Cohesion in Spoken and Written Discourse - Einzelansicht

In the seminal literature, cohesion is described as encompassing all resources usable for establishing (linking) relations on a text’s surface level, so as to support and make visible the text’s inner structure (de Beaugrande & Dressler 1981: 3-4, 21; also cf. Halliday & Hasan 1976). As such, it is one of the main criteria of ‘textuality’, making a sequence of language recognisable as a text in the first place.

The phenomenon has been a linguistic research interest – primarily with regard to written texts – for a number of decades. More recently, a similar importance of ‘tying’ together parts of spoken conversation has been observed as well. (e.g. Sacks 1995a)

In this seminar, we will investigate the linguistic resources that can be used to observably connect parts of discourse and thus mark these parts as belonging to the same larger unit. All branches of linguistics discussed in the introductory classes will be at least touched upon within the first half of the semester. After this overview of the subject matter, the class will serve as an introduction to empirical work within the field of linguistics, as students will have the opportunity to conduct their own, guided, project.

• de Beaugrande, Robert-Alain & Dressler, Wolfgang Ulrich (1981). Einführung in die Textlinguistik.Tübingen: Niemeyer.
• Gumperz, John J., Kaltmann, Hannah & O‘Connor, M.C. (1984). Cohesion in spoken and written discourse: Ethnic style and the transition to literacy. In: Tannen, Deborah (Ed.). Coherence in Spoken and Written Discourse. Norwood: Ablex, 3-19.
• Halliday, M.A.K. & Hasan, Ruqaiya (1976). Cohesion in English. Harlow: Longman.
• Salkie, Raphael (1995). Text and Discourse Analysis. London: Routledge.
• Schubert, Christoph (2008). Englische Textlinguistik: Eine Einführung. Berlin: Erich Schmidt Verlag.

Please be aware that you must have completed the Grundmodul Linguistik.

• active and regular participation
• (poster) presentation
• peer feedback