The flesh and the bones of cohesive devices: towards a comprehensive model

Abstract

Building on a 1976 model of cohesive devices, this article probes the literature on these linguistic tools with the aim of generating a comprehensive model of cohesion that can be used as an instrument for textual analysis across different text types. This article addresses two main questions: (1) what are the linguistic tools that can be incorporated into the 1976-model of cohesive devices in the creation of an operational model? and (2) what would such a comprehensive model of cohesive devices look like? The contributions of various scholars are examined to determine which elements might be considered as cohesive devices, apart from those introduced in the 1976 model. For almost all the categories within the lexico-grammar taxonomy presented in 1976, more elements are found that can play various cohesive roles in texts and that can be integrated into the 1976 model to form a more all-embracing one. To further illustrate this claim, examples from English and Arabic are used to present a new model of analysis applicable to various languages.

The Analysis of Cohesive Devices used by Tertiary English Students in Writing English paragraphs

“…As regards substitution, they were confused about using correct substitutions and misunderstood the usages of substitutions. Substitutions are one of the patterns of native English ways in writing (Abu-Ayyash & McKenny, 2017). For Indonesian students who use English as a foreign language, using substitutions is of course challenging because their mental language is constructed from a combination between Indonesian and English mental languages.…”

“…Cohesion means "unity" (Manser & McGauran, 2003). In this case, cohesion refers to the unity of meanings within a text or discourse (Abu-Ayyash & McKenny, 2017). Cohesion is categorized as an element of discourse, wherein discourse itself refers to the biggest umbrella context of on-going written communication (Ahmed, 2010).…”

“…Therefore, in a paragraph writing process, students should express their ideas, and continuously write down all of their constructed ideas across writing elements including word choices, grammatical sentences, and punctuation in a proper way. Last but not least, the other aspect that should also be mastered by the students in order to write a good paragraph is cohesive devices (Abu-Ayyash & McKenny, 2017).…”