LEXICAL COHESION As well as tying a text through grammatical resources, vocabulary (or lexis) makes a text cohesive.

There lexical cohesion in words which are linked e.g. comparative and superlative forms such as less, higher, warmest, oldest, biggest. Other vocabulary relates to size and weight e.g. tiny, small, fully grown. There are a number of features to consider when examining the relationship between words in a text. These include: repetition, synonymy, antonymy, hyponomy and collocation. Repetition In a text you can see a word like hamster/s repeated four or more times. Can you identify any other examples of repetition in the texts that you usually read? Synonymy Synonymy concerns words that have a similar meaning. Words like small, tiny and little are synonyms. Can you identify any in the texts that you usually read? Antonymy These are words that have opposite meanings e.g. little and big. An example of antonymy is: And Mandy, 36, said he may be small, but hes a little character with a big attitude. Are there any in the texts that you usually read? Hyponomy The word creature may be seen as a superordinate term (or hyperonym), with a more general meaning, whilst rodent or hamster have more specific meanings which come under, or are subordinate to, creature. These subordinate terms are called hyponyms. So we can see hamster as a hyponym of rodent which in turn is a hyponym of creature. Collocation In addition to the features mentioned above, when we examine texts we find that words tend to be found in the company of other words, or to collocate. In some instances these relationships between words are highly predictable. For instance, daylight collocates with broad but not with wide; rich collocates with cake but not with tea; strong collocates with tea but not with cake. The way words relate to one another in a text adds to the cohesive force of the text.

Taken from: http://www.ite.org.uk/ite_topics/language_study_key_stages_2_3/004.html

TYPES OF LEXICAL RELATION

1. LEXICAL REPETITION a. Simple Lexical Repetition (henceforth, simple repetition) involves items which Hoey (1991) defined as formally identical (p. 55), i.e., items sharing the exact same form or the same morpheme with minimum alterations, such as those marking the plural form of a noun, or those marking the 3rd person singular, simple past, past participle or gerund forms of a verb. b. Complex Lexical Repetition (henceforth Complex Repetition) occurs either when two lexical items share a lexical morpheme, but are not formally identical (as defined in our discussion of simple repetition), or when they are formally identical, but have different grammatical functions (Hoey, 1991, p. 55). Simple Repetition [1] A drug known to produce violent reactions in humans has been used for sedating grizzly bears Ursus arctos in Montana, USA, according to a report in The New York Times. [3] Many wild bears have become garbage junkies, feeding from dumps around human developments. Complex Repetition [4] To avoid potentially dangerous clashes between them and humans, scientists are trying to rehabilitate the animals by drugging them and releasing them in uninhabited areas. [5] Although some biologists deny that the mind-altering drug was responsible for uncharacteristic behaviour of this particular bear, no research has been done into the effects of giving grizzly bears or other mammals repeated doses of phencyclidine.

2. SYNONYMY involves the repetition of the idea represented by a given lexical item, rather than its form. a. Simple Synonymy occurs whenever a lexical item may substitute for another in context without loss or gain in specificity and with no discernible change in meaning (Hoey, 1991, p. 62). Simple Synonymy [1] A drug known to produce violent reactions in humans has been used for sedating grizzly bears Ursus arctos in Montana, USA, according to a report in The New York Times. [4] To avoid potentially dangerous clashes between them and humans, scientists are trying to rehabilitate the animals by drugging them and releasing them in uninhabited areas.

b. Complex Synonymy involves synonyms which are not part of the same word class. Complex Synonymy [1] A drug known to produce violent reactions in humans has been used for sedating grizzly bears Ursus arctos in Montana, USA, according to a report in The New York Times. [2] After one bear, known to be a peaceable animal, killed and ate a camper in an unprovoked attack, scientists discovered it had been tranquillized 11 times with phencyclidine, or angel dust, which causes hallucinations and sometimes gives the user an irritational feeling of destructive power.

3. ANTONYMY a. Simple Antonymy involves the repetition of the concept of a given item by means of an antonymous term which is part of the same word class. Simple Antonymy [1] A drug known to produce violent reactions in humans has been used for sedating grizzly bears Ursus arctos in Montana, USA, according to a report in The New York Times. [2] After one bear, known to be a peaceable animal, killed and ate a camper in an unprovoked attack, scientists discovered it had been tranquillized 11 times with phencyclidine, or angel dust, which causes hallucinations and sometimes gives the user an irritational feeling of destructive power.

Note that Hoeys (1991) original analytical system does not include a separate antonymy category. In his taxonomy, antonyms formed by the addition of a prefix to the same morpheme as the items with which they form links are categorized as instances of Complex repetition. Examples offered by Hoey (op.cit) include happy unhappy, audible inaudible, and contented discontented, all of which would fall under the simple antonymy category in the present study (p. 64). Moreover, following Jones (2002), the term antonymy is here used in its broader sense, referring to any pair of words which could intuitively be recognized as opposites (p.1). Therefore, in this study, the antonymy category includes not only gradable pairs, such as cold/hot, but also non-gradable pairs, such as dead/alive, the latter being a category which certain linguists, including Lyons (1977) and Cruse (1986) have termed opposites.

b. Complex Antonymy involves antonymous terms which are part of different word classes. Complex Antonymy [2] After one bear, known to be a peaceable animal, killed and ate a camper in an unprovoked attack, scientists discovered it had been tranquillized 11 times with phencyclidine, or angel dust, which causes hallucinations and sometimes gives the user an irritational feeling of destructive power. [5] Although some biologists deny that the mind-altering drug was responsible for uncharacteristic behaviour of this particular bear, no research has been done into the effects of giving grizzly bears or other mammals repeated doses of phencyclidine.

4. SUPERORDINATE (OR HYPERONYMIC) AND HYPONYMIC REPETITION account for cases when two items are interpreted as having identical referents. These links occur when the items sharing the same referent are connected by a lexical relation of class membership. a. Superordinate Repetition involves a general term which may be said to designate a class of which the earlier item is a member. Superordinate (or Hyperonymic) Repetition [2] After one bear, known to be a peaceable animal, killed and ate a camper in an unprovoked attack, scientists discovered it had been tranquillized 11 times with phencyclidine, or angel dust, which causes hallucinations and sometimes gives the user an irritational feeling of destructive power. [5] Although some biologists deny that the mind-altering drug was responsible for uncharacteristic behaviour of this particular bear, no research has been done into the effects of giving grizzly bears or other mammals repeated doses of phencyclidine. b. Hyponymic repetition involves a specific term which may be said to be a member of, or included in, the class designated by the earlier item forming the link. The following is an example of a hyponymic repetition link: Hyponymic Repetition [4] To avoid potentially dangerous clashes between them and humans, scientists are trying to rehabilitate the animals by drugging them and releasing them in uninhabited areas. [5] Although some biologists deny that the mind-altering drug was responsible for uncharacteristic behaviour of this particular bear, no research has been done into the effects of giving grizzly bears or other mammals repeated doses of phencyclidine.

Taken from: http://w3.coh.arizona.edu/AWP/AWP14/AWP14%5BMacmillan%5D.pdf..

Lexical cohesion Identify examples of lexical cohesion in the following texts: Exercise 1 The clamour of complaint about teaching in higher education and, more especially, about teaching methods in universities and technical colleges, serves to direct attention away from the important reorientation which has recently begun. The complaints, of course, are not unjustified. In dealing piece-meal with problems arising from rapidly developing subject matter, many teachers have allowed courses to become over-crowded, or too specialized, or they have presented students with a number of apparently unrelated courses failing to stress common principles. Many, again, have not developed new teaching methods to deal adequately with larger numbers of students, and the new audio-visual techniques tend to remain in the province of relatively few enthusiasts despite their great potential for class and individual teaching. Exercise 2 When we look closely at a human face we are aware of many expressive details - the lines of the forehead, the wideness of the eyes, the curve of the lips, the jut of the chin. These elements combine to present us with a total facial expression which we use to interpret the mood of our companion. But we all know that people can 'put on a happy face' or deliberately adopt a sad face without feeling either happy or sad. Faces can lie, and sometimes can lie so well that it becomes hard to read the true emotions of their owners. But there is at least one facial signal that cannot easily be 'put on'. It is a small signal, and rather a subtle one, but because it tells the truth it is of special interest. It comes from the pupils and has to do with their size in relation to the amount of light that is falling upon them.