El lenguaje escrito posee su propia complejidad, debido a que cada uno de sus elementos se une para formar un todo. Por ende, el conocer algunas de sus características podría facilitar el proceso de interpretación de manera efectiva. Para un maestro de idiomas, el conocimiento de los elementos del lenguaje escrito en cuestión de la Cohesión Gramátical y la Cohesión Léxica, podrían ser de gran ayuda para mejorar el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje de la lectura y escritura.
Palabras clave: Lenguaje escrito, elementos, enseñanza-aprendizaje.
Written discourse possesses its own complexity, due to the fact that each of its elements joins to provide an overall. Thus, being aware of some of its features might ease the process of interpreting it effectively. For a language teacher, the awareness of the elements of written discourse in regards to the Grammatical and Lexical Cohesion might also be helpful to improve the teaching learning process of reading and writing.
Keywords: Written discourse, elements, teaching-learning, communication
The following assignment is focused on the analysis of a written text and is presented as it follows:
To begin with, the text selected for the analysis was Mary Shelley’s first chapter of “Frankenstein”. Only the first six paragraphs were used to be analyzed.
I am by birth a Genevese, and my family is one of the most distinguished of that republic. My ancestors had been counselors and syndics for many years; and my father had filled several public situations with honor and reputation. He was respected by all who knew him for his integrity and indefatigable attention to public businesses. He passed his younger days perpetually occupied by the affairs of his country. A variety of circumstances had not prevented his marriage early, nor was it until the decline of life that he became a husband and a father of a family.
As the circumstances of his marriage illustrate his character, I cannot refrain from relating them. One of his most intimate friends was a merchant, who, from a flourishing state, fell, through numerous mischances, into poverty. This man, whose name was Beaufort, was of a proud and unbending disposition, and could not bear to live in poverty and oblivion in the same country where he had formerly been distinguished for his rank and magnificence,. Having paid his debts, therefore, in the most honorable manner, he retreated with his daughter to the town of Lucerne, where he lived unknown and in wretchedness. My father loved Beaufort with the truest friendship, and was deeply grieved by his retreat in these unfortunate circumstances. He bitterly deplored the false pride which led his friend to a conduct so little worthy of the affection that united them. He lost no time in endeavoring to seek him out, with the hope of persuading him to begin the world again through his credit and assistance.
Beaufort had taken effectual measures to conceal himself, and it was ten months before my father discovered his abode. Overjoyed at this discovery, he hastened to the house, which was situated in a mean street, near the Reuss. But when he entered, misery and despair alone welcomed him. Beaufort had saved but a very small sum of money from the wreck of his fortunes; but it was sufficient to provide him with sustenance for some months, and in the meantime he hoped to procure some respectable employment in a merchant's house. The interval was, consequently, spent in inaction; his grief only became more deep and rankling when he had leisure for reflection; and at length it took so fast hold of his mind that at the end of three months he lay on a bed of sickness, incapable of any exertion.
His daughter attended him with the greatest tenderness; but she saw with despair that their little fund was rapidly decreasing, and that there was no other prospect of support. But Caroline Beaufort possessed a mind of an uncommon mould; and her courage rose to support her in her adversity. She procured plain work; she plaited straw; and by various means contrived to earn a pittance scarcely sufficient to support life.
Several months passed in this manner. Her father grew worse; her time was more entirely occupied in attending him; her means of subsistence decreased; and in the tenth month her father died in her arms, leaving her an orphan and a beggar. This last blow overcame her; and she knelt by Beaufort's coffin, weeping bitterly, when my father entered the chamber. He came like a protecting spirit to the poor girl, who committed herself to his care; and after the interment of his friend, he conducted her to Geneva, and placed her under the protection of a relation. Two years after this event Caroline became his wife.
What this text does is introducing some background information about the main character whose name is not revealed yet. The main character is the narrator of the story, and what he does is provide the readers a context where he described in detailed the sequence of events that made possible his parents’ marriage. So far, would be the author’s intention, which is setting a context where certain circumstances lead to the upcoming situation.
In addition, the audience of this text is directed to young and older people because of the range of vocabulary that it possesses. That audience would have the vocabulary and reading strategies needed to infer the content of the story.
Due to the type of content these paragraphs have, the text type is narrative. Its genre would be considered as recounting. According to Maxim (2011), the text has the following characteristics which place it in this specific genre:
Hence the text describes events with a specific sequence of time, it can be said that the pattern is chronological. According to Imperial (2011), “in this pattern, ideas are presented in the order in which they occurred in time” (p. 13). Inner the text the sequence of events is presented as it occurs. They are not mingled, but have a logical sequence provided by this type of pattern used by the author.
In relation to the macro structures of the text it can be said that GE stands for General Statement, SS Specific Statement number and EMS Even more specific statement.
Paragraph 1 |
|
Paragraph 2 |
|
Paragraph 3 |
|
Paragraph 4 |
|
Paragraph 5 |
|
What was identified in this section is that the text always introduces a General Statement, and then some specific statements or even more specific statements. The reason must be because everything within the text has to be coherent and connected with what was previously said, so the reader does not get lost while he/she reads.
In order to be understood when writing and speaking, people rely on certain devices that can help them to avoid repetition. They are known as grammatical cohesion devices. Among them exist: references, ellipsis, substitution, conjunction, tense and aspect, theme and rhyme. However, within this text the following were elements were identified.
Reference can be defined as a word that is associated with something from the text. It can be divided among two big branches according to McCarthy (1991) exaphoric and endophoric reference. The first one is related to the association made outside the text. The other one appears when the association is inner the text. Within the text selected only endophoric references were identified.
In addition, endophoric references can be divided in two, which according to McCarthy consists mainly on anaphoric reference and cataphoric reference. The anaphoric reference forces the reader to look back at the text with the purpose of recognize to who or what the word is making reference to. In the text was identified by the blue color. Whereas the cataphoric reference engages the reader in such a way that readers have to read all to find out to whom or what the word is making reference to. In the text it was identified by the color green.
Ellipsis occurs when an element is excluded. This one could be grammatically necessary: however, it is assumed by the writer that like it forms part of a shared context, then is not necessary to state that element. There are three types of ellipsis stated by McCarthy (1991), nominal, verbal and clausal, but the one identified in the text was nominal. A nominal ellipsis consists of the omission of a noun of a headword and it was identified in the text through this symbol ^.
Conjunctions are words that allow the creation of relationships among texts. According to Blankenstjin (2003), they are divided in categories based on the purpose they suit.
Tense refers to the time when an action takes place. The action can occur in one of three time periods: past, present or future (McCarthy, 1991). Due to the fact that the text relates a series of events that occurred at a certain point in the past, this was identified with purple color. Nevertheless, the narration part is in present and was identified with yellow color.
The aspect has to do with the time when the action of the verb occurs either across or between those periods. McCarthy divides them in:
In the text, the presented actions were concluded at the moment of speaking so their aspect could be considered perfect.
The following chart has the name of the grammatical device and the color used within the text for its identification.
Anaphoric Reference |
Color |
Cataphoric Reference |
color |
Ellipsis |
^ |
Additive Conjunction |
color |
Adversative Conjunction |
color |
Casual Conjunction |
color |
Present Tense |
color |
Past Tense |
color |
I am by birth a Genevese, and my family is one of the most distinguished of that republic. My ancestors had been for many years counselors and syndics; and my father had filled several public situations with honor and reputation. He was respected by all who knew him for his integrity and indefatigable attention to public businesses. He passed his younger days perpetually occupied by the affairs of his country. A variety of circumstances had prevented his marrying early, nor was it until the decline of life that he became a husband and a father of a family.
As the circumstances of his marriage illustrate his character, I cannot refraina from relating them. One of his most intimate friends was a merchant, who, from a flourishing state, fell, through numerous mischances, into poverty. This man, whose name was Beaufort, was of a proud and unbending disposition, and ^ could not bear to live in poverty and oblivion in the same country where he had formerly been distinguished for his rank and magnificence. Having paid his debts, therefore, in the most honorable manner, he retreated with his daughter to the town of Lucerne, where he lived unknown and in wretchedness. My father loved Beaufort with the truest friendship, and was deeply grieved by his retreat in these unfortunate circumstances. He bitterly deplored the false pride which led his friend to a conduct so little worthy of the affection that united them. He lost no time in endeavoring to seek him out, with the hope of persuading him to begin the world again through his credit and assistance.
According to McCarthy (2011), lexical cohesion can be defined as:
to mean only exact repetition of words and the role played by certain basic semantic relations between words in creating textuality, that property of text which distinguishes it from a random sequence of unconnected sentences (p. 65).
In other words, each word carries out a meaning and has a role within texts, they cannot be isolated. They have a purpose that establishes relationships among them in order to create meaning. Among lexical cohesion there are some devices that can help to create what was mentioned before and they are: repetition, synonyms, antonyms, hyponyms, hipernyms, and meronyms. The ones found in the text were:
Repetition is defined as the placement of the exact same word within the text (McCarthy, 1991). When this happens is because there is not another word that carries out the same connotation, and because of that the word is repeated. In the text all the repeated words were marked with blue.
Synonym is defined as “one word of two or more words or expressions of the same language that have the same or nearly the same meaning in all senses (Merriam Webster, 2011). This means that their connotation can be almost the same or similar. In the text all the synonyms were identified with green.
cIt is the opposite to synonyms, and can be defined as words that have the opposite meaning in relation with others in all senses (Merriam Webster Dictionary Online. 2011). Within the text, all the antonyms were identified with red color.
McCarthy (1991) points out that a hyponym can be defined as a general word, while a hyponym would be a super ordinate from that general word. This means that hyponym is wider and might be very general even it can be like a category, but hyponym is like very specific, but within the general category. For instance, the word work, considered from an isolated perspective would be very general. However, the text mentions something about plain work which is a very specific type of work.
The following chart has the name of the lexical device and the color that eases its identification and each of the synonyms and antonyms are numbered.
Synonyms |
Color |
Hyponyms and Hypernyms |
_________ |
Repetition |
color |
Antonyms |
color |
Beaufort had taken effectual measures to conceal himself; and it was ten months (1) before my father discovered his abode. Overjoyed (1) at this discovery, he hastened (1) to the house, which was situated in a mean street, near the Reuss. But when he entered, misery (2) and despair (2) alone welcomed him. Beaufort had saved but a very small sum of money (2) from the wreck of his fortunes (2); but it was sufficient (3) to provide him with sustenance for some months (1), and in the meantime he hoped to procure some respectable (3) employment (3) in a merchant's house. The interval was, consequently, spent in inaction; his grief (1) only became more deep and rankling when he had leisure for reflection; and at length it took so fast (1) hold of his mind (4) that at the end of three months he lay on a bed of sickness, incapable of any exertion.
His daughter attended him with the greatest tenderness; but she saw with despair (2) that their little fund (2) was rapidly (1) decreasing, and that there was no other prospect of support (5). But Caroline Beaufort possessed a mind (4) of an uncommon mould; and her courage rose to support her in her adversity. She procured plain (3) work (3); she plaited straw; and by various means contrived to earn a pittance scarcely sufficient (3) to support (5) life.
What the text possesses the most are grammatical cohesive devices because the author uses them frequently. Specially, anaphoric references were the most used in the form of pronouns. She also uses one single cataphoric reference, but is the one that keeps readers engaged to find out the name of the narrator.
Regarding, conjunctions, the additive ones are the most seen throughout the text. The author barely uses time conjunctions, but he sequence provided is logical and organized. There is also a clear distinction of present and past events. In relation to the use of ellipsis, they are not as used as reference devices; however, substitution and exophoric references were not found.
In regards to lexical cohesion, the author used repetition, synonyms, antonyms and one example of hyponyms and hypernyms, but not about meronyms. The use of a preferred grammatical or lexical cohesive device perhaps has to do with the author’s writing style.
The importance of being aware of the grammatical and cohesive devices can contribute to the improvement of reading and writing skills. Hence, analyzing a text can tell what the type of cohesive devices used mostly and the ones that need to be worked on to build up coherence when writing and ease comprehension when reading.
Blankenstjin, C. (2003) The ability to Transmit Relevant Information: Use of Cohesive Devices. Taken from http://dare.uva.nl/document/202691. Retrieved on November 15th, 2011.
Imperial, J. (n/d). Recognizing Text Patterns of Organization. Taken from http://itmsmustangs.com/.../expedition_8_-_feb_7.recogni...202691. Retrieved on November 15th, 2011.
McCarthy, M. (1991). Discourse Analysis for Teachers. Cambridge: CUP.
Maxim, H. (2011). Genre. Taken from
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com. Retrieved on November 15th, 2011.
Meriam Webster Dictionary Online (2011). Antonym. Retrieved on November 15th, 2011.
Wollstonecraft Mary Shelley. (1818) Frankenstein: or, the Modern Prometheus. V1. London. e-book edition http://www.polyglotproject.com/books/English/frankenstein
[a] Estudiante de la Licenciatura en Enseñanza de la Lengua Inglesa, Área Académica de Lingüística, Instituto de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, UAEH.
[b] Profesor investigador del Área Académica de Lingüística, Instituto de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, UAEH.