An Analysis on a Piece of BBC News through the Reference of Cohesion

1. Background knowledge

Cohesion is defined as a set of nonstructural resources for building up additional relations within the discourse which beyond grammatical structure （Holliday， 1985）. According to Holliday （1985）， cohesion can be divided into four categories， conjunction， ellipsis and substitution， reference as well as lexical cohesion. Reference refers to “a participant or circumstantial element introduced at one place in the text can be taken as a reference point for something that follows.” （Holliday， 1985）. In other words， this means the same thing appear over and over again within a text， or in some cases this kind of resources provide as a basis （relationship） for contrast. An analysis of a BBC news will mainly be addressed on the aspect of reference.

2. Analysis

Reference resources in English include pronouns （I， you， we， me， she， her， hers， he， him， his， it， its， they， them， theirs， their）， demonstratives （this/these， that/those， here /now， there /then， it）， the article （the， a， an） and comparatives like similar， the same， different， differently， equally， more， such， another. （Holliday， 1985）

These reference resources can be classified into three types according to its functions of connecting a text； they are anaphoric references， cataphoric references and exophoric references （Holliday， 1985）. Anaphoric reference refers to the reference which can be identified by looking back in the text （Holliday， 1985）. cataphoric reference is the reference which can be confirmed by looking forward in the text （Holliday， 1985）. Cataphoric reference is a good resource for drawing the readers attention. Exophoric reference can be seen “as a means of linking ‘outwards to some person or object in the environment （Holliday， 1985）. In other words， exophoric reference can be detected through outward of the text. For examples，

An artist has celebrated his 99th birthday by opening his first solo exhibition.

Robert MacFarlane is said to be a rising star in the painting classes held at his nursing home in Wrexham.

There are three references in the first sentence， they are the article an and pronouns his…his. It can be seen clearly from the first sentence that his 99th birthday and his first solo exhibition are both belong to the artist. That is， the two pronouns his…his can be confirmed by looking back in the sentence. Likewise his in the second sentence also can link back to the pronoun Robert MacFarlane. These references are anaphoric references.

However because the article an locates at the beginning of the sentence， it cannot be trace back. Therefore， the readers must read on and find more information about the artist. The identification of an artist can be discovered at the start of the second sentence， it is the pronoun Robret MacFarlane. The article an make a connection between the first and the second sentence.

In the second sentence， besides his， there is another reference， the article the. Its linker cannot be detected by looking forward or backward. However， from the phrase “held at his nursing home” in later part of the sentence， it can be conclude that the painting classes the author means is the classes opened by Robert MacFarlanes nursing home. The author here want to share the common information which outside the text with the readers. In other words， he assumed that the reader must known the painting house he referred is the house in the artists nursing home. Therefore he didnt arrange any connecters before of after the in the text. Holliday called this kind of reference as exophoric reference.

Simply speaking， anaphoric reference his…his connecting the former part of the first sentence， likewise his in sentence two. Cataphoric reference an linking the first sentence to the second sentence. And the article the connecting the information of the reader to the environment of this news.

It can be seen from the appendix that in the following six paragraph， the information mostly connected by the personal references which are identified with the artist， Mr. MacFarlane. In other words， the main ideas the writer expressed in the first eight paragraphs are related to the artist Mr. Robert MacFarlane. Besides this chain there is another reference strings which can be track back to the word “painting”. That is， the actions of Mr. MacFarlane should be having some relationship with painting.

However， from the eighth to fourteenth paragraph， the personal reference transferred from Mr. MacFarlane to his tutor Sarah Edwards three times. For example，

His tutor is Sarah Edwards， the artist-in- residence at home.

She said： “art in health is becoming more popular these days but we were the first in Wales and the second in the UK to do these things”

Anaphoric reference she connecting these two paragraphs. It can seen obviously that half of the references in these two paragraphs are exophric references， that is， the artist-in-residence， these days， the first， the second， the UK. From the context of this news， Mr. MacFarlane is an artist and he joined the painting classes in his nursing home， and Sarah is his tutor， therefore， it is can simply be concluded that Sarah is one of the artist in the nursing home. “These days” refers the period of time at which building art in health center is more popular that before. The first， here means they are the first constitution which open art classes in nursing house in Wales and second one in the UK. The UK refers to the United Kingdom we lived in. It can be infer that the appearance of such exophoric reference means that the writer want to share some information with the readers in common. The reason why the writer does this is because he wants to insert some old information to the new information and make the reader feel not unease when transfer from one context they have already familiar to another. This kind of strategy also can be detected during the following two transitions between Mr. MacFarlane and his tutor， Sarah.

However， in the last paragraph，

She added： “As you would imagine， Robert is a very accomplished draughtsman and very good at watercolour and colour.

Mr. MacFarlanes Exhibition will run for several months and is open to anyone who contacts the nursing home to arrange a visit. （last paragraph）

there is only one reference， that is， the article the； And this reference can be treat as anaphoric and exophoric reference， because it either can be trace back to the former context or can be seen as a shared information between the writer and the reader. The intention of the writer who uses such expression here may be just want to emphasizing the place and event again.

3. Conclusion

In conclusion， from reference aspect， this article is connected by the personal reference chains of the artist， Mr. MacFarlane and reference string of his tutor， Sarah. Therefore all the actions in the text should be preceded around these two persons； and because Mr. MacFarlane personal reference chain much longer that Sarahs， the main role of this text should be Mr. MacFarlane. And a group of reference in the text which can be track back to the word painting appeared only with the reference chain of the artist. Therefore， it can be infer that the artist， Mr. MacFarlane activities must have close relationship with painting. This coherent relationship just identified with the topic of this BBC new. Therefore， this text is closely coherent with the reference. And for the transition part between Mr. MacFarlane and his tutor， the author also use many exophoric references to make the reader feel comfortable for new information entering and also， at the same time make the context coherent. However， there is a limitation need to be mentioned. That is， although the writer presupposed to share information in common with all the readers， there may be have some difficulties for the people who are not native English speakers or cannot familiar the cultural background of English.

References：

[1]Halliday，M.A.K.（1985）.An Introduction of Functional Grammar.London：Edward Arnold.

Appendix

‘Old master shows art， aged 99

Para.1 An artist has celebrated his 99th birthday by opening his first solo exhibition.

Para.2 Robert MacFarlane is said to be a rising star in the painting classes held at his nursing home in Wrexham.

Para.3 The former council architect， who was born in Perthshire and moved to Wrexham in 1935， has had a lifelong interest in painting and works in water colours.

Para.4 Mr MacFarlane said： “Painting has given me great pleasure and it helped me to settle down here.”

Para.5 He took lessons after moving into the nursing home， Pendine Park， just over a year ago， after undergoing a major operation.

Para.6 He said： “I started off painting birds because Im very keen on birds - I think I painted every bird there is and then we branched out. Ive painted lots of things， including buildings.

Para.7 “I was a member of the Ruthin Art Club and I exhibited with them. I sold quite a lot.”

Para.8 His tutor is Sarah Edwards， the artist-in-residence at the home.

Para.9 She said： “Art in health is becoming more popular these days but we were the first in Wales and the second in the UK to do this kind of thing.

Para.10 “I think it gives the residents a focus away from their illness， it provides escapism and creativity - and something different.

Para.11 “Robert was quite apprehensive about coming here but when he found out there was an artist here and that I would take him out to exhibitions， he settled.”

Para.12 She said the pair visit Tate in Liverpool， the Lady Lever Gallery and the Lowry Gallery in Salford.

Para.13 She added： “As you would imagine， Robert is a very accomplished draughtsman and very good at watercolour and colour.”

Para.14 Mr MacFarlanes exhibition will run for several months and is open to anyone who contacts the nursing home to arrange a visit.

【作者簡介】潘春，魯迅美術學院大連校區。