, through the category of PERSON, such as: I, me, you, we, us (noun/pronoun);
mine, my, your, yours, one's (determiner); etc. The second is reference by means of
location, on a scale of PROXIMITY, such as: this, these, here, now (near proximity); that,
those, there, then (far proximity); or the (neutral proximity). The last is indirect reference
by means of IDENTITY or SIMILARITY, such as same, identical, equal, identically
(identity-general comparison); similar, additional (general similarity - general
comparison); other, different, else, differently, otherwise (difference); better, more, so,
equally (particular comparison).
These various devices enable the writer or speaker to make multiple references to
people and things within a text. Examples of these types are as follows:
1. Peter didn't come to the party. He is too busy typing his reports for the next meeting.
In this example, both “Peter” and “he” refers to the same person. “He” in the second
sentence is regarded as personal reference.
2. Tom is always the last person to enter the meeting hall. This annoys his colleagues.
As can be seen, “This” replaces the meaning of the whole preceding sentence. In this case,
“this” is demonstrative reference.
3. I'm not so happy as he.
In the last example, “so” is used as comparative reference.
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Substitution
The second type of grammatical cohesion analysed below is substitution.
Substitution is a relation in the wording rather than in the meaning and within the text. It is
the use of substitute word or phrase to avoid repetition. Most of the substitutes are
proforms within sentences, which can be used across sentences. There are three types of
substitution: nominal substitution, verbal substitution and clausal substitution. Substitutes
may be proforms for nouns (one/ ones); proforms for adverbials (there, like it, like that, ...);
proforms for predicates and predication (do so, do it, do that, so ...do/does); proforms for
the direct object clause (that, so, ...). According to Halliday and Hasan (1976), nominal
substitution includes: one, ones, same; verbal substitution consists of do; and clausal
substitution are so, not. The following are some examples of substitution.
Nominal substitution
There are some new tennis balls in the bag. These ones have lost their bounce.
In the second sentence, “ones” refers to the noun phrase “tennis balls” appearing before. It
is, therefore, called nominal substitution.
Verbal substitution
A: Did Mary take that letter?
B: She might have done.
The verb “done” in B’s answer is a substitute of the verb phrase “take that letter”. In this
case, “done” is an example of verbal substitution.
Clausal substitution
A: Is it going to rain?
B: I think so.
We can see clearly from this conversation that B agrees with A’s idea and the word “so”
substitutes the clause “it is going to rain”. “So” is clausal substitution.
Ellipsis
Ellipsis is an omission of certain elements from a sentence or clause and can only
be recovered by referring to an element in the proceeding text. The former is non-cohesive,
and the latter is cohesive. Elliptical cohesion always appears anaphoric. Ellipsis
can be repetition. This is similar to substitution in terms of three types: nominal ellipsis,
verbal ellipsis and clausal ellipsis.
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Nominal ellipsis:
My kids play an awful lot of sport. Both [ ] are incredibly energetic.
In this instance, in order to be fully interpreted, the sentences must be filled with “my kids”
in the gap. However, these are omitted as it is not necessary for readers to work out the
sentence’s meaning.
Verbal ellipsis:
A: Have you been working?
B: Yes, I have [ ]
Similarly, there is no need to repeat the verb in this sentence as it presupposes the word
from the previous verbal group. The full answer for A’s question is “Yes, I have been
working”. Hence, B’s response here is known as verbal ellipsis.
Clausal ellipsis:
A: Why'd you only set three places? Paul's staying for dinner, isn't he?
B: Is he? He didn't tell me [ ].
B’s answer in this case can be understood as “He didn’t tell me he is staying for dinner”.
As this clause is omitted, this sentence is considered as an example of clausal ellipsis.
Conjunction
Conjunction is different from substitution, ellipsis and reference in the fact that it is
not a device for reminding the readers of previously mentioned entities, actions and state of
affairs. It is not in the kind of anaphoric relation. But it is a truly cohesive device because it
signals relationships that can only be fully understood through reference to
other parts of the text. There are four types of conjunction: temporal, causal, additive and
adversative. Following are some examples of conjunctive relations:
- Temporal: then, next, after that, just then, at the same time, finally, at last, at once, soon,
after a time, next time, on another occasion, meanwhile, until then, etc.
We have been looking for that book for months. Finally, we manage to get it.
- Causal: so, then, hence, therefore, consequently, for this reason, account for this, as a
result, with this in mind, for, because, on this basis, to this end, arising out of this, in that
case, that being so, under the circumstances, otherwise, in this respect, with reference to
this, aside from this, etc.
As a student, he was very lazy. Consequently, he failed his entrance examination to university.
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- Adversative: yet, though, however, only, nevertheless, despite this, in fact, actually, on
the other hand, at the same time, instead of, on the contrary, at least, in any case, anyhow,
at any rate, etc.
I have lived here for ten years; however, I've never heard of that pub.
- Additive: and, and so, nor, furthermore, in addition, besides, alternatively, incidentally,
by the way, that is, I mean, in other words, for instance, thus, likewise, similarly, in the
same way, by contrast, etc.
She is intelligent. And she is also very reliable.
Collocation
Collocation is known as the tendency to co-occur in the same lexical environment
without depending on any semantic relationships.
E.g.: A: Would you mind filling the kettle and switching it on? (1)
B: I need boiling water for vegetable. (2)
In (1) we have the word “kettle” and in terms of meaning, two words “fill” and “switch”
which may be used to combine with “kettle” appear in our minds. Likewise, in (2) we have
“water” and “boil” in our mind. These are known as collocation.
To sum up, the first chapter of this study just provides some background knowledge
about Discourse and Cohesion in general. All these will be discussed in more detail with
examples from the novel “The Call of the Wild” at chapter three of the thesis.
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Added to this, during his journey, Buck has a great deal of relationships with a
number of different characters. All these characters have built up the story events.
Nevertheless, the major characters of the story can be classified into three groups: Buck,
John Thornton, and the last consisting of three members: Hal, Charles and Mercedes. Each
character represents the thoughts and behaviour of one group of people during the period in
which the story takes place.
Buck’s first day on the Dyea beach was like a nightmare. (Chapter 2)
Jack London ends chapter 1 with the scene of the dog Buck and his friends leaving
on a ship to a colder place – as Buck can perceive. And to begin chapter 2, the author
introduces to readers “Buck’s first day on the Dyea”. Which “Dyea”? Is it in the Arctic
darkness as mentioned at the beginning of the novel? We are using more than just the text
here to establish referents. In this case, the author expects us to share a world with him,
independent of the text, in which both men and dogs and other living creatures have to
endure hard conditions of a primordial life. (The Dyea river is in Alaska, America).
As mentioned before, Jack London’s work is closely associated with real life and
through his writing, he wants to characterize the social concern at that time. Therefore,
during the study of “The Call of the Wild”, we see that almost all exophoric markers
exploited in the novel direct us to a world familiar to both writer and reader. The number
of occurences of the article “the” in combination with a concrete place and with other
definite (or conventionally definite) nouns is surprisingly great. Besides, there are some
other ways of expressing exophoric reference in “The Call of the Wild”.
The following table is detailed analysis of exophoric references by Jack London in
“The Call of the Wild”.
Exophoric Reference Number of occurences Frequency (%)
Chapter 1 45 11.5
Chapter 2 34 8.7
Chapter 3 56 14.4
Chapter 4 37 9.5
Chapter 5 72 18.5
Chapter 6 65 16.7
Chapter 7 81 20.7
Total 390 100
Table 3.1: Exophoric Reference in “The Call of the Wild”.
As can be seen from the table, Jack London has exploited a great deal of exophoric
reference in his novel. Through the seven chapters of the book, there are 390 cases in
which exophoric referent markers are employed (100 %). Of these, the figures gained in
each chapter after analysing are not the same in terms of frequency. Chapter seven - with
81 times of occurences of exophoric reference - ranks first, accounting for 20.7 %. On the
contrary, in chapter 2, there are only 34 examples of exophoric referent items, with the
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proportion of 8.7 %. Chapter five ranks second with 72 cases (18.5 %). Next comes
chapter six with 65 times, which accounts for 16.7 %. In the three chapters left, exophoric
reference appears rather often, counting for a small number of around 37 – 65 times. This
is understandable as a result of the differences in length between chapters. Furthermore, in
each chapter, it is the context of the story event that determines the number of occurences
of such referent markers.
There are reasons for the author’s choices of exploiting such a large number of
exophoric reference. First of all, these are employed in the novel in accordance with Jack
London’s writing style when he attempts to show great concern about the current social
issues. More important, by means of exophoric reference, the book presents us a panorama
of a society that is real, and that is familiar not only to the writer himself but all the readers
as well.
3.1.1.2. Endophoric Reference
As what discussed in previous chapter on “Reference”, endophora may be anaphora,
which belongs to preceding texts, or cataphora, to following text. According to Guido
Telemans (2001-2002), cataphoric reference “is a classic device for engaging the reader’s
attention” which often appears in the opening sentences of the text. Anaphoric reference,
on the contrary, requires readers to come back to the opening sentences of the text to get
full comprehension.
Below are some examples of anaphoric and cataphoric reference:
Buck did not read the newspapers, or he would have known that trouble was brewing,
not alone for himself, but for every tide-water dog, (...). (Chapter 1)
It can be seen from the above sentence, “he” and “himself” are anaphoric
references which tie up with “Buck” in the preceding text. Readers will find it hard to
understand the whole text without looking backwards to work out the relationship between
“he” as well as “himself” and the already mentioned “Buck”. Here, “he”, “himself” and
“Buck” are text-internal.
Charles and Hal went out in the evening and brought six outside dogs. These, added to the six of the
original team, and Teek and Koona, the huskies obtained at the Rink Rapids on the record trip,
brought the team up to fourteen. But the outside dogs, though practically broken in since their
landing, did not amount to much. Three were short-haired pointers, one was Newfoundland, and the
other two were mongrels of indeterminate breed. They did not seem to know anything, these
newcomers. (Chapter 5)
There are many other types of grammatical ties in this text , nevertheless, within this part,
let us pay more attention to referent markers. Firstly, “Teek and Koona” are intepreted
cataphorically, since readers have to continue forwards to “the huskies obtained at the Rink
Rapids on the record trip” to realize their identity. Meanwhile, “their” in “since their
landing” is anaphoric on referring to “the outside dogs” in the first part of that sentence.
Lastly, “they” in “They did not seem to know anything” is cataphoric refererent of “these
newcomers”, appearing in the final part of the whole text.
Surprisingly, with regards to endophora, anaphora is exploited in greater number.
That is to say, in most cases, readers have to move forwards to understand thoroughly the
linguistic expressions they are reading. The next part of this chapter is the statistical
analysis of Reference Markers in “The Call of the Wild”.
3.1.2. Statistical Analysis of Reference Markers
As mentioned in the previous chapter, there are three types of reference: personal,
demonstrative and comparative. The following table will show in more detail the number
of occurences of each type in the novel.
To begin with, let us have a look at personal referent items used in this novel.
Personal No of occurences
Function Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter
Determinative Possessive Deitic
Class 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Masculine He/him His His 189 237 328 180 94 273 305
Feminine She/her Hers Her 0 12 5 0 66 8 0
Singular
Neuter It Its Its 19 25 53 30 70 54 100
Plural They/them theirs Their 34 86 135 40 138 46 100
13.4 % and 22 % respectively (351 occurences for it/its and 579 times for
they/them/their/theirs).
Next, the frequency of demonstrative reference can be illustrated by the table below:
Demonstrative No of occurences
Function Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter
Head Deitic Adjunct
Class 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Here
Near This/these This/these 13 6 9 7 17 25 31
(now)
Specific
There
Far That/those That/those 11 7 4 5 16 18 22
(then)
Non-
It The 223 197 385 220 486 434 462
specific
Same, equal,
7 21 identically 0
identical
Similar, So, similarly,
2 such 56
additional likewise
General
Otherwise, else,
Other, different 38 19
differently
More, fewer, less, Com.adj & adv; Com.adj & adv; so-,
further; so-, as-, + 39 so-, less-, as-, 51 less, as-, more- + 47
Specific
quantifier more- + adj. adv.
showing identity are rarely used. We can find among seven chapters here only 7 words
“same”, as in:
They were of the same large type as Thornton, living close to the earth, thinking simply and seeing
clearly (...) (Chapter 6)
“Same” here turns out to compare the appearance of the three men: Thornton, Hans and
Pete. It is an instance of comparative reference. Also for general comparative, “equal”,
“identical” and “identically” even do not appear in this novel. Apart from “additional” –
which does not appear, and “similar” – with two times in occurrences, words denoting
similarity and differences appear quite often.
The number of occurrences of “such” is 21 whereas “so”, “similarly” and “likewise” make
a total up to 56 times. There are 38 cases in which “other” and “different” are used.
“Otherwise”, “else” and “differently” appear a bit fewer with 19 times.
To see these more clearly, let us take the following sentences as examples:
He saw the silent circle, with gleaming eyes, lolling tongues, and silvery breaths drifting upward,
closing upon him as he had seen similar circles close in upon beaten antagonists in the past.
(Chapter 3)
Buck was no less eager, and no less cautious, as he likewise circled back and forth for the advantage.
(Chapter 3)
It would have required an experienced man to keep the top-heavy sled upright, and Hal was not such
a man. (Chapter 5)
With regard to specific comparative, the frequency is quite remarkable. Comparative
adjectives & adverbs, so-, less-, as-, more + adjectives rank first with 51 times of
occurrences. Being on the second scale, Comparative adjectives & adverbs, so-, as-, more-,
less- + adverbs are 47 times repeated. The last group, more, fewer, less, further, so-, as-,
+ quantifier appear 39 times.
The following are some examples of specific comparatives. As the number of
occurrences is quite great, we just give here some typical instances in which specific
comparative references are used as means of cohesion.
Never in all his life had he been so vilely treated, and never in all his life had he been so angry.
(Chapter 1)
They were camped near the long store, where she, in her friendly way, made advances to a husky
dog the size of a full-grown wolf, though not half so large as she. (Chapter 2)
On studying the book thoroughly, it seems to us that superlatives and comparatives
are used quite often. As a matter of fact, comparison is to make distinguishing
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