Discourse Cohesion and Coherence in Sonnet 18

【Abstract】Cohesion is significant to the coherence of a discourse. In this paper， were going to analyze the cohesive devices of the poem Sonner 18， and see how cohesion affecting coherence.

【Key words】Cohesion； coherence； the Sonnet 18

【作者簡介】鄧玉梅，西華師范大學。

1. Introduction

The publishing of Cohesion in English， written by Halliday and Hasan（1976）， has marked the foundation of cohesion theory. Widdowson （1978） has proposed the coherence concept， which makes cohesion and coherence as two relative concepts. And Professor Hu Zhuanglin， mentioned phonology as a kind of cohesion device （1994）. He has supplemented intonation and sound pattern into the theory of cohesion and coherence， further widened the study range of cohesion.

2. Grammatical Cohesion

2.1Endophora and Exophora

Endophora relies on the information within the discourse. And Exophora exists within the context but outside the discourse.

As for the exophora， it has personal reference and demonstrative reference. In the beginning of this poetry：

Shall I compare thee to a summers day？ Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May. And summers lease hath all too short a date.

The first personal pronoun “I” doesnt appear in the previous verse， but readers can infer that it means the author himself. The narration of first-person perspective pushes author and readers together， leaving the readers in his situation. The first things that happen in this poem， like “the summers day”， “the darling buds” and “the eye of heaven”， are all modified by “the” and certainly， they are all the exophora. It shows that both the author and reader are familiar with these things. It has achieved the coherence of semantic logic by applying exophora.

2.2 Conjunction

In Sonnet 18， the author often uses conjunctions as the semantic bonds between sentences. Such as， “And summers lease hath all too short a date.” Here， “And” shows the progressive relationship between this sentence and the previous one. At first， rough winds shake the darling buds， and then the summer will soon fade away. Authors emotions has been gradually stimulated， he feels more regretful， helpless and sorry.

3. Lexical Cohesion

3.1 Synonym

The first verse of this poetry， the author uses this group of synonyms “lovely” and “temperate” to describe the beauty of his friend. Through comparing with the summers day， the author obviously presents his praise for the eternal beauty of “thee”. Even the fabulous and brilliant summers day cant compare with him.

In the second verse， the word “declines”， “untrimmed” are another group of synonym， the author is upset because every beautiful thing will decline as time pass by， and every beauty is accidentally or naturally stripped off. The beautiful things will always fade away someday.

3.2 Antonym

In the second verse， “shines” and “dimmed” is a group of antonym. Sometimes the sun is too hot in the summer， and sometimes its cloudy. Furthermore， the sun may be radiant and splendid but it can be hidden by the clouds， or it will eventually go down.

4. Phonological Cohesion

4.1 Meter of the Poem

The Sonnet 18 is a poem of 14 lines， which encompasses three quatrains （a four-line stanza） and a couplet （a pair of rhymed lines）. It is known as the iambic pentameter with various rhyming schemes. Every line has five meters， so together， ten feet. We can divide the first line of the poem like this： Shall I / compare / thee to / a sum / mers day？ This partitioning method will make the poem more grateful and catchy.

4.2 Rhythm of the Poem

Rhythm refers to the likeness of the ending sounds of the poetic lines. In Sonnet 18， the rhyme scheme is abab cdcd efef gg. For instance， the first stanza， “ay” as “ a”， “ate” as “ b”， so “day”， “ate”， “may” and “date” forms “abab”. The second and third stanzas are the same. The last stanza is “gg”， like “see” and “thee” in the last word of the lines.

5. Conclusion

Through analyzing this poetry， We have learned altogether three cohesions——grammatical cohesion， lexical cohesion and phonological cohesion. Each kind of cohesion has its unique function to coherence. With these cohesions using properly， you are of a high possibility to write excellent articles.

References：

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