A STUDY ON THE USE OF GRAMMATICAL COHESION IN THE SHORT STORY “ALL GOLD CANYON BY JACK LONDON FROM SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR PERSPECTIVE

iii ABSTRACT This study aims to find out grammatical cohesion in the story "All Gold Canyon" by Jack London basing on the theoretical framework by Halliday and Hasan 1976.. vi LIST OF T

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

***

HỒ PHƯƠNG THẢO

A STUDY ON THE USE OF GRAMMATICAL COHESION

IN THE SHORT STORY “ALL GOLD CANYON” BY JACK LONDON FROM SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR PERSPECTIVE

(Nghiên cứu viê ̣c sử du ̣ng liên kết ngữ pháp trong truyê ̣n ngắn

“All Gold Canyon” của Jack London theo quan điểm ngữ pháp chức năng hê ̣ thống)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201

Hanoi, 2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

***

HỒ PHƯƠNG THẢO

A STUDY ON THE USE OF GRAMMATICAL COHESION

IN THE SHORT STORY “ALL GOLD CANYON” BY JACK LONDON FROM SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR PERSPECTIVE

(Nghiên cứu viê ̣c sử du ̣ng liên kết ngữ pháp trong truyê ̣n ngắn

“All Gold Canyon” của Jack London theo quan điểm ngữ pháp chức năng hê ̣ thống)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201

Supervisor: Prof Dr Hoàng Văn Vân

Hanoi, 2014

i

DECLARATION

I, Hồ Phương Thảo, hereby declare that the work in this thesis is the result of

my own research It is recognized that should this declaration be found to be false, disciplinary actions could be taken and penalties could be imposed in accordance with university policies and rules

Hanoi, December 2014

Hồ Phương Thảo

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to take this opportunity to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Prof Dr Hoàng Văn Vân, Dean of the School of Graduates, Vietnam National University Hanoi, for his continuous support, encouragement throughout this research I also would like to thank him for his clear guidance, insightful comments and dutiful supervision

My sincere thanks also extend to all my teachers at the Faculty of Postgraduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, for their enthusiastic lectures during this MA program

My sincere gratitude goes to Dr Le Hung Tien and the staff members of the Department of Post – Graduate Studies for their valuable support

Finally, I wish to extend my profound thanks to my family, friends and classmates with their whole-hearted support and encouragement

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ABSTRACT

This study aims to find out grammatical cohesion in the story "All Gold Canyon" by Jack London basing on the theoretical framework by Halliday and Hasan (1976) The research findings show that grammatical cohesion is used in a very high rate to connect the text together Furthermore, among different types of grammatical cohesive devices, reference and conjunction account for most of cohesion with 74% and 24% respectively, which shows that the text is highly cohesive Substitution and ellipsis, in contrast, take up only 1% for each type This may indicate that there are few conversations among characters In other words, the imbalance use of cohesion helps depict the writing style of literary documents in general and of Jack London in particular

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i

ABSTRACT ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iii

LIST OF TABLES AND DIAGRAMS vi

Part A – INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale of the study 1

2 Aim of the study and research questions 2

3 Scope of the study 2

4 Methods of the study 3

5 Design of the study 3

Part B – DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1 Introduction 4

2 Overview of systemic functional linguistics 4

3 Cohesion 5

3.1 Text and its texture 5

3.2 The concept of cohesion 6

3.3 Types of cohesion 6

3.3.1 Lexical cohesion 8

3.3.1.1 Reiteration 8

3.3.1.2 Collocation 8

3.3.2 Grammatical cohesion 8

3.3.2.1 Reference 9

3.3.2.2 Sustitution 10

3.3.2.3 Ellipsis 11

3.3.2.4 Conjunction 11

3.4 Summary 12

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CHAPTER 2: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

1 The context of the chosen text 13

2 Grammatical cohesive devices in the story ―All Gold Canyon‖ 14

2.1 Reference 15

2.1.1 Anaphoric, cataphoric and exophoric reference 15

2.1.2 Realization of different types of reference 16

2.1.2.1 Personal reference 17

2.1.2.2 Demonstrative reference 21

2.1.2.3 Comparative reference 26

2.2 Substitution 27

2.3 Ellipsis 30

2.4 Conjunction 31

Part C – CONCLUSIONS MAJOR FINDINGS, IMPLICATIONS, LIMITATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDIES 1 Major findings 36

2 Suggestions for English learners in writing skill 38

3 Limitations and suggestions for further studies 40

3.1 Limitations 40

3.2 Suggestions for futher studies 40

REFERENCES 41 APPENDIXES I

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: The percentage of anaphoric, cataphoric and exophoric reference Table 2: The percentage of different types of reference

Table 3: The distribution of personal reference in the story

Table 4: The percentage of substitution in the story

Table 5: The percentage of ellipsis in the story

Table 6: The percentage of conjunction in the story

LIST OF DIAGRAMS

Diagram 1: The percentage of grammatical cohesion in the story

Diagram 2: The percentage of demonstrative reference in the story

Diagram 3: The percentage of the definite article "The" in the story

Diagram 4: The percentage of conjunctive devices in the story

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PART A INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

Being a learner of linguistics, I started wondering myself ―what is the function of language?‖ It comes as no surprise that I may see language as a medium of communication; however, it cannot be restricted to the description of the nature of language Linguistics, thus, becomes an appealing field for me to conduct a research

to have deeper understanding this complex nature of language

Along with other branches of linguistics, grammar appears to be a rich land in which many scholars are engrossed in exploring it with different theories The linguistics history has seen developments of various approaches to grammar, known

as traditional grammar, universal grammar, descriptive grammar or generative grammar However, since the appearance of systemic functional grammar (SFG), it has received a great attention from many followers in linguistics research In comparison with other approaches that focus on the rules, forms that structure language, SFG accounts for how language is used in contexts for communicative purposes (Halliday, 1994) It concerns with both spoken and written language SFG, therefore, can be considered the most useful tool for text analysis

In Vietnam, thanks to credited scholars such as Cao Xuân Hạo (1991) with Tiếng Việt: Sơ thảo ngữ pháp chức năng, Hoàng Văn Vân (2002/2005) with Ngữ pháp kinh nghiệm của cú tiếng Việt: Mô tả theo quan điểm chức năng hệ thống, a number

of significant researches have been conducted from SFG perspective This provides

us, learners at the Department of Postgraduate Studies, invaluable sources of reference as well as great inspiration to carry out more studies in this field Among many aspects of SFG, I have decided to conduct a study on one specific

phenomenon with the title “A Study on the Use of Grammatical Cohesion in the Short Story “All Gold Canyon” by Jack London from Systemic Functional Grammar Perspective” There are two main reasons for the choice of this topic The

first and foremost, I wish to understand more about cohesion – an essential element

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in creating the text, and particularly to discover in what way the author used grammatical cohesion to develop his story Besides, I have been fascinated with numerous Jack London’s short stories and novels since I was a high school student Therefore, ―All Gold Canyon‖ by Jack London turns to be a good text for my analysis To compare with Jack London’s other well-known works, ―All Gold Canyon‖ appears to be unfamiliar to many readers However, it gave me much impression when I first read for Jack London’s development of ecological thought and his writing style

2 Aim of the study and research questions

The aim of this study is to investigate how Jack London uses grammatical cohesive devices to develop his story

In order to achieve the above aim, three research questions are raised for exploration:

- What is grammatical cohesion as conceptualized in systemic functional linguistics?

- How does Jack London use grammatical cohesive devices to develop the story ―All Gold Canyon‖?

- What implications and suggestions should be made for teachers and students

of English in teaching and learning writing paragraphs and essays?

3 Scope of the study

In this study, I do not have an ambition to cover all aspects of functional grammar and all relations providing links in a text Only issues related to grammatical cohesion such as framework, elements and features are taken for study The ground for investigation in this study is the system of cohesion and grammatical cohesion developed by Halliday and Hasan (1976) The illustration of text analysis is the chosen story ―All Gold Canyon‖ by Jack London

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4 Methods of the study

The study is undertaken with a view to examine how grammatical cohesion is used to develop a text Given the scope of this study, the quantitative and qualitative methods will be employed That is to say, this study will focus on the collection and analysis

of the study as data to explain a particular phenomenon Counting and measuring would be common forms for this method These statistical results will be followed

by qualitative method which is used to gain an understanding of the underlying reasons and the effectiveness of the application of grammatical cohesive devices in Jack London’s ―All Gold Canyon‖ as well The base for procedures and conventions applied in the study is the theoretical framework of Halliday’s

5 Structure of the study

The study consists of three main parts: introduction, development and conclusion

 The introduction presents the rationale of study, the aim and the scope of the study It also presents the methods employed for analysis and the outline of the study structure

 The development is subdivided into two chapters

Chapter 1 provides the theoretical background of the study in which the main concepts of systemic functional grammar are reviewed to establish the framework for analysis and discussion in Chapter 2

Chapter 2 analyzes the short story ―All Gold Canyon‖ using Halliday and Hasans’ (1976) grammatical cohesion system as the theoretical framework

 The conclusion summarizes what has been studied, points out the limitations

of the study, presents educational implications, and makes some suggestions for future research

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PART B DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1 - THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1 Introduction

This chapter is concerned with the examination of some systemic functional concepts which are relevant for the analysis and discussion in Chapter 2 I will start with an overview of systemic functional linguistics Then I will look at the system

of cohesion in English, presenting in some detail the sub-types of grammatical cohesion

2 Overview of systemic functional linguistics

For a long time, grammar has been a branch of linguistics which has attracted much attention from many scholars in the world They aim to give satisfactory explanations on the nature of language from their points of view Chomsky’s theory views grammar as a set of rules which allow or disallow certain sentence structures Ultimately, more so than traditional grammar, formal grammar concentrates on structure, that is the way in which classes of words and phrases are combined Through this period of teaching both types of grammar some linguists, were thinking to generate one more developed grammar which is functional systemic grammar (Halliday et al, cited in Cope, 1993) Unlike the former ones, SFG is more sociological in orientation, such that it is more concerned with relating grammar to its function within society

From its early birth, functional theories of grammar are those approaches to the study of language that see the functions of language and its elements to be the key

to understand linguistic processes and structures Functional theories of language propose that since language is fundamentally a tool, it is reasonable to assume that its structures are best analyzed and understood with reference to the functions they carry out Functional theories of grammar differ from former theories of grammar,

in that the latter seeks to define the different elements of language and describe the way they relate to each other as systems of formal rules or operations Meanwhile,

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the former defines the functions performed by language and then relates these functions to the linguistic elements that carry them out This means that functional theories of grammar tend to pay attention to the way language is actually used in communicative context

3 Cohesion

To begin with, in order to see how different things in a text ―hang together‖ to make

a text, it is important to define the notion of the text and texture

3.1 Text and its texture

―Language is a means of conveying and obtaining information‖ (Valeika and Buitkiene, 2006: 7) To achieve this, the units of language must perform appropriate functions All languages are formed of words and sentences These sentences must

be bound together to make a text A text is the text if there is mutual dependence between sentences Text can be defined as ―any passage, spoken or written, of whatever length that forms a unified whole‖ (Halliday and Hasan, 1976: 1) In order

to create a text as a unified whole, it is necessary to know what makes text coherent

―In its deep structure, the text is a sequence of mutually related clauses, which after the application of appropriate textualizing operations, are turned into text sentences‖

sentences the meaning that is semantic relation of the words is important as words and context are inseparable Therefore, the meaning and logical relation of words and sentences are important when creating a coherent text

A text distinguishes from non-text by its texture Texture ―is the property that ensures that the text ―hangs together‖‖ (Halliday and Hasan, 1976) A text without texture would be a group of unrelated sentences The most important feature of the texture is the cohesive relation called a tie that is a semantic link between two elements Ties ―create links across sentence boundaries and pair and chain together items that are related‖ (McCarthy, 1991: 27) So the basic idea here is that, ties link

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sentences and therefore creates cohesion That is to mean, cohesion shows if there is the connection between sentences in the text

3.2 The concept of cohesion

Cohesion is a crucial standard of textuality Cohesion has been defined in a number

of ways, among which Halliday and Hasan (1976) provided the most comprehensive one It is defined as the ―set of semantic configuration that is typically associated with a particular class of context of situation, and defines the substance of the text.‖ According to Halliday and Hasan, the function of cohesion is

to relate one part to another part of the same text Consequently, it lends continuity

to the text By providing this kind of text continuity, cohesion enables the readers

or listeners to supply all the components of the picture to its interpretation Halliday and Hasan (1976) identified five types of cohesion: reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction, and lexical cohesion The first four ones present grammatical cohesive devices, whereas the last one stands for lexical relation

3.3 Types of cohesion

In creating a coherent text, cohesion is expressed partly through the grammar and partly through vocabulary According to Halliday and Hasan (1976), the classification of cohesion is based on the linguistic form The type of cohesion depends either on semantic relation in the linguistic system or on lexico-grammatical relations In other words, the cohesive relation can be interpreted as being either lexicogrammatical or semantic It can be made clearer in the following description:

Nature of cohesive relation Type of cohesion

Figure 1 : Type of cohesion

(Source: Haliday and Hasan, 1976: 304)

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Reference, substitution and ellipsis belong to grammatical; lexical cohesion, as the name implies, lexical Conjunction is on the borderline of the grammatical and the lexical; the set of conjunctive element can probably be interpreted grammatically in terms of systems, and some conjunctive expressions involve lexical selection However, it is better to put it in the group of grammatical cohesion as it is mainly grammatical with a lexical component inside Thus, we can refer to grammatical cohesion and lexical cohesion as follows:

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3.3.1 Lexical cohesion

In Halliday and Hasan’s point of view, lexical cohesion deals with the meaning in text ―This is the cohesive effect achieved by the selection of vocabulary‖ (Halliday and Hasan, 1976) It concerns the way in which lexical items relate to each other and the role played by certain basic semantic relations between words to make textual continuity The two basic categories of lexical cohesion are reiteration and collocation

3.3.1.1 Reiteration

Reiteration is ―the repetition of a lexical item, or the occurrence of a synonym of some kind, in the context of reference; that is, where the two occurrences have the same referent‖ (Halliday and Hasan, 1976) To make it clearer, Mc Carthy (1991) also state that ―reiteration means either restating an item in a later part of discourse

by direct repetition or else reasserting its meaning by exploiting lexical relation‖ The authors classify reiteration into four sub-types: the same word, a synonym/near-synonym, a superordinate, and a general word For example, ―a boy‖ can be replaced in the following sentences with ―the boy‖ (the same word), ―the lad‖ (a synonym/near-synonym), ―the child‖ (a superordinate), and ―the idiot‖ (a general word) (Halliday and Hasan, 1976: 279)

3.3.1.2 Collocation

Collocation refers to the semantic and structural relation among words, which native speakers can use subconsciously for comprehension or production of a text From the viewpoints of Halliday and Hasan (1976), ―word combination‖ or ―word co-occurrence‖ is known as collocation There are two sub-types of collocation: grammatical collocation and lexical collocation

3.3.2 Grammatical cohesion

As mentioned, grammatical cohesion is the specific aspect that the researcher takes into consideration in this study As a result, a closer look into four sub-types of grammatical devices will be taken in hope to give an insightful analysis in the next chapter

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3.3.2.1 Reference

What distinguishes this special type is the particular nature of the information that is

to be retrieved, and the cohesion lies in the continuity of reference, by which the same thing comes into the discourse for the second time According to Halliday and Hasan (1976: 32), reference is a semantic relation and ―since the relationship is on the semantic level, the reference item is in no way constrain to match the grammatical class of the item it refers to‖ The two authors also identified situational and textual reference very clearly by contrasting exophora (or exophoric reference) and endophora (endoforic reference) as follows:

(Source: Halliday and Hasan, 1976: 32)

Reference items can be exophoric or endophoric, and if it is endophoric, it may be anaphoric or cataphoric An exophoric item does not name anything and does not give a significantly greater amount of information It signals that the reference must

be made to the context of situation It does not bind two elements into text, it takes

us outside the text for interpretation Only endophoric reference is cohesive and it contributes to the integration of the passage with another to form coherent text Endophoric reference can be divided into two areas: anaphoric and cataphoric Anaphoric refers to any reference that points ―backwards‖ to previously mentioned information in text Whereas, cataphoric reference points the reader or listener

―forward‖ It draws us further into the text in order to interpret

Mikhail Gorbachev didn’t have to change the world He could have chosen to rule

personal reference

much as his predecessors did

Recognizing that his country had to change, Gorbachev could have become a cautious modernizer in the Chinese fashion, promoting economic reform and sponsoring new technology while holding firm against political change This did not

demonstrative reference

happen

A: Would you like these seats ?

B: No, as a matter of fact, I’d like the other seats

comparative reference

(Source: Nunan, 1993: 23)

3.3.2.2 Substitution

Halliday and Hasan (1976) state that substitution takes place when one feature

linguistics also claim that substitution is used when ―a speaker or writer wishes to avoid the repetition of a lexical item and is able to draw on one of the grammatical

resources of the language to replace the item For instance: “I left my pen at home,

do you have one?” In this example, ―one” is replaced or substitution for “pen” The

three types of classification for substitution: nominal, verbal and clausal reflect its grammatical function In nominal substitution, the most typical substitution words

are “one”, “ones” “same” and they substitute nouns In addition, all, any, each,

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either, neither, some and none can behave in the same way In verbal substitution, the most common substitute is the verb “do” It operates as a head of a verbal group

in which it can be occupied by the lexical verb Finally, in clausal substitution, what

is presupposed is not an element within the clause but an entire clause The common

linguistic items realized are “so” or “not”

3.3.2.3 Ellipsis

The relation between substitution and ellipsis is very close because it is merely that ellipsis is ―substitution‖ by zero What distinguishes in ellipsis is that some elements are omitted from the surface of the text, but they are still understood Thus, omission of these elements can be recovered by referring to an element in the preceding text There are three types of ellipsis: nominal, verbal and clausal ellipsis

In nominal ellipsis, it can be divided into five sub-types: specific deictic, specific deictic, post-deictic, numerative and epithets In verbal group, ellipsis is

non-shown by the presence of mood but the absence of residue Lastly, clausal ellipsis takes the presupposing clause as a basic structure where ellipsis occurs in constituents like the subject, complement, predicator and adjunct The missing part can be retrieved from the presupposed structure in another sentence In the following example taken from Halliday (1994: 318), a clause is omitted and it is called clausal ellipsis

A: Can you row?

B: Yes [I can row]

3.3.2.4 Conjunction

Conjunction differs from other cohesive ties because it reaches the meaning by using other features in the discourse Bloor and Bloor (1995: 98) describe conjunction as a ―cohesive tie between clauses or sections of text in such a way as

to demonstrate a meaningful pattern between them‖ In other words, conjunction is used to connect sentences and clauses together into one text Halliday and Hasan

(1976: 242-243) classify conjunction into four types: additive, adversative, causal

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and temporal Firstly, additive conjunction acts to add meaning among sentences It

is signaled through and, also, moreover, in addition, besides, etc Whereas,

adversative conjunction acts to indicate ―contrary to expectation‖ It is realized by

some typical conjunctions like but, yet, though, however, on the contrary, etc

Thirdly, causal conjunction expresses ―result, reason and purpose‖ This kind of

relation is expressed by some items such as: so, hence, therefore, however, consequently, because, etc The last conjunctive category is temporal that creates a

unified and tied discourse That is to say, discourse appears as a process of an episode with the development of a time sequence There are three main types of

temporal relation namely simple, complex and conclusive temporal relation

3.4 Summary

This chapter has reviewed some basic concepts related to the study It presented the system of English cohesion which is represented in two main types: grammatical cohesion and lexical cohesion For the scope of study, only the theoretical background of grammatical cohesion would be the framework for my chosen text analysis in the following chapter

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CHAPTER 2:

DATA ANALYSIS OF GRAMMATICAL COHESION USED

IN THE STORY "ALL GOLD CANYON"

In this chapter, I will analyze the story ―All Gold Canyon‖ in terms of grammatical cohesion The analysis is based on the framework of Halliday and Hasans’ (1976) Cohesion in English In order to have a better understanding of the story, I will present the context of the chosen text Then I will analyze the story into types of grammatical cohesion through data statistics as shown in appendices I, II, III, IV Afterwards, I will discuss what I have analyzed to see how grammatical cohesion is exploited to construct the story by the writer

1 The context of the chosen text

The data of this analysis is a short story ―All Gold Canyon‖ by Jack London The author was born as a poor boy in 1876 in San Francisco and died ―rich‖ and famous

in 1916, during World War I Throughout his life, London was a prolific American author who is celebrated for his powerful depiction of nature and the human struggle for survival His novels and short stories have influenced many writers after him, and his writings about nature have made him a respected figure of this time

Because of Jack London’s vigorous, muscular style of writing he remains one of the most widely read American authors in the world Between 1900 and 1916 he completed more than 50 fiction and non-fiction books, hundreds of short stories and numerous articles Several of the books and many of the short stories are classics and still popular; some have been translated into as many as 70 languages Among

the best known are Call of the Wild, White Fang, The Sea Wolf, Martin Eden and John Barleycorn

The story ―All Gold Canyon‖ was written in 1905 and first published in The New Century magazine In ―All Gold Canyon‖, London not only notices for the first time

in his career that greed and desire are in conflict with the ecosystem, but he begins to develop an ethical concern for nature The story is the tale of human greed, gold and

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death The story begins with a beautiful picture of a place in nature London lyrically describes the beauty and tranquility of the valley in the first seven paragraphs In the valley, animals, plants, and their physical environment are in perfect harmony However, the tranquility of the place is shattered by the destruction of a resource-oriented pocket-miner named Bill, who despoils and destroys the valley in search of gold Man's greed for gold leads to the destruction of the slope and even human's death At the end of the story, London describes a fight between Bill and another gold-hunter and this fight ends with the death of the strange man

2 Grammatical cohesive devices in the story "All Gold Canyon"

According to Halliday and Hasan (1976), grammatical cohesive devices include

reference, substitution, ellipsis and conjunction These cohesive devices will be

analyzed in details basing on the framework built by Halliday and Hasan (1976) All cohesive items in each type in the story will be collected, classified and then significant characteristics of the story will be drawn out basing on the frequency of use of different types of grammatical cohesion

From the data collected (see Appendix I, II, III, IV), it can be seen that the total of grammatical cohesive devices used in the story "All Gold Canyon" are 2198 ties, in which reference accounts for the largest part with 1627 ties, presenting for 74% Conjunction comes second with 542 ties or 24% Substitution and ellipsis explain for the smallest percentage with only 1% of each type The distribution of grammatical cohesive devices in this story can be illustrated in the diagram below:

Diagram 1: The percentage of grammatical cohesion in the story

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From the diagram, it can be seen that there is a big difference in the way London employs grammatical cohesive devices in his work While reference and conjunction are restored frequently, substitution and ellipsis are used in an extremely small quantity with less than 1% for each type

2.1 Reference

2.1.1 Anaphoric, cataphoric and exophoric reference

Basing on the statistics collected from the data, reference is known as the largest part of grammatical cohesion Reference, in other words, is the most important part

in creating cohesion in particular or creating text in general The table below shows

the percentage of anaphoric, cataphoric and exophoric reference in the story

Reference Number of

items

Percentage (%)

Table 1: The percentage of anaphoric, cataphoric and exophoric reference

Obviously, anaphoric reference takes up the largest part with 79.8% Anaphoric reference is found in the whole story, but falls on mainly on personal pronouns and

determiners such as he, him, his, that and definite article the Surprisingly,

exophoric reference ranks second with 170 ties accounting for 10.5% Exophoric reference does not refer readers backward or forward to connect the text It is understood basing on background knowledge of readers or listeners Because in this story, Jack London describes the beauty of a place in nature in seven first paragraphs, exophoric reference tends to be employed in high rate here Standing in the last position is cataphoric reference with 9.7% Interestingly, among 158 items

in this group, the definite article the is restored 123 times (see Appendix I)

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2.1.2 Realization of different types of reference

Although a text can be analyzed in terms of anaphoric, cataphoric and exophoric reference, this classification is mainly related to grammatical features of a text and

it helps to deal with grammatical exercise However, in this study, a narrative is studied in light of literature, the analysis of anaphoric, cataphoric and exophoric reference is inappropriate Instead, reference items in the narrative "All Gold Canyon" should be dealt with in respect of three types classified by Halliday and

Hasan (1976) namely personal, demonstrative and comparative Personal reference

is expressed through the category of person and it includes personal pronouns and personal determiners Demonstrative reference expresses the relation of location on

a scale of proximity while comparative reference is indirect reference expressed through using identity or similarity In this story, Jack London applies the different types of reference unevenly While personal and demonstrative reference occur frequently, comparatives is hardly used Personal reference ranks first with 825 ties, representing for 51%, demonstrative ranks second with 775 ties, accounting for 48% and comparative reference ranks last with only 24 ties or 1% The frequency of use of reference in the story will be presented in the table below:

Type of Reference

Number of Items

Table 2: The percentage of different types of reference

The table shows that the writer links the text by personal and demonstrative reference instead of comparative one The high frequency of occurrence of personal and demonstrative reference can illustrate features of narrating instead of comparing

or discussing in the story "All Gold Canyon"

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2.1.2.1 Personal Reference

According to Halliday and Hasan (1976: 43) the category of personals includes the three classes: personal pronouns, possessive determiners and possessive pronouns The number of members in each category can function as the structural roles and help identify the relations among people and objects in the texts

Totally, in the story, Jack London uses 825 personal reference ties including the first, the second and third personal pronouns and determiners The first person

pronouns and determiners which are illustrated as I, my, me in the story occupy 57

items accounting for 6, 9%; the second person pronouns and determiners presented

as you, your, yours take up 41 items presenting for 4.9%; and the third person pronouns and determiners described as he/ his/ him/ himself/ they/ them/ their/ themselves/ it/ its/ itself/ that include 727 ties, making up 88,2% (see Appendix I)

The details of the distribution of personal reference are illustrated as follows:

Pronouns Numbers of examples Percentage (%)

They, them, their,

themselves

Table 3: The distribution of personal reference in the story

Basing on the way the writer takes advantage of personal reference, relations between or among characters in the story can be guessed It is common that the first person pronouns and determiners are commonly used in speeches, dialogues and inner monologues; hence texts employing these cohesive devices tend to be

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speaker-orientated, that is, they often focus on expressing speaker's point of view

In this story, the first person pronouns and determiners are restored to express some inner monologues of a man named Bill, the main character Two examples below are two inner monologues of the main character, Bill:

horseshoe nails an' thank you kindly, ma'am, for a second helpin'."

don't watch out, I'll sure be degeneratin' into a two-meal-a-day crank."

In these two examples, the first person pronouns I and determiner my are not used in

dialogues but in inner monologues The main character, Bill talks to himself or talks

to surrounding entities as though they were human beings and were his friends In this story, Jack London takes advantage of the first person pronouns to express the thoughts and feelings of the main character

Because the main character talks to himself and talks to other entities surrounding

him; the second person pronouns you and determiner yours are employed to refer to

these inanimate objects or to the main character himself The inanimate entities

which the second person pronouns and determiners refer to in this story are sweet hills, dandelions, holly hocks, the dead man and the Canyon which the main character names Mr Pocket Look at these following examples:

Talk about your attar o' roses an' cologne factories! They ain't in it!"

under! I'm a-comin', Mr Pocket! I'm a-comin'!"

In example 3, the author exploits anaphoric reference to connect the texts Personal

determiner your can be referred backward to jumping dandelions and happy hollyhocks which are flowers in the canyon In example 4, personal pronoun you can be understood by referring forward to Mr Pocket which is the name the main

character gives the canyon The main character talks to inanimate entities

cast into the pool And a moment later he was gleefully crying: "What' d I tell you, eh? What' d I tell you?"

your line, an' it's about time you know it Get wise, Bill; get wise

While the first and second person pronouns are defined as roles in the speech situations, the third person pronouns refer solely to the text and this group is considered inherently cohesive (Halliday and Hasan, 1976) In this text, the third

person pronouns including he/ his/ him/ himself/ her/ they/ them/ their/ it/ its/ itself/ that account for 727 cases with 88,2% Among 727 cases of this, 492 cases (67,7%)

refer to a man who is a pocket-miner named Bill The high frequency use of the third person pronouns referring to this man proves that he is the main character or the focus of the story At the end of the story, the third person pronouns also refer to another man, a man with a revolver; however, the use of these pronouns is not frequent In several paragraphs, this man is referred to 61 times, taking up only 12.4% However, the second person pronouns do not refer to the man with a revolver in the whole text This phenomenon shows that there are no dialogues or

conversations between two men in this story Examining two examples:

unpacked his food and got out frying-pan and coffee-pot He gathered an armful of dry wood, and with a few stones made a place for his fire

hole He peered for a long time at the prone and motionless body beneath

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him After a while the stranger sat down on the edge of the hole so that he

could see into it, and rested the revolver on his knee

In example 7, the third person pronouns and determiners he, his refer backward to the man who is the main character while in example 8, these pronouns refer to a man with a revolver in hand or the stranger who is the second character in this story

Besides, the third person pronouns and determiners also refer to different groups of creatures, plants and entities Firstly, these pronouns and determiners are employed

to describe the beauty of nature in a canyon Jack London draws a natural picture

with different types of plants, trees, shrubs and flowers like vine and boughs, flowers, leaves, cottonwoods and madrone in a place described as a canyon with a stream, a pool, mountains, lines, sides, hills, rocks and the air The beauty of the place can be illustrated in these two examples:

sent their snowy fluffs fluttering down the quiet air.(…), while the leaves, wise with experience, were already beginning their vertical twist against

the coming aridity of summer

(10) There was not a sigh of wind The air was drowsy with its weight of

perfume It was a sweetness that (…).But the air was sharp and thin

In example 9, two third person determiners their refer anaphorically to three cottonwoods and the leaves However, in example 10, both anaphoric and

cataphoric references are restored to express the atmosphere in this canyon While

the third person determiner its is referred backward to the air, the third person pronoun it is referred forward to a sweetness

Secondly, Jack London depicts some living creatures such as the buck, butterflies, bees, the horse and the animal which make the natural picture of Jack London

become more lively and animated In the following example, the image of a buck, flies and a stream is painted lively and vigorously by using anaphoric reference

(11) The red-coated, many-antlered buck acknowledged the lordship of the

spirit of the place and (…) There seemed no flies to vex him and he was

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languid with rest Sometimes his ears moved (…); but they moved lazily, with foreknowledge that it was merely the stream grown garrulous at discovery that it had slept

Lastly, the third person pronouns and determiners also illustrate the objects related

to gold and gold-mining, for instance a gold-pan, gold, a shovelful of dirt, rotten quartz, a golden speck, treasure and a treasure-hole In two examples below, Jack London takes advantages of anaphoric reference to connect the text The pronoun it can be referred backward to the gold in example 12 and to a pan in example 13:

(12) He made believe to be interested in the gold in his hand He examined it

critically, turned it over and over, and rubbed the dirt from it

(13) He filled a pan and carried it down the hill to wash It contained no trace of

gold

From all the persons, creatures and objects which the third person pronouns and determiners refer to, the content of the story can be guessed The story portrays an animated picture of a place in nature with numerous animals and plants However, with the destruction of human beings the beautiful picture disappears, the peace of

the place is broken and there only exist gold, human's greed and death

2.1.2.2 Demonstrative Reference

Halliday and Hasan (1976: 57) define demonstrative reference as a form of verbal pointing from the point of view of speaker, that is, the speaker identifies the referents by locating it on a scale of proximity Demonstrative reference is restored

to refer the location of process in space or time through expressions here, there, now and then Sharing the same point of view, Yule (1996:13) clarifies that the expressions pointing to the location here and there belong to spatial deixis and the location is identified basing on the speaker's perspective The speaker uses here for

a place which is both physically and psychologically close and uses there for a

place which is both physically and psychologically distant According to Lyons

(1995:305), demonstrative adverbs there and then are defined negatively in the relation to here and now because there means not here and then means not now

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These demonstrative adverbs refer to the speaker, however, the role of speaker passes from one person to another in conversation; hence, the deictic context switches back and forth

According to Halliday and Hasan (1976), demonstrative reference includes three

groups of linguistic items: (1) the definite article: the; (2) the demonstrative pronouns: this, these, that, those; and (3) the demonstrative adverbs: here, there, now, then The total number of items in this category is 775 ties, in which, the definite article the takes up 709 ties, presenting for 91%, demonstrative pronouns 24

ties, equivalent to 3% and the demonstrative adverbs 42 ties for 6%

Diagram 2: The percentage of demonstrative reference in the story

In terms of the demonstrative pronouns, this is used with the highest percentage

both anaphorically and cataphorically to refer single nouns near the main character,

Bill The other demonstrative determiners that and these are restored in a very small

percentage or it is not a popular phenomenon in this story In below examples, three

demonstrative pronouns this, these, that all express the proximity of location

(14) On its back was a pack, and from this trailed broken vines and torn

creepers

(15) Here and there that woods harlequin (…) breathed its fragrance into the

air from great clusters of waxen bells Creamy white were these bells, (…) (16) "Just about two yards above that manzanita bush an' a yard to the right,"

The Demonstrative Adverbs

23

The high frequency of use of the demonstrative adverb there indicates that the

writer concentrates on description of nature or entities in a particular location Other

demonstrative adverbs here and now are used scatteredly Some examples:

(17) It was the green heart of the Canyon, (…) Here all things rested

(18) This diggin' is All Gold An' right here an' now I name this yere Canyon

'All Gold Canyon,' b' gosh!"

(19) Fine grass covered the slope grass that was spangled with flowers, with

here and there patches of color, orange and purple and golden

While here in example 17 describes things near the speaker, the demonstrative here and there in example 19 points to things both near and far the speaker with regard

to space On the other hand, the demonstrative adverbs here and now in example 18

express thing both near and far the speaker in terms of time

The definite article the is a special phenomenon in English It signals the

definiteness of the noun it modifies and it shows that the information is already presented or given previously On the other hand, indefinite article "a/an" indicates that the information is new Although the definite article "the" does not point to the exact place or the referents, it helps create a link between a sentence in which it is used and the one the referent occurs Like other referential ties, the definite article

"the" can be anaphoric, cataphoric and exophoric reference

Diagram 3: The percentage of the definite article "the" in the story

60%

17%

23% 0%

Anaphoric Cataphoric Exophoric

24

The total number of the article "the" in the story is 709 ties, in which, "the" used as anaphoric reference takes up 424 ties, accounting for 60%; cataphoric reference occupies 123 ties, presenting for 17%; and exophoric reference forms 162 ties or 23%

It is not surprising that the definite article "the" employed as anaphoric reference

accounts for the highest frequency of use Normally, the definite article the is

restored to talk about known objects or people which are stated previously in the text Consider following examples:

(20) The combination became a cigarette, brown and squat, with the ends

turned in (…) He lighted the cigarette and drew its smoke into his lungs

with a caressing intake of the breath

(21) "Looks good to me," he concluded, picking up his pick and shovel and

gold-pan (…)Where the side-hill touched the water he dug up a shovelful

of dirt and put it into the gold-pan He squatted down, holding the pan in

his two hands, and partly immersing it in the stream Then he imparted to

the pan a deft circular motion that sent the water sluicing in and out

through the dirt and gravel

Examples 20 and 21 illustrate the use of anaphoric definite article In example 20,

the writer uses the indefinite article "a" to show that a cigarette is new and

unknown, that is, it is the first time this information is mentioned in the whole text

However, in the following sentences, the writer employs the definite article the to

indicate the awareness of known and stated information The writer uses the word

the ends to refer the ends of the cigarette which was stated previously and the cigarette to make sure that the cigarette is not new information and readers can refer backward to find more information of this object Similarly, in example 21, the gold- pan, the pan and the dirt are known information because they are all stated in

previous text, that is, the writer restores anaphoric reference to stick the text together

Furthermore, in terms of cataphoric reference, the definite article the takes up 123

ties, representing for 17% Jack London starts the story with the description of the place using nouns modified by definite article and throughout the story, the writer

25

focuses on describing scene, actions or human's thoughts Analyzing these following examples:

(22) The motion of all things was a drifting in the heart of the Canyon (…)

The hum of the bees and the whisper of the stream were a drifting of

sound (…) which was the spirit of the place

(23) It was not until he tried vainly to see the gold colors in the bottom of the

pan that he realized the passage of time

In example 22 and 23, the definite article the is used to modify for seven nouns

These nouns are stated for the first time in this text; hence, it is impossible for readers to point backward to find more information related to these nouns However, when pointing forward in the text, readers can gain more information of these words All information stated afterward helps modify for the previous nouns,

for instance, the noun the heart is identified by the relation with the canyon, it is the

heart of the canyon, not the heart any other persons, objects or entities Likewise,

the word the spirit is defined in the relation with the place; the hum in the relation with the bees; the bottom with the pan; and the passage with the time Thanks to

cataphoric reference, the text becomes cohesive and easy to understand

Lastly, the definite article the seems to function as a special phenomenon when it plays as a kind of exophoric reference In this story, the article the functioning as

exophoric reference occupies 162 ties or 23% The high frequency of use of the

article the as exophoric reference is because in this text, the writer mainly describes

a place in nature, in which common nouns understood and known in any

circumstances by any persons such as the sun, the air, the moonlight, the sky often occur In fact, exophoric reference refers to objects or events which are out of

language and it can be understood by all people without relation to the meaning of the text For this reason, it does not have much value in connecting the text together (Halliday and Hasan 1976: 53) Here are some examples:

(24) He turned and flung a measuring glance at the sun poised above him in the

azure of the cloudless sky

26

(25) His face showed white in the moonlight, like the face of a corpse

In two examples above, the meanings of three nouns the sun, the cloudless sky and the moonlight can be understood without referring forward or backward to the text

They are understood because they are special nouns known and realized by everyone Although exophoric reference does not have much value in connecting the text together, it helps readers to understand the meaning of the nouns and the utterances without knowledge on verbal context or on the context of situation

(Halliday and Hasan 1976:53) Thanks to this, readers do not ask which sun, which sky or which moonlight when reading these sentences

2.1.2.3 Comparative Reference

The third type of referential cohesion is comparative ―Comparative reference is expressed through adjectives and adverbs and serves to compare items within a text

in terms of identity or similarity‖ (Nunan, 1993: 24) Halliday and Hasan (1976: 76)

distinguish comparative reference in terms of two sub-types: general and particular

General comparative reference expresses likeness between things, in the form of identity, similarity and unlikeness or difference by certain adjectives and adverbs

such as: same, other, so Particular reference expresses comparability between

things This is comparison in respect of quantity or quality through adverbs and adjectives which are not of special class, but ordinary of some comparative form

Both general and particular comparatives may be anaphoric, cataphoric and exophoric, however, in this story, only anaphoric and cataphoric comparatives are

used Anaphoric comparatives are restored 9 times while cataphoric ones are adopted 15 times in the whole story Here are some examples:

(26) To dig a hole three feet deep (…) was a task of no mean magnitude; while

between the man and the apex intervened an untold number of such holes

to be dug

(27) He could not forbear another survey of the hill before filling the pan

farther down the stream

27

(28) His hair, sparse and unkempt of growth, was as indeterminate and

colorless as his complexion

In examples 26, the word such functions as anaphoric comparative reference To

understand more about these nouns, readers can refer backward to previous text

Looking backward, it can be seen that such holes are holes which are three feet deep In contrast, in examples 27 and 28, the meanings of these comparative adjectives can be traced forward to afterward nouns By this way, farther is compared with the stream and indeterminate and colorless is compared with the man's complexion

In short, in this study, reference is dealt with basing on the view of Halliday and Hasan (1976) According to them, reference means co-interpretation because its role

is to link semantically an item of language to its environment Personals, demonstratives and comparatives are text-forming devices that enable readers to define the identity in the text In this study, personals are concentrated in more detailed than others because of its high frequency of occurrences

2.2 Substitution

Halliday and Hasan (1976) describe substitution as a means of cohesive device that uses different words or phrases replacing to the same entity Halliday and Hasan (1976) define different types of substitution as a grammatical cohesive device in a

text They introduce three types of substitution: nominal, verbal and clausal

In other words, the substitutes may function as a noun, as a verb, or as a clause and they all can be interpreted in relation to what has been said before (anaphorically) The table below presents the number and percentage of substitution in the story.:

Type of substitution

Number of items

Percentage (%)

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Table 4: The percentage of substitution in the story

Substitution, on the contrary to our expectation, occupies a very low frequency of occurrence It seems that Jack London seldom takes advantage of substitution as a means to link the text together The table illustrates that the total number of substitution ties in the whole story is 14 ties, in which 7 ones are nominal substitution of noun, 6 ones are clausal substitution and only one is verbal substitution (see Appendix III) Firstly, consider these following examples on nominal substitution:

(29) Like a shepherd he herded his flock of golden specks so that not one

should be lost

(30) To the west the ranges fell away, one behind the other, diminishing and

fading into the gentle foothills (…)

(31) "Smoke of life an' snakes of purgatory! Will you just look at that!

In these examples, the words one, other, that are substitutes of nouns golden specks,

the ranges and smoke of life an' snakes of purgatory To get the meanings of all

these substitutes, readers have to trace backward to previous text And it is interesting to realize that the substitute of a nominal item does not have to follow the same syntactic function as the substituted item or to preserve the same

grammatical features of the substituted item The word one in example 29 is a singular noun but it substitutes for a plural nouns golden specks and while the noun golden specks functions as an object, the substitute one serves as the subject of the

other clause

It is also necessary to distinguish the nominal substitute one from other cohesive forms of the word one and its functions One can function as a personal pronoun, a cardinal numeral, a determiner and a pro-noun one In this story, the word one is restored as a cardinal numeral many times In examples 32, 33 and 34 below, the word one is understood as an indefinite article a, an

non-29

(32) On one side, (…), was a tiny meadow, a cool, resilient surface of green

(…)

(33) He took in the scene with one embracing glance, (…)

(34) When but one speck of gold rewarded his washing, (…)

The second type of substitution is verbal and it is represented by the substitute do

Like nominal substitution, verbal substitution links two sentences anaphorically and functions as a head of verbal group Surprisingly, there is only one verbal substitute

in the whole story In fact, verbal substitution tends to be used in speech rather than

in writing (Halliday and Hasan, 1976) Jack London focuses on the description of nature, actions and human's feelings and there are no dialogues or conversations in this story Instead, there are some inner monologues and the verbal substitute is applied in a monologue of the main character, Bill It can be seen from the example

below that the word do substitutes for the verbal group come right up an' snatch you out bald-headed and readers can realize this relation by looking backward to

previous text

(35) "All right," he would add later, in a voice resigned to determination "All

right, Mr Pocket It's plain to me I got to come right up an' snatch you

out bald-headed An' I'll do it! I'll do it!" he would threaten still later

The third type of substitution is clausal which accounts for 6 cases in the whole story Unlike nominal and verbal substitution, clausal substitution cannot be used to substitute a clause functioning independently Instead, clausal substitution is used

―to display the clause as a repetition in a contrastive context in which it is dependent

on a report, a condition or an opinion‖ (Halliday and Hasan 1976: 136) However, all three types of substitution is a textual relation where the primary meaning is anaphoric Below are two examples of clausal substitution in the story:

(36) A golden speck, no larger than a pin-point, appeared on the rim, and by his

manipulation of the water it returned to the bottom of the pan And in such

fashion another speck was disclosed, and another

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(37) Still moving down the stream, he panned again A single speck was his

reward A third pan contained no gold at all Not satisfied with this, he

panned three times again, taking his shovels of dirt within a foot of one another

By looking backward to previous text, the word another in example 36 can be understood as another speck was disclosed and the word this in example 37 can be understood as a third pan contained no gold at all

In short, substitution occupies a minority part due to the conciseness and coherence

of literary writing style Substitution requires readers to make the cohesive links between two or among many sentences and this can lead to the ambiguity or misunderstanding In more details, the percentage of nominal substitution is much higher than that of verbal and clausal substitution This is made explicitly by the point

of view of Halliday and Hasan (1976: 130), they suppose that verbal and clausal

substitutes tend to be presented in speech or spoken discourse rather than in written one

2.3 Ellipsis

Ellipsis, in the view of Halliday and Hasan (1976), is the substitution by zero It is also considered to be an ideal way to avoid reiteration and to shorten the text It is something left unsaid but understood by readers or listeners

Halliday and Hasan (1976) divide ellipsis into three types: nominal, verbal and clausal ellipsis Nominal ellipsis occurs within the nominal group where the function of the omitted head is taken by some modifying element Such elements are deictic (determiners), numerative (numerals or other qualifiers), epithets (adjectives) and classifiers (nouns) Verbal ellipsis occurs within the verbal group which is generally presented by one lexical element – the lexical verb, and other systemic features: finiteness, polarity, voice and tense while the clausal ellipsis is

often used in the form some words such as so, this, not, etc

Type of ellipsis Number of items Percentage (%)

31

Table 5: The percentage of ellipsis in the story

According to the statistics, ellipsis takes up only 13 ties in the whole story, in which

11 ties belong to nominal ellipsis and two belong to verbal ellipsis (see Appendix IV) Especially, clausal ellipsis does not occur Though there are 11 ties of nominal ellipsis, 10 of them are numerative and only one is determiner In two examples of

ellipsis below, the numbers one, two, three, four, five are ellipsis of the noun golden specks (38) while the determiner this is the ellipsis of the noun a fire (39)

(38) Again came the careful washing, the jealous herding of the golden specks,

(…) when he had counted their number

"Five," he muttered, and repeated, "five."

(…) His golden herds diminished "Four, three, two, two, one," were his

memory-tabulations as he moved down the stream

(39) When but one speck of gold rewarded his washing, he stopped and built a

fire of dry twigs Into this he thrust the gold-pan and burned it till it was

blue-black

In example 40, the illustration of verbal ellipsis can be investigated It shows that

the word would is understood as would shoot me in the back The verbal phrase shoot me in the back is omitted to avoid repetition and to link sentences together (40) "He shot me in the back, the measly skunk! He shot me in the back!" (…)

"You would, would you?" he bullied "You would, eh? (…)"

In short, ellipsis accounts for a low frequency of occurrence because like substitution, ellipsis is a typical example of speech and narrative discourse (Thompson 2004: 184) Both of them often occur in a question-answer sequence when participants are involved in interaction However, in this story, there are no dialogues or conversations between or among characters; hence, ellipsis is rarely applied

2.4 Conjunction

32

Unlike above cohesive ties, conjunction does not set off a search backward or forward for its reference, but it presupposes a textual sequence and signals a relationship between segments of discourse Hence, the relationships built by conjunction can be understood through reference to other parts of the text (Nunan 1993: 26) Although conjunction is divided differently by scholars, in this study, the analysis of conjunction will employ the classification developed by Halliday and

Hasan (1976: 226): additive, adversative, temporal and causal

The number of conjunctive devices used in the story "All Gold Canyon" is presented in the table below:

Type of conjunction Number of items Percentage (%)

Table 6: The percentage of conjunction in the story

It can be seen from the table that Jack London tends to take advantage of conjunction to connect the text in this short story London restores 542 conjunctive devices, in which additive conjunction represents for 333 ties, adversative 46 ties, causal 25 ties and temporal 138 ties (see Appendix II) The diagram below represents the percentage of conjunction ties employed in the whole story "All Gold Canyon" by Jack London