COHESSION, COHERENCE &

LEXICAL DENSITY IN WRITING

TITIS SULISTYOWATI
 Spoken and Written Language
• Written language is not simply speech written down.
• They are different because they evolve to serve different
functions.
• Early writing tended to be oriented towards goods and
services: law, codes of behaviour, transaction.
• Artistic functions originated in the spoken language, and
were only later written down
• Spoken language is more context dependent; writen
language tends to be more independent of its immediate
context.
 SPOKEN AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE
CONTINUUM

Most Spoken Most Written

Language accompanying action Language as reflection

Spoken Language
Written Language
 The Continuum
• Most Written
Spoken
• Context independent
dependent
• Language as
in action
reflection
• Language as product
process (synoptic)
(dynamic)
 Different Features
• Monologic
Turn takingorganization
organisation
• Context independent
dependent
• Synoptic
Dynamic structure
 Rhetorical
Interactive staging
 Closed
Open ended
/ Finite
• Final
Spontaneity
draft/polished
phenomena (false start, hesitation etc.)
(indication of earlier draft removed)
 Different Features
• Prestige lexis
Everyday lexis
• Non-standard
Standard grammar
grammar
• Grammatical complexity
• Lexically sparse
Grammatical simplicity
• Lexically dense
 Context Dependent
• Meanings are recovered by context
• Not everything should be explicitly stated
• Stating everything may result in “overexplicitness”,
thus, unnatural
• Language choice depends on context of situation
(tenor, field, mode)
 Context Independent
• Meanings and context are created and presented
by writers.
• Everything should be presented for clarity.
• Completeness is necessary.
• Language choice is based on the imagined readers
 Dynamic Structure
• Structures are repeated
• Interactive staging
• Open-ended
• A lot of opening and re-opening
• A lot of topics
 Synoptic Structure
• Generic structure potential: recount, procedure,
report etc.
• Rhetorical staging
• Closed / finite / fixed
 Spontaneity Phenomena

• Incomplete clauses
• Gambits
• False start
• Topic termination
• Overlap
• Interruption
• Etc.
 Final Draft

• Well structured
• Complete sentences
• Well punctuated
• Free from spelling mistakes
• Undergoes several editing processes
• Polished language
 Everyday vs. prestige lexis

• Commence
Start
• Lively
Vivacious
• Fun
Joyful
• Guys and gentlemen
Ladies
• Etc.
 Grammatical Complexity &
Lexically sparse

Hey, I tell you what! Yesterday I went to… you know

this place? They call it Guci. It’s somewhere around
this city… what do you call it? The city that people
plant those shallots and also lots of salted duck
eggs? I think it starts with B or something. From
here it’s rather far… I think it’s after Tegal.
 Grammatical Simplicity &
Lexically Dense

Yesterday I went to a little town called Guci. It is a

small cool city located at a cool mountain slope not
far from Brebes. Usually people come to Guci to
enjoy some hot-water springs that are believed to
have strong soothing effects to those who suffer
from water-born skin diseases caused by badly
managed sewage sanitation.
 Spoken Language

• Based on clauses
• Subjects/objects: simple pronouns (you, I) or noun
phrase (my father, the house
• Gambits: help clarify interpersonal meanings
• Fillers (well…, uhm…, right…)
• More emphasis on interpersonal meanings
 Written Language

• Based on sentence
• Subjects/Objects are realised in complex noun
phrases
• Use of passive patterns (less personal,
objectified)
• More emphasis on ideational meanings
 Spoken: grammatical intricacy
(G&W 1995:162-163)

I can’t mind the kids today

Because I must go to fotball training
And can’t leave early
Because we’ve got an important game on Saturday
And if we win it
We go into the finals
Because I don’t have training
So I can mind them then
If that’s Ok with you
 Written Form: Lexical density
(p.164)
Due to the importance of a win in Saturday’s football game as
a pre-requisite for a final appearance, the necessity of my
training attendance diminishes my child minding capacity
tonight
However, the lack of an attendance requirement on
Wednesday allows my availability consequent upon your
approval.
 What has changed?
• The way the information is distributed, the number
of content words per clause has risen dramatically.
• The lexical density has risen.
• Grammatical changes push the lexical density up.
• The key difference in grammar is the amount of
grammatical metaphor.
 Nominalisation
• Much information that was spread outbin the spoken
language has been condensed by way of nominatisation.
e.g.
• because I must go to football training (clause)
• The necessity of my training requirement (noun phrase)
 Example (Halliday 1989)
• Spoken:
This is yer phone bill and you hafta go to the post office to pay
it – uh by next Monday, that’s what this bax tells ya – or
they’ll cut the phone off.
• Written:
All phone bills must be paid by the date shown or service will
be discontinued.
COHESION
 Cohesion
• Resources within language that provide continuity
in a text over and above that provided by clause
and clause complex structure
• Cohesive relations are non-structural relations
which work to help a text hang together.
 Kinds of relationship
• Reference
• Lexical cohesion
• Conjunction
 Reference
• Refers to systems which introduce and track the
identity of Participants through text
• Related to textual meaning, and thus to mode
• Displays different patterns between spoken and
written text
 Two Aspects of Reference
• Systems of reference
• Retrieval
Systems of Reference
generic
specific

presenting
presuming

+ comparison
- comparison
 Retrieval
• Anaphora: points the reader or listener ‘backwards’ to a previously
mentioned entity, process or state of affairs.
• Homophora: retrieval of identity with reference to the context of
culture / situation, or from within or outside the text. E.g. When I woke
up, the sun was shining. ‘The sun’ is a culturally shared knowledge.
• Exophora: retrieval from outside the text. E.g. That koala over there is
really sleepy. Esp. in spoken text.
• Endophora: Retrieval from within the text. There are two types:
anaphora and cataphora.
 Endophora
• Anaphora:
Some snakes, though not venomous, are still deadly. They squeeze their
victim to death.

• Cataphora:
It was a venomous one, that small green snake.

• Bridging:
We walk towards the kiosk but the windows were bolted shut.
 Lexical Cohesion
• Refers to the relationships between and among words in a
text
• Primarily related to field
• Field tends to have specialised vocabularies and tends to
engage in specialised activities.
• Reveals interpersonal meanings through use of attitudinal
lexis and qualitative attributes.
 Categories of Lexical Cohesion

• Repetition
• Synonymy: leave, depart
• Antonymy: leave, arrive
• Hyponymy (superordination): flower, rose; rose-daffodil
• Meronymy (whole-part relation): flower, petals
• Equivalence: the sailor was their daddy.
• Naming: They call their puppy Fluffy.
• Semblance: They could see their white caps looking like
seahorses.
 Conjunction
• Conjunction is the semantic system whereby
speakers relate clauses in terms of temporal
sequence, consequence, comparison and
addition.
COHERENCE
 Nominalisation

Each parent passes on certain characteristics to its offspring.

This process is called hereditary.

Noun

Hereditary works in an amazing way.

Noun
 Lexical Density
• lexical Density is the ratio of lexical words
(meaning-bearing words) to function words in
a text.
• As the information load is heavier in technical/
Sectorial texts they are held to demonstrate a
high level of lexical density.
• They are ‘term-dense’, that is, there is a high
ratio of technical or sectorial terms to ordinary
lexical words and functional language.
 RANKSCALE
(LEVEL OF GRAMMAR)
 C
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C
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C
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 CLAUSE COMPLEX
CLAUSE CLAUSE
GROUP GROUP GROUP GROUP GROUP
WORD WORD WORD WORD WORD WORD WORD WORD
 The Rank Scale
• Clause complex
• Clause
• Groups and phrases
– nominal groups
– verbal groups
are made up of
– adverbial groups
– conjunctions
– prepositional phrases
• Words
 Group/
Phrase
Book,
Verbal Nominal
the Adverbial Conjuncti Prepostion
Group Group
book, Group
tomorr on al Phrase
Read, the ow
and,
is book mornin
in the g, while, In the
readi shelf, actuall howe terrace,
ng, the y,
on the
will ver, table
book beautif after
read that ully,
belong dilligen
s to tly
her