DISCOURSE ANALYSIS : LEXICAL COHESION

 LEXICAL COHESION

Lexical cohesion refers to the lexical relation used in a text. Three main types of lexical cohesion : repetition, systematic semantic relations, and non-systematic semantic relations : synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy, hyperonymy, meronymy, holonymy, co-hyponymy, co-meronymy. And in the non-systematic semantic relations : collocation relation.

a.       Repetition

Repetition is a word reduplication. It includes inflection and derivation.

Example : do – does – did – doing

 

b.      Systematic smantic relations

·         Synonymy

A similarity of meaning among words.

Example : leave – depart, happy – pleased

 

·         Antonymy

A set of lexical items which are contrasting meaning

Example : leave – arrive

 

·         Hyponymy

One word represent “ a class of thing and the second either a subclass, or another class at the same level” (general items)

Example : novel, comic, magazine – book

 

·         Hyperonymy

One word represent  “a subclass or another class at the same level of thing and the second is class of thing” (general items)

Example : flower – rose, jasmine

 

·         Meronymy

A word that refers to parts of a whole (whole items)

Example : trunk, branch, leaf – tree

 

·         Holonymy

A word that refer to whole to the part item (whole items)

Example : tree – trunk, branch, leaf

·         Co-hyponymy

Two specific items which share/ part a common general item

 

·         Co-meronymy

Two items which are parts of members of the same item

 

Example :

Solar system : sun as a star; venus, earth, mercury as instances of the 8 planets

Venus and mercury being planets are co-hyponymy.

Earth as a planet and the sun as a star are members of the solar system thus co-meronymy

 

c.       Non-systematic relations

·         Collocation

Collocation refers to the tendency of words to co-occur.

 

For example, when one sees the noun pipe  in a sentence, it is more probable that the verb to smoke will also appear in the sentence. In another example, the noun bicycle  could more likely occur with the verb to ride  than any random verb.

 

Note :

 

Noun + Noun

Adjective + Noun

Adjective + Preposition

Verb + Adjective

Noun + Verb

Verb + Preposition  => take off, turn off

Verb = Noun