Cohesion and Coherence in Discourse Extracted from Clinton’s Testimony to the Grand Jury

鄭偉

【Abstract】Cohesion and coherence are two important terms in discourse analysis. This paper deals with cohesion and coherence in a discourse extracted from Clinton's Testimony to the Grand Jury. The paper falls into four parts： the background knowledge of president Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky； the theoretical foundation—definitions of cohesion and coherence； the application of cohesion and coherence in the extracted discourse and a summary of the findings.

【Key words】Cohesion； Cohesive Device； Coherence； Clinton

I. Background Knowledge

In 1998， Bill Clinton， the former president of America was reported to have some sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky， the former White house intern. On 9 December 1998， the House Judiciary Committee proposed four articles of impeachment against the president. Ten days later - after a bitter debate between republicans and democrats - the House of Representatives voted to confirm the recommendation. President Clinton was forced to defend previous statements about his affair with Miss Lewinsky by quibbling over the precise definition of his words. Clintons impeachment trial lasted from January 7th 1999 to February 12th 1999.

II. Theoretical Foundation

Referring to the definition of cohesion， Halliday and Hasan's work Cohesion in English （1976） defines cohesion as “set of semantic configuration which is systematically connected with a particular type of context of situation”. Halliday and Hasan's system distinguishes five cohesive devices： reference， substitution， ellipsis， conjunction and lexical ties. In the book Cohesion in English， Halliday and Hasan defines coherence as an attribute which makes a text different from a pile of sentences randomly put together expressing no meaning.

Most scholars accept this point of view that cohesion lies in the surface structure of the text， whereas coherence refers to the connectivity of underlying content.

III. Analysis and Discussion

Most of the sentences in the discourse involve the application of cohesion and coherence. It is known that cohesion is mainly realized with the help of cohesive devices. So we will analyze the discourse from the point view of cohesive devices.

Reference occurs more than 40 times here. We will illustrate it in detail through the following example. Example： The statement that “there is no sex of any kind， in any manner...was an utterly false statement. Is that correct？” In this example， the word “that” in the last sentence is a demonstrative which refers to the statement narrated in the former sentence.

Substitution occurs only once in this discourse. In the sentence “But I was determined to walk through the minefield of this deposition without violating the law and I believe I did”， the word “did” is used to substitute the phrases “walked through the minefield of this deposition without violating the law”.

Ellipsis also occurs once in this discourse. In the sentence “You were asked on page 75...And you answer I don't recall”， the speaker omitted the object of the verb “recall”， which avoids excessive repetition.

Conjunction occurs many times in the discourse. In the sentence “If ‘is means ‘is and never has been...”， the coordinating conjunction “and” connects “is” and “never has been”.

Reiteration occurs four times in this discourse， which are all presented in the form of repetition. For example， in sentences “I deplored what they were doing. I deplored the innocent...I deplored their...I deplored the fact...I deplored it”.

Now， we will discuss its coherence. Coherence is the feeling that a text hangs together， that it makes sense， and is not just a jumble of sentences. This discourse is extracted from Clinton's Testimony to the Grand Jury， whenever questioned by the prosecutor， Clinton always defended previous statements about his affair with Miss Lewinsky by quibbling over the precise definition of his words. So the text is semantic cohesive， namely coherent.

IV. Conclusion

In this paper， we have been trying to discuss the discourse extracted from Clinton's Testimony to the Grand Jury from the perspective of cohesion and coherence. Cohesion refers to the use of cohesive devices for the purpose of connecting text surface signal. The application of the cohesive devices not only plays a variety of functions but also contributes greatly to the coherence of the text. Such cohesive ties run throughout the whole text， establishing short and long distance relations and establishing coherence.

References：

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

[2]Renkema，J.（2009）.Introduction to Discourse Analysis.Shanghai： Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.

[3]Reinhart，T.（1980）.Conditions for text coherence.Poetic Today.

[4]曹春春，宋瑋，楊彬.語篇分析[M].山東大學出版社，2003.