連貫理論在英文寫作中的應用

【Abstract】Writing is a process of forming a text that serves as a communication bridge between the writer and reader. Cohesion and coherence in writing a text provide the means for both writer and reader to communicate. How to apply the theory of coherence properly and how to direct our students in writing a coherent text are what we explore in this paper.

【Key words】Cohesion and coherence The theory of coherence Application English writing

【中圖分類號】G642 【文獻標識碼】A 【文章編號】1674-4810(2009)12-0029-03

1.Introduction

Writing is a process of forming a text that serves as a communication bridge between the writer and the reader. In this process， the writer’s prime concerns are to convey clearly what he encodes in writing， and the reader’s main task is to facilitate the message of the writer， or to decode it correctly and easily. To do this， both parties have to abide by “Game rules”， “Game rules” here means certain rules the writer uses by which to organize the true and pure forms and structure into a coherent whole regarding as a particular topic. For the reader they are rules by which to interpret the forms by reconstituting them. “Game Rules” give both writer and reader a shared linguistic knowledge or expectedness of content or form needed for communication.

However， this writing process constitutes an irksome and problematic activity in students’ learning English. During the process of English teaching， we find out the causes of learners’ writing problems. Among them， two major ones are presented as follows: the discontinuity of cohesion and the discontinuity of coherence. It is suggested that two factors are mainly responsible for these two discontinuities. One is “alternative uses of different registers” and the other is an “indirect approach” used by learners to develop their topics. Both of them cause the flow of discourse to stop and deviate from topics， which results in the fore mentioned discontinuities of cohesion and coherence. The main purpose of writing this paper is how to apply the theory of coherence and how to direct our students in English writing.

2.Cohesion and coherence in writing a text

Cohesion and coherence in writing a text provide the means for both writer and reader to communicate. So， writing a text well has to be both cohesive and coherent.

(1)Cohesion in writing a text

To achieve the objective of conveying the writers’ meaning， the writer has to avoid distracting the reader from his message by making it understood， which is to ensure continuity between one part of the text and another. The best way of achieving this is to use cohesion appropriately so that it holds segments of a text together， making it a semantic edifice， just as mortar does bricks or stone in a building. See the following passage.

A little boy called Mike went into the woods far away from his village one day. Mike was very pleased to see lovely small animals and birds. He was so busy watching this wonderful world that he didn’t notice an ugly wolf approaching him. The boy was too late to be aware of the danger and the wolf swallowed him.

From the above passage， we can see that as typical chain of lexis and reference——“A boy called Mike…Mike…He…The boy…him.”——runs through the whole passage， and holds individual clauses together and makes the whole story readable. The chain of lexis and reference is one of four main chains that serve the same function of holding the text together. The other three are the chains of ellipsis， of substitution， and of conjunction[2].

The above example shows， cohesion paves the way for coherence and both work together to facilitate interpretation of the text i.e.， it is “cohesive chains” that mainly provide coherence in writing a text.

(2)Coherence in writing a text

“All language needs a mean of linking one part to another in a text”[3]， or in other words， writers need to keep the message sequence clear. This is often referred to as coherence. Coherence is achieved through two aspects: Semantic and cohesive chains. e.g.

Alfred Nobel， the Swedish inventor and industrialist， was a man of contrasts. He was the son of a bankrupt， but became a millionaire; a scientist with as love of literature， an industrialist who managed to remain an idealist. He made a fortune but lived a simple life， and although cheerful in company he was often sad in private. He was a great figure with a conflicting character[4].

There are two cohesive chains in this passage. The first one is: “Alfred Nobel … He … He … He …” The second one is: “a man of contrasts … the son of a bankrupt but became a millionaire … made a fortune but lived a simple life … cheerful in company but sad in private.”

3.How to apply the theory of coherence in writing a coherent text

There are two main methods of achieving coherence in text writing: to use logical order properly and to use linking devices correctly.

(1)Logical order in forming a text

The logical order of passages or even a whole text is usually arranged in the following modes.

1)Time order

An author often organizes the materials and manages sentences according to time order in description of an event. Please compare the following two passages.

Tom goes through the same morning routine every weekday. He shaves， brushes his teeth， washes his face and dresses. He has breakfast and reads the morning newspaper. At six he is wakened by alarm clock and gets up. At seven thirty he says goodbye to his family and leaves for the office. He exercises deep-breathing in the garden for ten minutes.

The above passage shows that all the sentences are correct， but the time order is not correct， which makes the reader confused. If we arrange it in correct time order， this passage will be clear in semantic meaning.

Tom goes through the same morning routine every weekday. At six he is wakened by an alarm clock and gets up. Then he shaves， brushes his teeth， washes his face， and dresses. After that he exercises deep-breathing in the garden for ten minutes. Then he has breakfast and reads the morning newspaper. At seven thirty he says goodbye to his family and leaves for his office.

2)Space order

It is a usual way to use space order to arrange the sentences in forming all types of text. Just like building a house， what to do first and what to do next is determined by the design of the building， not by the imagination of the workers. Please compare the following two passages.

When Professor Smith returned to the college this fall， we noticed several changes in his appearance. Instead of shoes he wore leather sandals. His hair was combed forward over his forehead. His coats were brighter in color than they used to be. On his upper lip grew a small moustache. His has started wearing heavy eyeglasses with black frames. His trouser legs were narrower than they had been last year. Although he always wore dark neckties last year， now he wore striped bow ties every day.

The above passage is not a coherent one. The reader can’t understand what the writer really wanted to say. The sentences in the following passage are arranged in a top-down method.

When Professor Smith returned to the college this fall， we noticed several changes in his appearance. His hair was combed forward over his forehead. He had started wearing heavy eyeglasses with black frames. On his upper lip grew a small moustache. His coats were brighter in color than they used to be. Although he always wore dark neckties last year， now he wore striped bow ties every day. His trouser legs were narrower than they had been last year. Instead of shoes he wore leather scandals.

There are also two kinds of “orders” concerning with logical order——order of importance and general-to-specific/specific-to-general order， which are not to be introduced here.

(2)Linking devices

Besides the logical order mentioned above， to use linking devices correctly is an effective way to achieving coherence in writing a text. Linking devices include using pronoun， transitional words and expressions， using key word and related sentence pattern repeatedly.

4.How to direct students in writing a text

“Text is a semantic unit: a unit not of form but of meaning”[1]. Since it is a semantic unit， a text has semantic structure. This semantic unit， a text has semantic structure. This semantic structure is supported by means of cohesion. Without cohesion， there would be no coherence within a text and then the text would not be a text. In order to direct students in writing a text， we should find out where the problems are in students’ passage writing. The following are two examples.

Example 1:Here is a cartoon concerning praise. The picture shows a husband who is quite indifferent to her wife’s winning medal and how disappointed his wife is. It reflects people are often reluctant to give praise while we are eager to get it. In the picture， the husband even did not raise his eyes from a newspaper.

Example 2:Honesty is a very important part of one’s character. This character will affect you when you grow up. If you are an honest man， people can believe in you. When you are in difficulty， they will help you. And when you meet something which you can’t do， people are glad to help you， If you are honest， people will trust you and they will make friends with you. In a word， honest is a good character. It can bring you happiness.

From Example 1， we can see that the passage seems like a text but has no semantic connections between one part of the text and another——the first sentence is a description of the picture. Then comes a sentence of interpretation. Another sentence of description follows， and so on and on.

Example 2 shows that once the topic sentence. “Honesty is an important part of one’s character” is font， the theme “Honesty”， should govern the discourse that follows. It is a major target， presupposed by the whole text. Unfortunately， the learner didn’t choose the proper theme from the topic sentence as the theme for the next clause and so continue the decided topic. Instead he evaded the topic and used a wrong theme， “you”， which was irrelevant. Thus， the process of forming cohesive chains was broken， the semantic movement stopped and no semantic relationship between clauses was established.

As for coherence， semantic connections were non-existent as the topic， honesty， had the part following talking about what you should be like as a person. By indirect approach， the learner introduced other themes by using suppositions， examples and reminders that were irrelevant again. It was these that broke the cohesive chains of the text and brought about the discontinuity of both cohesion and coherence.

From the above examples， we can see that our students usually develop their topics by alternative uses of different registers (example1)and an indirect approach(example2)， which result in the discontinuity of both cohesion and coherence. Hence， Game of cohesion and coherence for both writer and reader to abide by has been violated. To write a coherent text， this violation has to be corrected. It has been suggested that many ways are proved valuable to achieving coherence in English writing. They are: ①enrich the students’background knowledge.②analyze the structure of the text for the students.③raise the students’awareness of learning to write.④compare various styles of writing. By using these methods， learners are compelled to consciously recognize the problems involved in discourse writing， which， in turn， may help them become aware of what is needed to write good compositions.

5.Conclusion

The “alternative uses of different registers” and “indirect approach” are not English ways of writing. English learners should establish proper cohesive chains on which the coherence is based. There are many ways to achieving coherence in English writing. Besides the methods mentioned above， to use logical order and linking devices properly are also good ways to write a coherent text.

References

[1]Halliday， M. A. K. R. Hasan. Cohesion in English[M]. London: Longman， 1976

[2]Halliday， M. A. K. An Introduction to Functional Grammar(Second edition)[M]. London: Arnold， 1994:334～339

[3] Halliday R. Hasan. Language， Text and Context[M]. Geelong. Vic.: Deakin University， 1985:48

[4]董亞芬總主編.大學英語精讀(第二冊).上海:上海教育出版社，1997:100