Grammatical Cohesion

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En provenance du cours de Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology

Academic Literacy

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Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology

Academic Literacy

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Cours 1 sur 5 dans Specialization English for Research Publication Purposes

This is the first course of the English for Research Publication Purposes Specialization. The course is an introduction to what you need to know about academic discourse. You’ll gain important critical reading skills to help you develop as a self-critical scientific writer. You will learn practical tools and effective strategies for increasing your academic vocabulary and grammar so that you will write well-structured coherent academic texts.

À partir de la leçon

MODULE IV : ACADEMIC DISCOURSE

The final module looks beyond the sentence to the ways that grammar structures paragraphs and longer texts. The module covers issues related to the textuality ofacademic texts, i.e. cohesion, coherence, intentionality, acceptability, informativity, situationality, andintertextuality. In particular, the module focuses on lexical and grammatical cohesion. The modulealso discusses the concept of paragraphing and what the topic sentence and the statement ofpurpose mean for effective academic writing.

Introductory video3:03

Cohesion and Coherence6:24

Types of Cohesion6:10

Grammatical Cohesion8:06

Rencontrer les enseignants

Elena Bazanova
Director of the Language Training and Testing Center
Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology

[MUSIC]

Grammatical cohesion refers to the linguistic structure of the text,

the highest structural unit in the grammar is the sentence.

The structure determines the order in which grammatical elements occur, and

they way they are related within a sentence.

Cohesive relationships with other sentences create a certain

linguistic environment, and the meaning of each sentence depends on it.

Various linguistic meanings help to identify whether a text can function

as a single meaningful unit or not.

This table illustrates the types of grammatical cohesion.

Reference is a way of creating cohesion using determiners this, that,

these, those, or pronouns him, them, me, possessive pronouns your, their, hers.

Relative pronouns, which, who, whose, this type of cohesion can also be achieved

comparatively with expressions like similarly, like, less.

Preferential cohesion plays a special role in creating cohesive ties

between the elements that can be difficult or

even impossible to interpret if a single sentence is taken out of context.

So what is quantum mechanics?

Even though it was discovered by physicist it's not a physical theory

in the same sense as electromagnetism or general relativity.

It is understood that it, in the second clause,

refers to the previous noun, quantum mechanics.

This kind of tie is called anaphoric.

Anaphoric reference points readers backwards to what is previously mentioned.

On the contrary, cataphoric reference looks forward in the text

in order to identify the elements the reference items to refer to.

Look at the sun, it's going down quickly.

It refers back to the sun.

It's going down quickly, the sun, it refers forwards to the sun.

There are three sub-types of referential cohesion,

personal, demonstrative and comparative.

The definite article is included into the sub-type of demonstratives.

Various types of referential cohesion enable writers to make

multiple references to things and people within a text.

Personal reference items are expressed through the three classes of personal

pronouns, possessive determiners and

possessive pronouns through the category of person.

Personal reference is used to identify individuals and things or

objects that are named at some other point in the text.

Alice wondered a little at this, but

she was too much in awe of the Queen to disbelieve it.

The third person singular pronoun, She refers back to Alice.

Demonstrative reference is expressed through determiners and adverbs.

This type of reference is achieved by means of location on a scale of proximity.

What is understood by proximity is nearness in place,

time, occurrence, or relation.

Demonstrative reference items can represent a single word or phrase and

they can range across several paragraphs.

We went to the opera last night.

That was our first outing for months.

That refers anaphorically to last night.

The definite article the is classified together with demonstratives and

possessives.

Historically, it is a reduced form of thought, the reference item,

the, usually accompanies a general noun in cohesive function.

Didn't anyone make it clear they expected the supervisor to resign?

They did.

But it seems to have made impression on the man.

From a grammatical point of view, the anaphoric the plus general noun

functions like an anaphoric reference item.

The man, him.

The definite article has no content and,

thus, it cannot specify anything on its own.

It serves to identify a particular individual or

subclass within the class design designated by the noun but

it does this only through dependents on something else.

The definite article creates a cohesive link between

the sentence in which it occurs and the referential information.

It does not contain that information in itself, and it does not say where

the information is located, its only function is to signal definiteness.

The third type of referential cohesion is comparative.

Comparative reference is expressed through adjectives and adverbs, and

serves to compare items within an attack in terms of identity or similarity.

Ellipsis, as well as a need for it because they're understood from the context, for

example, John can type and I can too.

We did not use type, because it's understood from the context.

I don't want to get out do you?

Want to get out.

Substitution uses a word/phrase to replace a word/phrase used earlier.

For instance, the ones,

one the same can be used to replace nouns I'll have the same.

Verbs can be replaced by do.

The authorities said that they had acted, but nobody believed that they had done.

In speaking, whole clauses can be replaced by so or not.

I hope so.

I don't think so.

I suppose that sooner or later the physicists will complete the catalogue

they have been compiling of the ultimate and Irreducible property of things.

When they do, the likes of spin, charm, and

charge will perhaps appear on that list.

Conjunction, it involves using transitional words and phrases.

Transitional words and

phrases help readers move from one sentence, paragraph, or idea to another.

Transitions also help to establish the relationship between parts

of the sentences and paragraphs or sections in a research publication.

Transitions, provide valuable signals to the reader

about the relationships between parts of the text.

There are different types of conjunction relations in terms of meaning.

Can be external and internal, additive, adversative, causal and temporal.

The simplest form of conjunctive relations can be expressed by the words and,

yet, so and then.

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