CHAPTER 1

Definition of context: Context is the environment in which a discourse occurs.

There are three types of context
Types of context
1. Linguistic context: refers to the context within the discourse, in which, the
relationship between words, phrases, sentences and even paragraphs
Linguistic context can be explored in three aspects: Deictic, co-text, and
collocation.
 Deictic refers to words or phrase ( such as, this, that, these, those,
now, then, here) that points to the time, place, or situation in which
a speaker is speaking
 Co-text is the linguistic environment in which a word is used. The co-
text limits our range of possible interpretations we might have for a
word. For example: “Brazil wins World Cup”, Brazil would be
referring expression and the rest of the sentence is the co-text

 Collocations are Words that are commonly used together by native

speaker. For example: Do homework, make a progress, do laundry…
2. Situational context refers to the environment, time and place, etc. in which
the discourse occurs, and also the relationship between the participants
Context of situation consists of three aspects: field, tenor and mode
 Field refers to the content or subject matter. Function of language is
ideational metafunction. For example: The language choices we
make in science will be quite different from those made in history.
 Tenor refers to the roles we take up and our relationships with
others in any particular situation. Function of language is
interpersonal metafunction For example: If you have a conversation
with a close friend, the language choices when you talk with a close
will be quite different from when you talk with a professor or a
lecturer
 Mode refers to text construction, looking at whether it’s based on
written or spoken forms of communication. Function of language is
textual metafunction For example: Students move from the oral
 language off the home and schoolyard to the increasingly dense and
compact language of the written mode in academic contexts.
3. Cultural context refers to the culture, customs, and background of epoch in
language communities in which speakers participate

Lexical density: Is a measure of how much information there is in a

particular piece of language. It‘s measured by the number of lexical words.
Lexical words are simply nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs. Other kinds of
words such as articles (a, an, the), prepositions (on, at, in), conjunction (but,
or, and), auxiliary verbs (to be, do, have) are non-lexical words or function
words
Ure: Lexical density (%) = (number of lexical words/total number of words) x
100
Halliday: Lexical density = Number of lexical items/ Number of clauses

CHAPTER 2
Grammatical cohesion: Grammatical cohesion refers to the linguistic
structure of the text. The structure determines the order in which grammatical
elements occur, and they way they are related within a sentence.
Grammatical cohesion is the relation of grammatical elements that include
references, substitutions, ellipsis and conjunctions
1. Reference concerns the grammatical relations between a discourse element
and a preceding or following element.
Reference may either be exophoric or endophoric according to directions
Exophoric reference requires the reader to infer the interpreted referent
by looking beyond the text in the immediate environment shared by the
reader and writer. For example in the sentence: That is a wonderful idea.
To retrieve the meaning of “that”, the reader must look outside the
situation.
 Endophoric reference lies within the text itself. It refers to something intra-
linguistics. For example in the sentence: I saw Sally yesterday. She was
lying on the beach
Here, she refers to Sally. So she is an endophoric expression because it
refers to something already mentioned in the text.
 Endophora is classified into two classes: Anaphora and cataphora
 Anaphoric reference is where a word or phrase refers back to
another word or phrase used earlier in the text.
For example in the sentence: Amy went to the party. She sat with
Sara. She refers back to Amy; therefore, she is an anaphoric
reference
 Cataphoric reference looks forward to another word or phrase
mentioned later in the text.
For example in the sentence: As soon as he arrived, Mike visited
his parents. He is a cataphoric reference that looks forward to
Mike.
Types of reference
- Personal preference: She, he, it, you, his, her…
- Demonstrative reference: here, there, now, then….
- Comparative reference: It’s the same cat as the one we saw
yesterday. In the sentence, the same is comparative reference

2. Substitution is the process in which one item within a text or discourse is

replaced by another.
Types of substitution
- Nominal substitution: For example: Have you got any knives? I need
a sharp one. “One” is a nominal substitution. “One” replaces for
knives
- Verbal substitution: For example: She went there yesterday. So
“did” I. “Did” is a verbal substitution. “Did” replaces “went there”
- Clausal substitution: For example: A: She is beautiful. B: I think so.
“So” is a clausal substitution. “So” replaces “She is beautiful”
3. Ellipsis is the omission of a word or a part of a sentence
Types of ellipsis
- Nominal ellipsis i.e. My two books are foreign. Both [0] were
printed in Australia. [0] “two books” is deleted
- Verbal ellipsis i.e. A: Will you go to the meeting? B: Yes, I will (0).
“Go” is deleted
- Clausal ellipsis i.e. A: Mary will attend the meeting B: Really? She
didn’t tell me (0) Mary will attend the meeting is deleted

3. Conjunction words are linking devices between sentences or clauses in a text

Types of conjunction
- Additive conjunction. i.e. He likes music. And he often goes to the
concert
- Adversative conjunction. i.e. She is often late. However, she gets
good marks
- Temporal conjunction. They sell cakes everyday. First, they buy
materials. Then they make cakes
- Causal conjunction. i.e. He was punished because he was lazy

4. Adjacency pairs: in a dialogue, two exchanges next to each other are

called an adjacency pair. Adjacency pair include question-reply,
introduction-greeting, praising-thank, blaming-excusing and so on
i.e. A: How much is the car? B: two billion dong. (Question-reply)
i.e. A: My name if Jack B: Hi Jack. Please to meet you (Introduction-greeting)
i.e. A: Your dress is beautiful B: Thanks ( Praising-thank)

5. Inserted sequence is a sequence of turns that intervenes between

the first and the second parts of an adjacency pair.
6. Theme and Rheme
In a sentence or an utterance, the information is arranged in terms of
importance. In a clause, theme is the initial element, and rheme follows
the theme.
i.e: Chi Pheo loved Thi No. Chi Pheo: Theme. Loved Thi No: rheme
Types of themes
- Topical theme have to do with information conveyed in the
discourse
i. e. Chi Pheo loved Thi No. Chi Pheo: Topical theme
- Interpersonal theme express attitude of the speakers or readers
i.e. Wow, this dress is beautiful. Wow: interpersonal theme
- Textual theme link a clause to the rest of the discourse
i.e. In addition, Jack gets good marks in maths. In addition: textual
theme