An analysis of cohesive devices in bussiness letters in english and vietnamese

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled“ An analysis of cohesive devices in business letters in English and Vietna

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNVERSITY

AN ANALYSIS OF COHESIVE DEVICES IN BUSSINESS LETTERS IN ENGLISH AND

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNVERSITY

AN ANALYSIS OF COHESIVE DEVICES IN BUSSINESS LETTERS IN ENGLISH AND

VIETNAMESE

NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ PHƯƠNG TIỆN LIÊN KẾT TRONG THƯ

TÍN KINH DOANH TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project

report entitled“ An analysis of cohesive devices in business letters in English and Vietnamese” submitted in partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the degree of Master in English Language Except for the reference is indicated, no other person‟s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis

Hanoi, 2015

Nguyen Thi Thuy

Approved by SUPERVISOR

Nguyen Dang Suu Ph.D

Date:………

an academic researcher

A special word of thanks goes to Post Graduate Falcuty and many others, without whose support and encouragement it would never have been possible for me to have this thesis accomplished

Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family, my friends for the sacrifice they have devoted to the fulfillment of this academic work

ABSTRACT

This research was conducted to gain more insights in the writers‟ use

of cohesive deices and styles in business letters in English with reference to Vietnamese equivalents In addition, the author tries to figure out the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese business letters, which is regarded as one of the effective communication tools in terms of cohesion aspects of Systemic Functional Grammar

To fulfill these objectives, the authors conducted an analysis with a sample of 30 business letters, including fifteen letters written in English and fifteen translation versions of those letters in Vietnamese The research results indicate that there are some significant remarks on the style of business correspondence, the frequency cohesive devices and the similarities and differences in terms of cohesion between English and Vietnamese business letters The results show that while Vietnamese writers regard lexical devices as the most useful tools in their letters, English ones highly appreciate the effectiveness of reference

The findings of this study can, to some extent, be usedas a referential material for Vietnamese learners and teachers in writing and teaching writing effective letters in English, especially business letters

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 01 : Types of Cohesion

Table 02: Grammatical and Lexical Cohesion

Table 03 : The use of reference devices of business letter

Table 04 : The use of personal reference of business letter

Table 05: The use of demonstrative reference of business letter

Table 06: The use of substitution of business letter

Table 07 : The use of nominal substitution of business letter

Table 08 : The use of clausal substitution of business letter

Table 09 : The use of verbal substitution of business letter

Table 10: The use of ellipsis of business letter

Table 11: The use of substitution of business letter

Table 12: The use of additive cohesive devices of business letter

Table 13: The use of adversative cohesive devices of business letter

Table 14: The use of causal cohesive devices of business letter

Table 15: The use of temporal cohesive devices of business letter

Table 16: The class of “General Nouns” in English business letters

Table 17 : The frequency of grammatical collocations of business letter

Table 18: English and Vietnamese business letters in comparison in terms of grammatical cohesion

Table 19: English and Vietnamese business letters in comparison in terms of lexical cohesion

Figure 01: The frequency of reiteration of business letter

Figure 02: The frequency of repetition of business letter

Figure 03: The frequency of synonyms of business letter

Figure 04: The frequency of near – synonyms of business letter

Figure 05 : The frequency of grammatical collocations of business letter

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES v

TABLE OF CONTENTS vii

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale for the research 1

1.2 Aims of the research 2

1.3 Objectives of the research 3

1.4 Scope of the research 3

1.5 Significance of the research 4

1.6 Structural organization of the thesis 4

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Review of previous studies 6

2.2 Review of theoretical background 8

2.2.1 Theoretical Framework 8

2.2.1.1 Overview of business letter 10

2.2.2 Theoretical background 15

2.2.2.1 Concept of cohesive devices 17

2.2.2.2 Classification of cohesive devices 18

2.2.2.3 Function of cohesive devices 28

2.2.2.4 Discourse and Discourse Analysis 29

2.3 Summary 34

Chapter 3 METHODOLOGY 35

3.1 Research - governing orientations 35

3.1.1 Research questions 35

3.1.2 Research setting 35

3.1.3 Research approach 36

3.2 Research methods 36

3.2.1 Major methods and supporting methods 36

3.2.2 Data collection techniques 37

3.2.3 Data analysis techniques 37

3.3 Summary 38

Chapter 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 39

4.1 Grammatical and Lexical cohesive devices used in English business letters

39

4.1.1 Grammatical cohesive devices used in English business letters 39

4.1.1.1 Reference 39

4.1.1.2 Substitution 42

4.1.1.3 Ellipsis 44 4.1.1.4 Conjunction 45

4.1.2 Lexical cohesive devices used in English business letters 51

4.1.2.1 The class of „General Nouns 51

4.2 Similarities and differences of cohesive devices used in English and Vietnamese business letters 64

4.2.1 Similarities 64

4.2.1.1 Grammatical cohesive devices 64

4.2.1.2 Lexical Cohesive devices 67

4.2.2 Differences 68

4.2.2.1 Grammatical cohesive devices 68

4.2.2.2 Lexical cohesive devices 69

4.3 Implications for teachers 70

4.4 Summary 72

Chapter 5 CONCLUSION 73

5.1 Recapitulation 73

5.2 Concluding remarks 74

5.3 Limitations of the current research 77

5.4 Suggestions for a further research 77 REFERENCES

APPENDICES

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale for the research

It cannot be denied that in the last few decades of the 20th century, there has been a great source of research on language; however, their attentions were only paid to the form of the language systems, which are studied and explained apart from their functions in relation to social situations Besides, their concern was basically with structural theories, which show that small units were arranged and combined into larger ones The recent research, on the other hand, has fallen into the tendency toward discourse analysis, which focuses on factors affecting the communication and also the functioning of syntactic, pragmatic and social aspects Unlike the former studies, these ones pay attention to the meaning of not only the sentences but also utterances and discourses

Today, the theory of Systemic Functional Grammar has been widely accepted as an essential tool in language comprehension in communication, from which inspired me to do a research on this topic Halliday used the functional model of grammar to interpret how people use language and how language is structured for use According to Eggins(1994), “Systemic Functional Linguistics is increasingly being recognized as providing a very useful descriptive and interpretive framework for viewing language as a strategic, meaning-making resource”

There have been a great number of studies in the field of discourse analysis these days in Viet Nam However, There are not so many of those researches on Systemic Functional Perspectives reflecting the potential variety Furthermore, in the recent time, Viet Nam has been joining in the

common business climate around the world English language as an international language, therefore, has been widely used in every field, especially in business communication in general and business transaction in particular

It has been generally said that business correspondence puts a great impress on business communication Besides, it is a fact that defects seem to

be unavoidable in carrying out business transactions, even for the managed organizations this seems to be in the same case Business letters , therefore, can be understood as inevitable reaction of the business doers For the other side, gaining how to write a business letter effectively is a challenge for many people

With the hope of pinpointing out some solutions to support Vietnamese business doers as well as Vietnamese students, to some extent,

to overcome these drawbacks in writing business letters, the study is concerned to analyze the discourse features of business letters and work on the grammatical and lexical cohesive devices from Systemic Functional Perspectives Also, the author will work out on the most common equivalents in Vietnamese and from this, to find out some useful suggestions to improve learning and teaching writing business letters in English

1.2 Aims of the research

This research is conducted to aim at finding the grammatical and lexical cohesive devices in the English and Vietnamese business letters, thus suggesting some possible implication for teaching the cohesive device used

in English business letters to Vietnamese learners of English as a foreign language

1.3 Objectives of the research

To achieve the mentioned above aims, some following objectives are put forward:

(i) Finding out the grammatical and lexical cohesive devices used in

English business letters

(ii) Identifying the similarities and differences of grammatical and

lexical cohesive devices uses in English and Vietnamese business letters

(iii) Suggesting some possible implications for teaching the cohesive

devices used in English to Vietnamese students of English as a foreign language

1.4 Scope of the research

(i) Academic scope:

Business letters are the primary and useful tools of exchanging ideas, facts, recommendations, proposals and so on within a business or between a business and other businesses and individuals, which give opportunities to businesses to operate efficiently and productively Effective letter writing involves the use of grammar and vocabulary, cohesive devices and the communicative strategies As mentioned above, this study cannot cover all the aspects of business letter but only concentrate on the grammatical and lexical cohesive devices in English business letters in contrast with Vietnamese to identify the similarities and differences between the two

languages

(ii) Social scope:

The analysis is based on the data collected from authentic sources which I believe is the sufficient data to support this thesis In the study, the

investigation will be conducted in 15 business letters written by native

English speakers for which is picked up from “ 500 Selected English Letters and Reports in Business” and 15 Vietnamese business letters collected from Vietnam International Chamber of Commerce ( VCCI)

1.5 Significance of the research

This study contributes to verifying the correctness and significance related

to linguistic theories in discourse analysis by working on a certain kind of discourse (Business letters)

In addition to this, the author also hopes to help Vietnamese business doers and students gain a better insight in writing an effective business letter

1.6 Structural organization of the thesis

This study is comprised of five chapters:

Chapter 1: An introduction presents some background information and the rationale of the study The aims, the scope and method of the study are also dealt with in this chapter

Chapter 2 : Literature Review is aimed at presenting the theoretical background of the work Some essential concepts closely related to the study are carefully discussed one by one Firstly, some theories of discourse including the concept of discourse, functions of language, and discourse context Next, in terms of Systemic Functional Grammar, some concepts such as transitivity, mood, theme- rheme, and cohesion consisting of reference, substitution, ellipsis, lexical cohesion, and conjunctive cohesion are presented Finally, the definition, purpose, three contextual parameters and structure of business complaint letters are also discussed in the chapter

Chapter 3 : Methodology is work on the methods and techniques which is used to conduct the study including the research method , data collection techniques and data analysis techniques

Chapter 4 : Findings and Discussion attempts to pinpoint out the style and the type of a business letter through the 30 collected letters and analyzes business letters in English in the light of Systemic Functional Grammar In this chapter, the four chosen terms of transitivity, mood, theme-rheme and cohesion which consists of reference, substitution, ellipsis, lexical cohesion and conjunctive cohesion are carefully analyzed to help figure out the discourse features business letters in the languages of English then generalizes the most common Vietnamese equivalents

Chapter 5 : Conclusion is set up to summarize the whole research Some useful implications for studying and teaching writing effective business complaint letters are also drawn out in this part

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Review of previous studies

Businesses use different modes in doing their work For examples; letters, telephone, and emails which work on facilitating business communication Our concern in this study is the medium of business letters which are “still very often the main means of establishing business relations with other organizations” (Taylor, 2005) In this respect, Bly (2004) points out that business letter is considered as a means of communication which draws a picture about the identity of its writer Galko (2001) also states that business letters are usually used between people who work in different companies, but they can be sometimes used within the same company in order to communicate between its divisions

Since a letter lets an impression about its writer, researchers work on finding the best ways for writing effective letters Carey (2002)

is one of those who states how to produce an effective business letter He presents which called “The Seven “C‟s” of style” They are ordered as follows: conversational, clear, concise, complete, concrete, constructive and correct “Conversational” means to write as the way to speak, for example, it is better to say “because” instead of “due to the fact that” To be

“clear” is to show the clarity in your letters That is to say, the receiver should understand what you are writing To be “concise” is to avoid all unnecessary words and repetition It is meant by “complete”, you make sure that your letter provides the reader with the needed information Business letter also should be “concrete” by using specific terms and identifying names and numbers However, to be

“constructive” in your writing means to use positive words such as success and proud The last “C” is “correct” which indicates to produce a correct business letter, in other words, to avoid errors by reviewing and revising

Thanks to the open-door policy renovation process, Vietnam is now expanding its relationship with the other nations in economic, scientific and technical field English has been widely used in almost every field, particularly in business As a popular means of communication, English is considered a key to success in international business ventures

Regarding a variety of tasks facing the Vietnamese in business area, we cannot help mentioning business letters writing Business letters are becoming more and more popular in the country today Therefore, the question “how to write effective business letters” has become a challenging issue for both experienced businessmen, i.e the people who are actually involving in the business activities, and inexperienced people, i.e those who are learning business correspondence writing Considerable researches have been carried out in an attempt to satisfactorily answer the above-stated issues by looking inside various aspects of business letters

The first researched was an M.A thesis named “A Contrastive Analysis of English and Vietnamese Sales Letters” by Tran ThiThanhHai (2001) In her

work , she pointed out the frequency of occurrence of lexical devices in English sales letters The second study is also an M.A thesis written by Le

Thi Mai Hien which is “An Analysis of Cohesive Devices in English Application Letter” (2004) The process of researching on twenty English

application letters has enabled her to reach the frequency of occurrence of reiteration in English application letters The next study we would like to

review is another M.A thesis by Phuong To Tam (2003) “An analysis of

Coherence and Cohesion and a Contrastive Analysis of Lexical Cohesive Devices in English and Vietnamese” Unlike the two other mentioned

papers, the data for this study is not from business correspondence but from

a chapter (chapter 5) on International Trade in the textbook “International Business – An Integrated Approach” by John J Wild, Kenneth L Wild, and Jerry C Y Han (1998) The attention of the study is paid to considering contrastive analysis of lexical cohesive devices (including reiteration and collocation) in English (source language) in the original textbook and their equivalents in Vietnamese (target language) in the translation version

2.2 Review of theoretical background

2.2.1 Theoretical framework

Systemic Functional Grammar or Linguistics, first introduced by Michael Halliday (1985), refers to a new approach to the study of grammar that is radically different from the traditional view in which language is a set

of rules for specifying grammatical structures In this view, language is a resource for making meanings and hence grammar is a resource for creating meaning by means of wording

Unlike the „grammar as rule‟ type of theory, SFL takes the resource perspective rather than the rule perspective, and it is designed to display the overall system of grammar rather than only fragments That‟s why it has come to be known as a Systemic Functional Grammar

In Systemic Functional Linguistics, „clause‟ rather than „sentence‟ is the unit of analysis In Systemic theory, a clause is a unit in which meanings

of three different kinds are combined Three distinct structures, each expressing one kind of semantic organization, are mapped onto one another

to produce a single wording These semantic structures are referred to as

Meta-functions:The interpersonal function, the ideational function and the textual meta-function

meta-The interpersonal meta-function is concerned with the interaction between speaker and addressee, the grammatical resources for enacting social roles in general, and speech roles in particular, in dialogic interaction, i.e for establishing, changing, and maintaining interpersonal relations The building blocks of this semantic function configure as Subject, Finite, Predicator, and Complement

The ideational meta-function is concerned with „ideation‟, grammatical resources for construing our experience of the world around and inside us This meta-function is analyzed in terms of Transitivity system, i.e a choice between the six processes and the participants and circumstances associated with those processes A clause in its ideational function is a means of representing patterns of experience, i.e to build a mental picture of reality This is what people employ to make sense of their experience of what goes on around them and inside them: these goings-on (processes) are sorted out in the semantic system of the language and expressed through the grammar of the clause The system that works out the types of process and hence participants in the process and circumstances associated with the process is known as the Transitivity system In English, the processes are of the following types (Halliday, 1985, 1994):Material Process, Mental process, Relational process, Behavioral Processes, Verbal Processes and Existential Processes

The textual meta-function is concerned with the creation of text with the presentation of ideational and interpersonal meanings as information that can be shared by speaker and listener in text unfolding in context This meta-function consists of two sub-functions, Theme and Rheme

2.2.1.1 Overview of business letter

a Definition

Business correspondence is one of the principle means used by the enterprises to keep in touch with its customers; and customers form their impressions of the enterprise from the tone and the quality of the letter it sends out It, therefore is often believed to be the “ambassador” of an enterprise A great deal of business in the world is conducted by this means Thus, it is extremely important to be able to write good business letters that represent one‟s self and one‟s firm to take the best advantages

No intelligent, forward-thinking businessman would tolerate a rude, careless

or untidy salesman or representatives Yet thousands of letters go out everyday that reflect discredit upon the firm they represent, letters that antagonize as surely as anoffensive or bad-mannered individuals Such letters could do more harm than good, for often they destroy the very confidence and goodwill they seek to establish and maintain Therefore, the form of the letter with good quality paper and attractive letterhead plays its significant role, but what is more important to decide its success or failure is the message it carries The business correspondence requires the writer to express himself or herself accurately in a language that is plain, clear, courteous and readily understood The entire success of good business letter writing is to write simply and in an easy and natural style

b The reasons of using business letters

When comparing oral and written communication, a variety of reasons for putting things in writing are found out as follows:

- Written documents serve as permanent records Clearly, while talks and memories can fade away, written documents allow people to store data

- Written channels are more effective than oral ones for presenting numerical data and complex information

- Written channels are more convenient for the recipient than oral ones This remark seems more obvious in international business as talking

on the phone requires immediate comprehension while a fax or a letter enables the receiver to process the information more accurately

- Written channels may enable the sender to convey his/her message more effectively Writers can present their ideas in the most efficient way, even in difficult situations

- Written channels are less expensive than oral ones for reaching large group of people or transmitting information over long distances

Among written means of correspondence, business letters nowadays seem not as convenient as some other electronic ones like e-mails, telexes, faxes, cables, which can be transmitted in just a few seconds Letters; however, may be the best means of communication in many cases – when the corresponding context is highly formal or when an important, reliable document with signs and stamps is needed

c The style of business letters

A business letter is usually a letter from one company to another, or

between such organizations and their customers, clients and other external parties The overall style of letter depends on the relationship between the parties concerned Business letters can have many types of contents, for example to request direct information or action from another party, to order supplies from a supplier, to point out a mistake by the letter's recipient, to reply directly to a request, to apologize for a wrong, or to convey goodwill

A business letter is sometimes useful because it produces a permanent written record, and may be taken more seriously by the recipient than other forms of communication

The business letter is the principal means used by a business firm to keep in touch with customers; it is often the only companies or organizations and customers forming their impression of the firm or negotiation from the tone and quality of the letters they send out

Good quality paper and an attractive letter play their important part in this, but they are less important than the message they carry Business does not call for the elegant language of the poet, but it requires the writer to express himself accurately in a plain language that is clear, concise, courteous and readily understood

In term of grammatical correctness, gaining an attractive business style may be the biggest problem for the writer of business letters For example:

As per your request, find my enclosed herewith a check in the amount of

2000 USD

The expression “ As per” and “ herewith” contribute nothing to the

message while making the letter sound stilted and stiff Within the limit of using standard English, you should try in a regular way:

As your request, I have enclosed a check for 2000 USD

d Parts of business letters

According to Dudley-Evans and St John, business letters have certain features of discourse that are common to their types, they differ only in purpose That is to say, business letters can be classified according to their communicative purpose Thus, the writer should establish his/her purpose for writing as well as focus his/her audience, such as application letter, letters of complaint, letters of requesting permission, order letter and response letters They therefore share the same steps of writing and number

of paragraphs (opening and closing moves) There are many parts to business letter, some are required and others are optional According to Asheley (2003), Shevtin (2005), Naterop et al (1977), Carey (2002), and Mosenfelder (1998) agree about eight essential elements which should be used in writing a formal business letter These parts are as the following:

- Sender’s address: it should be written on the top right corner, if the

letter is sent by an individual, but it should be in the middle, and is called letterhead, if it is written by a firm The sender‟s address should include information about the city and postcode, the street, and the country if the letter is to be sent to a different country

- Date: no abbreviations can be used in writing the date, that is to say,

months should be fully spelled out and years should be written with all four digits In English, the date can be written in different ways

- Inside address: the sender should give the address of the receiver

after his/her own address (the name preceded by the titles such as Mr, Miss, Mrs, etc, company, address and postal code, if the name of the receiver is not known, the sender should write the name of the department and the

address) Of course, one should try to spell people‟s names and addresses correctly

- Salutation: The type of salutation or greeting depends on the

writer‟s relationship with the reader It has three parts The first part usually begins with the word “Dear” The second part includes a title such as Mr, Mrs, etc The final part always includes the person‟s last name The writer should use every resource possible to address his/her letter to an actual person If he/she does not know the name or the sex of the reader, s/he addresses it to Dear Madam/Sir (or Dear Sales Manager or Dear Human Resources Director) As a general rule the greeting in a business letter ends

in a colon (US style) It is also acceptable to use a comma (UK style)

- Body of the letter: It is the main part of the business letter where

the sender explains why he/she is writing It consists of three sections which should be brief and concise

- Complimentary closing: It is a sign to the end of the business

letter The writer should capitalize the first letter in the closing which is followed by a comma Formal closing should be used such as the following:

Sincerely,

Yours truly,

Sincerely yours,

-Signature: The sender writes his/her full name at the bottom of the

letter If the business letter is typed, the signature is written just above the typed name

e The layout of business letters

The horizontal placement of letter parts is flexible within the limits of three basic styles:

LETTER LAYOUT 1: All letter parts begin at the left margin It is therefore the fastest traditional arrangement style to type ( See Appendix 1)

LETTER LAYOUT 2: All letter parts begin at the left margin, except the dateline, complimentary closing, company signature and writer‟ identification, which start at the horizontal center of the page ( See Appendix 1)

LETTER LAYOUT 3: This is the same as letter layout 2 with one change : the beginning of each paragraph is indented five or ten spaces

2.2.2 Theoretical background

2.2.2.1 Theory of cohesion

a The concept of cohesion

The concept of cohesion is closely connected with text It is defined

as the grammatical and lexical relationship between different elements of a text According to Yule (1996), a text is usually considered to have a certain structure which depends on factors quite different from those required in the structure of a single sentence Some among those factors are described in terms of cohesion, or the ties and connections which exist within a text Halliday and Hasan (1976) also define cohesion in a similar way: “The concept of cohesion is a semantic one; it refers to relations of meaning that exist within the text, and that define it as a text.” They also point out that cohesion often occurs where the interpretation of some elements in the discourse is dependent on that of another

To summarize, cohesion refers to the linguistic elements that make a discourse semantically coherent; or as Nguyen Hoa (2000) indicated

“cohesion refers to the formal relationship that causes texts to cohere or stick together”

b Cohesion and coherence

The distinction between cohesion and coherence has not always been

clarified partly because both terms come from the same verb cohere which

means sticking together In fact, cohesion is the network of different kinds

of formal relations that provide links between or among various parts of a text, and is expressed partly through the grammar and partly through the vocabulary Coherence, on the other hand, is understood as the quality of being meaningful and unified As for Nunan (1993), coherence is “the feeling that sequences of sentences or utterances seem to hang together” Coherence refers to the type of semantic and rhetorical relationship that underlines texts

If cohesion refers to the linguistic elements that make a discourse

semantically coherent, then coherence involves with what makes a text semantically meaningful

Cohesion is the realization of coherence, and coherence is something created by the readers in the act of reading the text The two categories represent the interrelated aspects that make a text or discourse coherent and different from random ones In short, coherence is embodied by a system of cohesive devices and cohesion is mainly used to ensure coherence

c Cohesion and discourse structure

According to Halliday and Hasan (1976), discourse structure is a type

of structure – the structure of some postulated unit higher than a sentence

such as a paragraph, or some larger entity such as episode or topic unit The concept of cohesion is set up to account for relations in discourse without the implication that there are some structural units that are above the sentence Cohesion, in this view, refers to the range of possibilities that exist for linking something with what has been previously mentioned

They also affirm the possibility of setting up discourse structure, including some entity as paragraph or topic unit The structure is considered

to truly exist in these cases, at least in certain genres or registers of discourse Though we cannot show whether there is a functional relation between two sentences, or a similar unit, we can specify a limited number of possible structures, such as types of modification or subordination, transitivity

or modal expressions and the like Instead, the two authors assure: “We have to show how sentences, which are structurally independent of one another, may

be linked together through particular features of their interpretation; and it is for this that the concept of cohesion is required.”

2.2.2.2 Concept of cohesive devices

The term cohesionis used for the relations obtaining among sentences

and clauses of a text These relations, which occur on the grammatical stratum are signaled by certain grammatical and lexical features reflecting discourse structure on a higher These features such as anaphora, subordination and coordination are called cohesive They account for what may also be referred to as the textual connectivity of sentences and clauses They do not themselves constitute cohesion but they mark which clauses and sentences are related and in what manner, (Gutwinski, 1976) In Halliday&Hasan (1976), their definition of cohesion emphasizes the relationship between the meanings of linguistic units They define a concrete form as a tie, “we need a term to refer to a single instance of

cohesion, a term for one occurrence of a pair of cohesively related items This they call a “tie.” This term “tie” refers to a single instance of cohesion

or one occurrence of a pair of cohesively related items The links are called

“cohesive ties” or “cohesive devices”.McCrimmon says that “a paragraph is

more coherent when the author has provided transitions between thoughts

expressed in its sentences

2.2.2.3 Classification of cohesive devices

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 lexico-grammatical in nature or semantic It can be made clearer in the following description

Table 01 : TYPES OF COHESION

Nature of cohesive relation Type of cohesion

Relatedness of form Substitution and ellipsis; lexical

collocation Relatedness of reference Reference; lexical reiteration

Reference, substitution and ellipsis are clearly 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 Consequently, we can refer to grammatical cohesion and lexical cohesion as follows:

Table 02: GRAMMATICAL AND LEXICAL COHESION

Reiteration

Same word/repetition Synonym/near synonyms Superordinates General words

a.Grammatical cohesion

Grammatical cohesion is one kind of cohesion that is proposed by

Halliday and Hasan According to McCarthy (1991), it is “the surface marking of semantic links between clauses and sentences in written discourse, and between utterances and turns in speech” So, this kind of

cohesion plays a particular role in creating cohesiveness between the sentences through grammatical means

Reference

In the view of Halliday and Hasan (1976), 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 scholars also distinguish situational and textual reference

by contrasting exophora and endophora Then they conclude that reference items may be exophoric or endophoric; and if endophoric, they may be anaphoric or cataphoric For instance, the following sentences show the use

of reference

(1)There was an orange on the Table So I ate it

(2) The woman prepared the dinner She used a lot of seasoning

In (1) sentence above, “It” refers back to “an orange” while

“She” in (2) refers back to “the woman” This kind of references is

referring to an anaphora (i.e looking backward) The other kind of

reference, where the pronoun “ He” is given first and then kept in

suspense as to its identity, which is revealed in (3) and (4), is known

as cataphora (i.e looking forward) Examples:

(3) He was aggressive My Boss

(4) He made tremendous impact The Provost

- Personal reference

It is defined by Halliday and Hasan as “reference by means of function in the speech situation, through the category of person” They and Nunan (1993) explain that items of personal reference are expressed

through pronouns, whether personal (as I, you, she, he, it, we, they) or possessive (as mine, yours, hers), and possessive determiners (as my, your, our)

Exam

ples: extracted from (Halliday and Hasan, 1976)

-John has moved to a new house He had it built last year (He is

demonstratives of place whereas now and then are adverbials of time

Example:

-We went to the opera last night That was our first outing for months -We‟re going to the opera tonight This‟ll be our first outing for months

- Comparative reference

It is a kind of reference that is expressed indirectly by means

of identity or similarity Halliday and Hasan classify the comparative reference into two types: general and particular

+General comparison: this type is used to express likeness and

differences between items Likeness is expressed by using adjectives like:

same, identical…etc, and adverbs like: likewise, similarly…etc Difference

is also shown by using adjectives such as otherwise, differently…etc

Examples taken from (Halliday and Hasan, 1976):

-It is the same cat as the one we saw yesterday?

-It is a different cat from the one we saw yesterday

+Particular comparison: this type does not express likeness or

difference between items, but it focuses on the property of quantity or

quality It is realized by using enumerative such as more, fewer, less, further…etc It is also expressed by comparatives and adverbs like: better, more…than, etc The following example is provided by the same authors: -“Take some more tea,” the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly “I‟ve had nothing yet,” Alice replied in an offended tone, “so I can‟t take more.”

Substitution

Substitution is a relation in the wording rather than in the meaning and within the text It is the use of substitute word or phrase to avoid repetition Most of the substitutes are pro-forms within sentences, which can

be used across sentences It is defined by Halliday and Hassan (1976) as

“substitution is a grammatical relation, a relation in the wording rather than meaning” That is to say, the substitution is the replacement of one item by another The substitute should have the same grammatical class as the item for which it substitutes Since the substitute item may function as a noun, as a verb, or as a clause, there are three types of substitution: nominal; verbal, and clausal The following examples of these types are taken from (Nunan, 1993):

- Nominal substitution: the substitute items are as one, ones andsame

There are some new tennis balls in the bag These ones‟ve lost their

bounce

- Verbal substitution: it is expressed through do

A: Annie says you drink too much

Ellipsis is an omission of certain elements from a sentence or a clause and can only be recovered by referring to an element in the proceeding text The former is non-cohesive, and the latter is cohesive Elliptical cohesion always appears anaphoric Ellipsis can be repetition This is quite similar to substitution in terms of three types: nominal ellipsis, verbal ellipsis, and clausal ellipsis

The following examples of each type are extracted from Hatch (1992)

- Nominal ellipsis:

There is an omission of nominal group

For example: They‟re small; take two (cookies)

- Verbal ellipsis:

The omission of the verbal group depends on a preceding verbal group

Ex:Were you typing? No, I wasn‟t (typing)

- Clausal ellipsis:

It means ellipsis within the verbal group

Ex:I don‟t know how to work this computer I‟ll have to learn how (to work the computer)

Conjunctions

Conjunction differs from substitution, ellipsis and reference in the fact that it is not a device for reminding the readers of previously-mentioned entities, actions, and states of affairs It is not in the kind of anaphoric relation It is, however, a truly cohesive device because it signals

relationship that can only be understood through reference to other parts of the text There are four types of conjunction: temporal, causal, additive and adversative

- Additive:

It is divided into five types: additive (expressed by the use of

and, moreover, besides, in addition…etc), negative (using cohesive devices such as nor, and…not, not …either,…etc), alternative( is expressed by or), comparative (using expressions like: in the same way, by contrast,…etc), and appositive (for exposition or exemplification the following cohesive ties are used: in other words, that is , for instance,…etc)

Example:

My client says he does not know this witness Further, he denies

having seen her or spoken to her

- Adversative:

This type is expressed by the following cohesive relations: but, however, yet, although, actually, any how …etc

Examples:

I‟d love to join in Only I don‟t know how to play

She failed However, she‟s tried her best

- Causal:

This category of conjunction includes reason (which is expressed by:

for this reason, because of this, an account of this,…etc), result (by using expressions such as in consequence of this, consequently,

so,therefore,…etc), purpose (by using items like: for this purpose, with this intention,…etc), and conditional (expressed by cohesive relations such

as with regard to this, in that case,…etc) Examples:

-She felt that there was no time to be lost, as she was shrinking

rapidly; so she got to work it once to eat some of the other bit

-She wouldn‟t have heard it all, if it hadn‟t come quite close to her

ear The consequence of this was that it tickled her ear very much,

and quite took off her thoughts from the unhappiness of the poor little creature

- Temporal:

This type is concerned with describing actions which took place in

a particular time It is expressed by different conjunctions like: after that, next, at the same time, at this point, finally, at the end etc Examples:

-The Middle Ages have become the Renaissance, and a new world has

come into being: our world In what way is it „our world‟? At this point we

run into some difficulty

b.Lexical cohesion

Lexical cohesion was first advanced in terms of collocation by Firth (1957) and later developed by Halliday (1961, 1966) Lexical cohesion occurs when two words in a discourse are semantically related in some way Halliday and Hasan (1976) classify lexical cohesion into two main categories: reiteration and collocation

Reiteration

Reiteration, according to Halliday and Hasan (1976) 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.” Reiteration involves repetition, synonyms and near synonyms, superordinates, and general words For examples:

- Repetition: I met some young ladies at the conference The ladies

were good looking

- Superordinate/Hyponym: I bought plenty of fruits yesterday at the market.These fruits are oranges, pineapples and pawpaw

- Synonym: I was served with a good meal yesterday at the party The food was delicious

(Halliday&Hasan, 1976) Collocation is probably the hardest lexical cohesion to analyze Let us look at the following example:

A: Would you mind filling the kettle and switching it on? (5)

B: I need boiling water for the vegetable (6)

In (5), we have the word “kettle” and in terms of meaning, two words

“fill” and “switch” which may be used to combine with “kettle” appear in our mind Likewise, in (6), we have “water” and “boil” in our mind This

kind of collocation is sometimes more explicitly referred to as “lexical collocation” This differentiates it from “grammatically collocation”, which

is a grammatical rather than a semantic relation Within the scope of this minor thesis, we would like tofocus on the analysis of only lexical cohesive devices used in Englishbusiness letters

2.2.2.4 Function of cohesive devices

Human beings use language to communicate with each other and to represent their ideas or thoughts Communication can be in the form of written as well as spoken discourse To do all this they use one or more word or/and more than one sentence The wide range of sentences can be used as a unified whole or separate unrelated sentences In this way they produce long texts

Meaning : Cohesive device is a device which holds different parts of

a thing together In terms of communication, cohesive devices are typically single words or phrases that hold and hang different parts of the text These are basically tools of cohesion The major function of cohesion is text formation They helps in achieving unity of text as a semantic whole, unified whole of linguistic items

A text must be meaningful A text that is not cohesive is never meaningful They show the logical relationship between sentences and paragraphs They help expand the context, such as whether information is completely new, related to information in other sentences, or is a reference to "old"

information from a previous sentence improves reading and comprehension skills

2.2.2.5 Discourse and discourse analysis

a Discourse analysis

Discourse analysis is concerned with the study of the relationship between language and the context in which it is used This has been developed from the works of different disciplines in the 1960s and early 1970s, including linguistics, semiotics, psychology, anthropology, and sociology Discourse analysts study language in use: written texts and spoken data of all kinds under the approach different from those old grammarians There have been numerous interpretations to what is meant by Discourse Analysis

British discourse analysis was mainly influenced by M.A.K Halliday‟s functional approach to language Halliday‟s framework emphasized the social function of language and the thematic and informational structure of speech and writing De Beaugrande (1980), Halliday and Hasan (1976) as well as Prague School of linguists have made their significant contribution to this branch of linguistics in pointing out the link between grammar and discourse

Yule (1996) states: “In the study of language, some of the most interesting questions arise in connection with the way language is „used‟, rather than what its components are (…) We were, in effect, asking how it

is that language-users interpret what other language-users intend to convey When we carry this investigation further and ask how it is that we, as language-users, make sense of what we read in texts, understand what speakers mean despite what they say, recognize connected as opposed to

jumbled or incoherent discourse, and successfully take part in that complex activity called conversation, we are undertaking what is known as discourse analysis.”

As can be noticed clearly, the term “discourse analysis” is very ambiguous For the sake of research, we would like to take the definition from Hoa‟s (2000) An Introduction to Discourse Analysis as the base of our study: Discourse analysis is considered “as a study of how and for what purposes language is used in a certain context of situation and the linguistic means to carry out these purposes”

b Discourse and text

The Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics (1998) defines discourse as follows: “Discourse is a general term for example of language use, i.e language has been produced as the result of an act of communication.” Sharing the same concern, many other linguists have so far given definitions of discourse Widdowson (1979) states: “Discourse is a use of sentences to perform acts of communication which cohere into larger communicative units, ultimately establishing a rhetorical pattern which characterizes the pieces of language as a whole as a kind of communication.” Whereas Crystal (1992, 25) says: “Discourse is a continuous stretch of language larger than a sentence, often constituting a coherent unit such as a sermon, argument, joke or a narrative.” Quite differently from the others, Halliday and Hasan (1976) give a simple definition: “We can define text (discourse) in the simplest way perhaps by saying that it is language that is functional.”

Linguists have paid much attention to the distinction between a discourse and a text since confusion of these two terms may result in the