Essay On Cohesion

Cohesion is the lexical and grammatical linking of text or sentences that holds the text together and gives it meaning. The concept of cohesion is a semantic one; it refers to relations of meaning that exists within the text and that defines it as a text. Cohesion in a text creates coherence. Coherence is a state or situation in which all the parts or ideas fit together well so that they form a unified whole .However, cohesion in a text does not occur spontaneously, it is achieved through the use of cohesive devices. These devices sometimes called linking words, linkers, connectors, discourse markers or transitional words are words or phrases that show the relationship between paragraphs or sections of a text or speech. This essay will therefore explore cohesive devices used in the article “How to photograph the Solar Eclipse by Alan Dyre.

The first cohesive device to be identified in the article is the use of “this” to refer back to the staring in the first sentence. Reference involves the use of pronouns articles or adverbs to refer back or forward to items already mentioned in the linguistic or situational text (mokran 2010).The referent cohesive device “this” in the first sentence is therefore known as anaphoric reference. Anaphoric reference is the reference that precedes the cohesive device;

Reiteration occurs when two items that share the same referent are repeated or share the same meanings in a text. The forms of reiteration that can be seen in the article are synonyms and repetition. Verbs like “sun, sunlight and solar are synonyms because they have similar meanings. And “stare and “view” are also synonyms because they both mean to look at something. Another form of reiteration in the article is repetition. Repetition is the restatement of the same lexical items. In the article, “sun” and “eye-blink” reflex has been repeated for