Phân tích sự liên kết về mặt ngữ pháp trong các bài báo liên quan đến vấn đề hạt nhân ở triều

Summary...19CHAPTER 2: AN ANALYSIS OF GRAMMATICAL COHESION MANIFESTED IN NEWSPAPER ARTICLES RELATING TO THE TOPIC: NUCLEAR ISSUE IN NORTH KOREA AND IRAN 2.1.. Being interested in grammat

Second, I would also like to thank all of the teachers in the foreign language department for their lectures on the area which enable me to gain a lot of theoretical as well as practical knowledge.

Finally, I am particularly grateful to my parents and my friends for their

encouragements and spiritual support during my process of writing the thesis.

Vinh, summer, 2007 Phạm Thi Thanh Xu©n

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgement

Abbreviations

Table of contents

Part I: Introduction

1 Rationale of the Study 1

2 Aims of the Study 2

3 Scope of the Study 2

4 Method the Study 3

5 Deign of the Study 3

Part II: Development Chapter 1: Theoretical background 1.1 Text 4

1.2 Theory of Discourse 4

1.3 Discourse Versus Text 5

1.4 The Concept of Cohesion 5

1.5 Cohesion and Coherence 6

1.6 Types of Cohesive Devices 7

1.7 Grammatical Cohesion 8

1.7.1 Reference 8

1.7.1.1 Exphoric reference 8

1.7.1.2 Endophoric reference 9

1.7.1.3 Personal, Demonstrative and Comparative reference 10

1.8 Substitution 12

1.8.1 Nominal Substitution 12

1.8.2 Verbal Substitution 13

1.8.3 Clausal Substitution 13

1.9 Ellipsis 15

1.9.1 Nominal Ellipsis 16

1.9.2 Verbal Ellipsis 16

1.9.3 Clausal Ellipsis 17

1.10 Conjunction 17

1.11 Summary 19

CHAPTER 2: AN ANALYSIS OF GRAMMATICAL COHESION MANIFESTED IN NEWSPAPER ARTICLES RELATING TO THE TOPIC: NUCLEAR ISSUE IN NORTH KOREA AND IRAN 2.1 Newspaper Properties 20

2.1.1 The Concept of Newspaper 20

2.1.2 The Content of Newspaper 20

2.1.3 Types of Newspaper 20

2.1.4 Circulation and Readership 21

2.1.5 Advertising 21

2.2 General Information about the Material Selected 22

2.3 Grammatical Cohesion Seen as its Types 23

2.3.1 Reference 23

2.3.1.1 Endophoric Reference 23

2.3.1.2 Personal, Demonstrative, and Comparative Reference 26

2.3.2 Substitution 33

2.3.3 Ellipsis 35

2.3.4 Conjunction 36

Chapter 3: Discussion and Implication 3.1 Dicussion 41

3.2 Some Implications for English Teaching and Learning 42

Part III: Conclusion 45 References

Appendix

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the Study

When reading a text, the first impression that makes readers understand itscontent is the feeling that it hangs together This way is implemented by variouslinguistic devices including grammatical and lexical ones Hoey, cited in Nunan (1993),when mentioning to lexical cohesion, claims that “lexical cohesion is the single mostimportant form of cohesion, accounting for something like 40% of cohesion ties intext” The other that constitutes 60% is grammatical devices effectively provide ameasure of the cohesiveness of the text Therefore, grammatical cohesion (reference,ellipsis, substitution and conjunction) greatly contributes significant part in creatingcoherence of discourse Obtaining a sufficient awareness of the vivid existence ofgrammatical cohesion as a cohesive device, of its significant role in generating textualcoherence as well as proper ways in which it is used by native speakers (writers) canmake a helpful contribution to teaching and learning English However, to my bestknowledge, learners particularly meet the obstacles of recognising the use of thesegrammatical devices when producing and receiving English Thus, based on thisphenomenon, an analysis of using grammatical cohesion is intended to be an effort tocontribute to helping learners

The second reason for conducting the present research originates from the factthat newspaper articles are said to be a useful and typical demonstration of grammatical

as well as lexical cohesion usage where journalists often attempt to convey as muchsufficient information as possible within the limit of an article Moreover, newspaper,nowadays, has become one of the most popular and powerful means of communicationand plays a displaceable part in man’s life It is a place where language unexceptionallymanifests it own features Being interested in grammatical cohesion, we find it veryinteresting and appropriate also, to apply related theories in to VietNam Newsnewspaper- one of the first and the most familiar newspaper written in English in VietNam - on the topic nuclear issue in North Korea and Iran – the hottest and prominentaffair of the world now

All above reasons are the driving force that has inspired us to investigate anddecide to choose “An Analysis of Grammatical Cohesion Manifested in Newspaper

Articles Relating to the Topic Nuclear Issue in North Korea and Iran” as the theme ofthe thesis.

It is hoped that the study is a contribution to English teaching and leaning, and agood source of reference for those who are interested in the area

2 Aims of the Study

Originating from the above reasons, this graduation paper is aimed at:

- Emphasizing the important role of grammatical cohesion in creating textualcoherence

- Giving some statistics and descriptions of grammatical cohesion in newspaperarticles

- Studying the reasons leading to the different degrees of fondness in differenttypes of grammatical cohesion

- Most importantly, identifying some implications in the hope of helpinglearners of English to improve their competence to analyse and recognize differenttypes of grammatical cohesion in texts

3 Scope of the Study

Within the scope of this thesis, a full catalogue of grammatical cohesion is of toogreat a subject to deal with For the time and resource constraints as well as the limitedsize of the thesis, touching all of the features and details of grammatical cohesion seemsinappropriate and impossible as well Thus, this paper wishes to go into the analysis ofsome following prominent points

First, the research deals with four types of grammatical cohesion indicated byHalliday and Hasan (1976) including reference, substitution, ellipsis and conjunction,other types shown by other writers or lexical cohesion are out of the scope of the thesis

Second, the practical scope of this study is analysis of grammatical cohesion.The source of material is newspaper articles taken from VietNam News – the verypopular and typical newspaper written in English in VietNam The topic chosen foranalysis is nuclear issue in North Korea and Iran - an affair that produces conflict andargument among the nations in the world Perhaps, there is no need to say that it is seen

as the hottest and the most controversial problem of the world current affair The issue

is still believed to be unfinished up to the day the material collection for this study iscompleted It has greatly been drawing the attention of nations as well as people all overthe world

4 Methods of the Study

Within the small scope of this graduation thesis, so to achieve the mentioned aims, the following steps have been applied:

above Collecting newspaper articles relating to the topic: nuclear issue in NorthKorea and Iran from the online VietNam News

- Finding out the examples containing different types of grammatical cohesion

- Analysing some typical examples of each type

- Reaching some conclusions on the subject-matter under investigation andaccordingly giving necessary comments

5 Design of the Study

The research paper includes three main parts: the first part, Introduction dealswith the rationale, aims, scope, methods, and design of the thesis The second part,Development demonstrates the content of the thesis which consists of three chapters:

Chapter I provides the theoretical background – an in-depth review of therelevant literature related to the issue under investigation Specifically, a review oftheory related to grammatical cohesion as well as its types is illustrated

Chapter II deals with an analysis of grammatical cohesion manifested innewspaper articles relating to the topic: nuclear issue in North Korea and Iran Here,concrete statistics about the use of different types of grammatical cohesion in thearticles is calculated and provided

Chapter III summarizes major findings and suggests some implications forEnglish teaching and learning Exercises for application are also given

The final part, Conclusion reviews what has been discussed in the content of the thesisand points out some suggestions for further study

PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1.1 Text

There are many viewpoints around the term “text” Originally, it acquires its

interpretation as a type of linguistic unit larger than the sentence Its appearance can beregarded as the dissatisfactions on the traditional linguist who had seen the sentencebeing the largest unit to be studied In the long study of cohesion in English (Hallidayand Hasan, 1976) state “a text is a unit of language in use It is not a grammatical unit,like a clause or a sentence and it is not defined by its size” Brown and Yule (1983: 6)see text as “the verbal record of a communicative act” or Widdowson (1984:100) claimsthat: “text is the linguistic product of a communicative process”

Obviously, there are many ways to define “text” and its conception seems to be

still under discussion In this study, we use the definition given by Haliday and Hasan(1976:1) “a text is a unit of language in use… a text is best regarded as a semantic unit:

a unit not of form but of meaning” being the best to adopt

1.2 Theory of Discourse

Since the time Discourse Analysis came into being as a branch of linguistics, the

term “discourse” has been defined in different ways A discourse, according to Crystal

(1992:25) is “a continuous stretch of (especially spoken) language larger than asentence, often constituting a coherent unit such as a sermon, argument, joke ornarrative Johnstone (2002: 2) claims “discourse usually means actual instances ofcommunication in the medium of language” Cook (1997: 39) gives an easy-to-understand definition of discourse as "stretches of language perceived to be meaningful,unified and purposive Being similar to the concept of text, the definition of discourse

is still controversial In this thesis, the notion by Nunan (1993) seeing “discourse as astretch of language consisting of several sentences perceived as being related in someways, in terms of the ideas they share and in terms of the jobs they perform withindiscourse” seems to be the most acceptable

1.3 Discourse Versus Text

Actually, there is still disagreement about the meaning of these two terms:

“discourse” and “text” For some linguists, the terms seem to be used almost

interchangeably as in Nunan (1995:1) indicates “A text, or a discourse, is a stretch oflanguage that may be longer than a sentence”

However, some other writers draw a clear distinction between them Widdowon(1984) is probably one of the first who makes a very explicit distinction According tohim, text typically has cohesion whereas discourse has coherence, which can beillustrated by the following example

A: Did you vote Labor or Liberal, Peter?

B: I did not register, mate.

Although there is no formal link between A and B, the listener can infer thatPeter did not vote because he did not register

As in Widdowson (1984: 100), the difference and the interrelationships betweenthe two can be summarized:

Discourse is a communicative process by means of interaction Its situational outcome is a change in a state of affairs: information is conveyed, intentions made clear, its linguistic product is text.

Other acclamations of some linguists are also similar to Widdowson’sviewpoint, i e, discourse is language in action (or interaction) while a text is the writtenrecord of that interaction It is obvious that this view sees discourse as bringing togetherlanguage, the individuals producing the language and the context within which thelanguage is used On the other hand, other linguistics tend to avoid using the term

“discourse” altogether, and accept the term “text” for all recorded instances of language

in use

This study supports the distinction indicated by Salkie (1993): “the term text is

used to refer to any written record of a communicative event whereas the term

discourse refers to the interpretation of the communicative event in context” The event

itself can be oral language (a sermon, a casual conversation, a shopping transaction) orwritten language (a poem, a newspaper advertisement, a wall poster, etc)

1.4 The Concept of Cohesion

Cohesion is easy to recognize but the way of seeing it is not absolutely similaramong researchers However, they all agree that cohesion is very necessary in teachingand learning language

Halliday and Hasan (1976: 4) in their long study of cohesion in English definecohesion as “a semantic one: it refers to the relations of meaning that exist within thetext and that define it as a text” Obviously, according to them the primary determinant

of whether a set of sentences do or do not constitute a text depends on cohesiverelationship between the sentences which create texture The texture is provided bycohesive relationships Halliday and Hasan (1976: 4) also suggest

Cohesion occurs where the interpretation of some elements in the discourse is dependent on that of another The one presupposes the other, in the sense that it cannot be effectively decoded except by resource to it When this happens a relation

of cohesion is set up, and the two elements, the presupposing and the presupposed, are thereby at least potentially integrated in to a text.

This explanation can be best accounted for by the following example:

Put these books on the table They are very interesting.

We see that “they” in the second sentence refers back to the “these books” in the first

sentence This anaphoric function of “they” gives cohesion to the two sentences which

constitutes a text

Cohesion is much involved, but not coincided, with another notion known ascoherence

1.5 Cohesion and Coherence

Nunan (1993:116) clearly indicates the difference between cohesion andcoherence:

“Coherence is the extent to which discourse is perceived to hang together rather than a set of unrelated sentences or utterances and cohesion is formal links showing the relationships among clause and among sentences in discourse”

Coherence, obviously, is concerned with the feeling that the text hangs together

or the type of rhetorical relationship that underlines text Cohesion is somethinginvisible and attributed to the creation of the addressee’s mind, very often with theassistance of cohesion whereas cohesion occurs visibly in discourse but only serves assignals, guides or clues to coherence Coherence often depends on the common sharedbackground knowledge (schemata), implication or inference The following shortdialogue may provide an illustration

A Shall we go out for a cup of coffee?

B My friend is visiting me.

The response seems unrelated to the former sentence but it becomes coherent if

A knows the implication that because B is busy, i.e, his friend is going to drop by

Cohesion itself does not guarantee coherent and coherence sometimes can berealized without any resource to cohesion Let us have a look at two followingexamples

Eg (1): Peter hates me He is from London.

Eg (2): A Did you vote Labour or Liberal, Peter?

B I didn’t register, mate.

In the first example despite the existence of anaphoric function (“He” refers to Peter) as a cohesive device, one could hardly say that the two clauses are coherent.

Conversely, without having a formal link, the conversation in the second example canstill be perceived to hang and make sense together in the reader’s or hearer’s mind withthe assistance of his schemata (background knowledge) that Peter did not vote because

he did not register

In short, cohesion is only a guide to coherence and coherence is somethingcreated by the act of reading the text Coherence is the feeling that a text hangs together,that it makes sense, and is not just a jumble of sentences Coherence is embodied by asystem of cohesive devices and cohesion is mainly used to embody coherence.Cohesion plays a greatly important part in creating coherence but does not guaranteecoherence

We can summarize the distinction between cohesion and coherence through thefollowing table

Cohesion

- Is in the text

- Grammatical/ lexical relationship

- Clues, signal/ guide to coherence

Coherence

- Is in the readers’/ listeners’ mind

- The feeling that the text make sense

- The reader has to create coherence

1.6 Types of Cohesive Devices

Halliday and Hasan (1976) identified two different types of cohesive deviceswhich can be illustrated by the graph as follows:

Collocation

RepetitionLexical cohesion

Reiteration Synonym/near synonym Cohesion

Grammatical cohesion Reference Super ordinate

Substitution General word Ellipsis

According to Halliday and Hasan (1976: 81), there are two different ways toclassify reference First, in terms of phoric status tendencies, endophoric and exphoricreference are realized Second, as far as its use is concerned, there are three types ofreference: personal, demonstrative and comparative reference

1.7.1.1 Exphoric Reference

Language can refer or make reference in two ways, when we say “my car” or

“your son”, we are referring to some entities in the real world, real–world reference is

called exphoric reference Obviously, we are using more than just the text here toestablish referents; we expect the hearer/ receiver to share a world with us independent

of the text, with a particular car or son Exphoric reference is the reference shared by

the worlds outside the text Based on a typical situation that we inteprete theinformation it refers to Take the following simple example to consider:

What he has contributed is greatly appreciated.

Because the sentence does not make it explicit who he is, what he has contributed, receivers outside the situation have difficulty to understand what is demonstrated They themselves may think that he is “a famous president” or “a good director” etc Thus, exphoric references will very often be a world shared by the sender

and the receiver of the linguistics message, regardless of cultural background Becausethey are not text-internal, they a not truly cohesive, but they are an equally importantpart of the listener /reader’s active role in creating coherence

Eg: Peter is very active He takes part in all the activities in class.

Here, we can see that “he” in the second sentence refers back to “Peter” in the first sentence This is seen as anaphoric reference The anaphoric function of “he” gives

cohesion to two sentences which constitute a text

Anaphoric reference is regarded as a process of continuing to identify exactlythe same entity as denoted by the antecedent There is a range of expressions which are

used for anaphoric reference in English The most typical forms are pronouns (he, him, them, etc)

The second type of reference is cataphoric reference Cataphoric reference isreference which is confirmed by looking forward in the text

Eg: I turned the corner and almost stepped on it There was a large snake in the middle of the path.

( Yule, 1996: 23)

It is clear that the pronoun “it” is used first and is difficult to interpret until the

full noun phrase is presented in the next line This pattern is known as cataphoricreference and is much less common than anaphoric reference

We can summarize the classification of reference in terms of phoric tendencies

as the following graph

( Halliday and Hasan,1976: 32)

1.7.1.2 Personal, Demonstrative and Comparative Reference

(1) Personal Reference

Personal reference is the reference by means of function in the speech situation,through the category of person According to Halliday and Hansan (176: 38) personalreference can be arranged as the following table:

Semantic category Existential Possessive

Person

Other person (s)

Halliday and Hansan (1976: 38)Obviously, we can see through the table that personal reference can be personalpronoun or possessive pronoun In terms of grammatical function, it can play as head ormodifier For example:

Peter is very handsome He is the person I like best.

This is my boy friend, Nam His appearance is very handsome.

(2) Demonstrative reference

Demonstrative reference is the reference, by means of, on a scale of proximity.Halliday and Hansan (1976: 57) state “Demonstrative reference is essentially a form ofverbal pointing The speaker identifies the referent by locating it on a scale ofproximity” Halliday and Hansan also indicate an explicit system of demonstrativereference as follows:

Semantic category Selective Non - selectiveGrammatical function Modifier/head Adjunct Modifier

This theseThat those

HereThere

The

The circumstantial (adverbial) demonstrative here, there, refer to the location of

a process in space , and they normally do so directly, not via the location of someperson or object that is participating in the process Now consider two examples ofdemonstrative reference to illustrate the above idea

Peter was born in London He is living here now

A: Have you ever been to Spain?

B: Yeah, I came there when I was student.

(Yule, 1996:14)These instances, as we can see refer to location

(3)Comparative Reference

Comparative reference is the reference by means of identity or similarity,comparison signals are found most in adjectives and adverbs Comparative referenceincludes similarity and difference

Similarity means two things refer to one thing and similarity often uses the

words such as: such similar, so similarity, likewise.

Eg: John was the victim of a confidence trick Bill was tricked in the same way (“ in the same way” refers to as the way in which “John was tricked”

Difference means elements which use comparison do not refer to similar things but

different ones Difference often uses words like: other, other different else, differently, otherwise.

Eg: The other squirrels hunted up and down the nut bushes, but Nutkin gathered robin’s pincushions off a briar bush, and stuck them full of pine, needle pins.

(Halliday and Hasan, 1976: 78)

(“Other” refers to other squirrels apart from Nutkin).

In short, reference based on phoric tendencies encompasses two types: exphoricand endophoric reference; reference based on different uses includes personal,demonstrative and comparative

1.8 Substitution

Substitution, according to Halliday and Hansan (1976: 89) is a relation withinthe text A substitute is a sort of counter which is used in place of the repetition of aparticular item Substitution is divided into 3 types: nominal, verbal and clausalsubstitution

McCarthy (1991: 45) strongly agrees with Halliday and Hansan “Substitution issimilar to ellipsis, in that, in English, it operates either at nominal, verbal or clausallevel”

According to Nguyen Hoa (2000: 24) substitution is basically a device whichshows the relationship between sentences, where it is desirable to avoid repetition Most

of substitutes are pro–forms within sentences, which are used across sentences He alsomakes a list of 4 types of pro–forms Pro-forms for nouns, pro-forms for adverbials,pro-forms for predicate and predication, pro- forms for direct object

In this thesis, the classification given by Halliday and Hansan as well asMcCarthy , that is, substitution operates either at nominal, verbal or clausal level will bediscussed in the practical part

1.8.1 Nominal Substitution

Nominal substitution often happens with two prevalent words one/ones, same.

Halliday and Hansan (1976) indicate “The substitute one/ones always functions as head

of a nominal group and can substitute only for an item which is itself head of a nominalgroup” Take the following example to illustrate:

I shoot the hippopotamus with bullets made of platinum Because if I use leaden one, his hide is sure to flatten’em.

( Halliday and Hansan, 1976: 91)

Here, “bullets” is head of the nominal group “bullets made of platinum” and

“ones” is head of the nominal group “leaden ones”.

The two nominal groups need not themselves have the same function in theclause: either may have any function that is open to a nominal group Let us have ashort look at the example as follows:

I don’t like this red warm coat The blue one over there is more beautiful.

It is obvious to see that the first nominal group functions as the object whereasthe second one plays the role as a subject of the second clause

The substitute may differ from the presupposed item in number

Eg: Cherry ripe, cherry ripe, ripe I cry.

Full and fair ones - come and buy.

(Halliday and Hansan, 1976:91)

For the above example, the presupposed item is the singular “cherry”, whereas

the substitute is plural

The most frequent word used for verbal substitution is “do” “Do” can be

classified in to lexical verb do, general verb do and pro–verb do used for verbal

substitution

Eg: A Peter hunts rabbits: B: Yes, I have noticed him doing so

Yes, I have watched him do that

I know, he wanted me to do it, too.

Here, we use the complex pro-form: doing so, do that, to do it to substitute the main verb in the first sentence “hunt”.

1.8.3 Clausal Substitution

In a study of cohesive devices (Halliday and Hansan, 1976), clausal substitution

is stated that “What is presupposed is not an element within the clause but an entire

clause The words used as substitutes are so and not” This viewpoint can be explicitly

illustrated in the following instances

Do you need a lift? If so, wait for me; If not, I’ll see you there.

positive or negative, the positive is expressed by so, the negative by not We shall

consider each of these in turn

- Substitution of reported clauses

The reported clause that is substituted by so or not is always declarative

whatever the mood of the presupposed clause There is no substitution for interrogative

or imperative (indirect questions or commands), and the clause substitutes do not occur

following verbs such as wonder, order or ask Now consider successively illustrated

examples below

Eg(1): If you’re seen them so often, of course you know what they’re like.

“I believe so” Alice replied thought fully.

Eg(2) “How am I to get in?” asked Alice again, in a louder tone.

“Are you to get in at all?” Said the footman “That’s the first question, you know”.

It was, no doubt,: only Alice did not like to be told so.

(Halliday and Hasan 1976: 131)

In (1) so substitutes for I know what they’re like.

In (2) so substitutes for that is the first question.

- Substitution of conditional clauses

Conditional clauses are frequently substituted by so and not, especially, following if but also in other forms such as assuming so, suppose not.

Eg:Everyone seems to think he’s guilty If so, no doubt he’ll offer to resign.

- Substitution of modalized clauses

Finally, so and not occur as substitutes for clause expressing modality Consider

the following simple instance

A: He is probably the most intelligent boy in class.

B: Well, perhaps not.

Modality is the speaker’s assessment of the probabilities inherent in the

situation In the above example not used as substitute for the first clause, indicating

modality of possibility

In short, substitution is a type grammatical cohesion in which its devices areused for abbreviating and for avoiding repetition, at the same time creates cohesion indiscourse It operates at 3 levels: nominal, verbal, clausal

1.9 Ellipsis

Cobuild in his English Grammar (1998: 396) claims that “In English peopleoften omit words rather than repeating them This is called ellipsis”

According to Morley (11:78), ellipsis is defined as follows:

Ellipsis is the term applied to denote the lack of repetition of one or more elements that have been mentioned in a previous part of the discourse Ellipted elements are thus deemed to be recoverable by the hearer from the preceding linguistics context

Nguyen Hoa’s “an introduction to discourse analysis” (2002: 26), states “Ellipsismay be defined as the omission of certain elements from a sentence, allowed bycontext”.

All the writers actually agree that ellipsis is the omission of some elements,which are permitted by the participating context It seems to us that the concept ofellipsis indicated by Mc Cathy (1991: 43) is the best to be acceptable “ellipsis is theomission of elements normally required by the grammar which the speaker/writerassumes are obvious from the context and therefore need not be raised”

Halliday and Hansan (1976) greatly agree with Mc Cathy’s viewpoint and pointout 3 types of ellipsis: nominal, verbal, and clausal ellipsis

However, it seems to us that it is very necessary to distinguish betweensubstitution and ellipsis since ellipsis is simply an omission of certain elements incontext, there exists the possibility of recovering them If the speaker or write wants, onthe other hand, such possibility does not exist with respect to substitution Consider twoseparate instances below to understand the distinction between ellipsis and substitution

The president called on congress to approve the budget He thought it was the right thing to do (substitution)

When did she arrive? Probably (she did so) or (she arrived) yesterday (ellipsis).

1.9.1 Nominal Ellipsis

The definition of nominal ellipsis as indicated by Halliday and Hansan (1976:145) “by nominal ellipsis we mean ellipsis within the nominal group”

According to Halliday and Hansan (1976), the structure of a nominal group

consists of a Head with optional modification The modifying elements include some which precede the Head (pre-modifiers) and some which follow (post-modifier) Take

the example below to clearly understand the structure of nominal group

Eg: Those two little pretty girls with nice hats.

Pre-modifiers Head post-modifier The structure of modifier embraces the element: Deictic (D), numerative (N),Epithet (E), classifier (C), Quantifier (Q) The deictic is normally a determiner, thenumerative, or other quantifiers, the epithet is an adjective and the classifier adjectives,nouns or participles The quantifier is normally a relative clause or preposition phrase.Consider an instance as illustration

Eg: Those two little pretty girls with nice hats.

D N R C H QNominal ellipsis, thus, involves the upgrading a word function as deictic,

numerative, epithet or classifier from the status of modifier to the status of Head.

Eg: A: Do you want large eggs?

B: No, I’ll have small.

Small in the second occurrence is an Epithet and normally acts as modifier It upgraded to function as Head.

1.9.2 Verbal Ellipsis

By verbal ellipsis, we mean ellipsis within the verbal group Take two followinginstance to illustrate

(1) Have you been swimming? – Yes, I have.

(2) What have you been doing? Swimming

(Halliday and Hansan 1976:168)

The two verbal groups in the answers have in (1) and swimming in (2) are both instances of ellipsis Both can be said to stand for “have been swimming” and there is no possibility of filling out with any other items Thus, for example, “swimming” in (b) could not be interpreted only as I will be swimming or they are swimming It could be interpreted only as I have been swimming, and it could, furthermore, be replaced by I have been swimming, since as in all types of ellipsis, the full form and the elliptical one

are both possible

Eg: Can you swim?

- Yes Here, “I can swim” is omitted and the example is regarded as clausal ellipsis.

According to Halliday and Hansan, the clause in English considered as thevarious speech functions such as statement, question, response and so on, has a two-part structure consisting of modal element plus propositional element Take thefollowing sentence as an example.

(2) The duke was going to plan a row of poplars in the park

(Modal element) (Propositional element)

The Modal element, which embodies the speech function of the clause, consists

in turn of the subject plus the finite element in the verbal group The propositionalelement comprises the residue: the remainder of the verbal group, and any complements

or adjuncts that may be present Thus, clausal ellipsis can be divided in to two types:modal ellipsis and propositional ellipsis, which are in turn illustrated by two followingexamples:

Eg(1): Are they crying? - No, laughing

Eg(2): You look good, Pop – Do I really?

In the first example the missing elements are “they are” and is seen as the modalelement or this case is modal ellipsis For the second one, the missing elements are

“look good” and are regaded as a case of propositional ellipsis

1.10 Conjunction

Conjunction is the forth and final type of cohesive relation that we find ingrammartical cohesion Conjunction differs from reference, substitution and ellipsis inthat it is not a device for reminding the reader of previous mentioned entities, actionsand states of affairs In other words, it is a cohesive device because it signalsrelationships that can only be fully understood through reference to other parts of thetext

Mc Cathy (1991: 47) has indicated two ways to classify conjunction

First, in terms of form as he draws out that

Single word conjunctions merge into phrasal and clausal ones, and there is often little difference between the linking of two clauses by a single Word conjunction, a phrasal one or a lexical item somewhere else in the clause

Obviously, this way of classification gives us 3 types of conjunction, that is,single-word conjunction, phrasal and clausal ones The successively following instancesindicate the above types of conjunction

Eg: (1) He was insentive to the group’s needs Consequently, there was a lot of bad feeling.

Eg: (2) He was insentive to the group’s needs As a consequence, there was a lot

Second, as far as meaning is concerned, conjunction can be categorized intoaddition, adversity, causality and temporality

Additive conjunction serves to add something more to the text It usuallyintroduces a new clause as an extra piece of information, perhaps reinforcing what has

already been said For example: and, in addition, similarly, moreover etc Take a

sentence to illustrate this

She said she loved him and she wanted to marry him.

Adversative conjunction is explained as introducing an item of information,

which is contrary to expectation such as: but, however, yet Consider a following

instance

Although he admired her, he did not highly appreciate her achievement.

Causal conjunction marks the relationship of reason, consequence and purposes

such as: because, hence, consequently Let us have a look at the example below.

I woke up late Therefore, I was late for school.

Temporal conjunction specifies the time sequence relationship, which exists

between sentences such as: Previously, up to now, at the same tine, first, second, then, finally etc Consider an example as follows:

First he got up Then, he had a bath.

1.11.Summary

In this chapter, we have dealt with the theory related to grammatical cohesionmainly pointed out by Halliday and Hasan In brief, the conclusions that can be drawnout are:

1 The grammatical cohesion includes four types: reference, substitution, ellipsisand conjunction Such sub-types will be discussed in the progress of the study

2 Reference, substitution, ellipsis and conjunction can be clearly distinguishedfrom one another through their definition and classification

3 These four types of grammatical cohesion are of great importance in theprocess of creating cohesion in discourses

CHAPTER 2:

AN ANALYSIS OF GRAMMATICAL COHESION MANIFESTED

IN NEWSPAPER ARTICLES RELATING TO THE TOPIC: NUCLEAR ISSUE IN NORTH KOREA AND IRAN

2.1 Newspaper’s Properties

2.1.1 The Concept of a Newspaper

A newspaper is a publication containing news, information and advertising,usually printed on low-cost paper called newsprint It may be of general or specialinterest, most often published daily or weekly

The first printed newspaper was published in 1605, and the form has thrivedeven in the face of competition from technologies such as radio, television and theinternet Recent developments on the internet are posing major challenges to itsbusiness model, however Thus, newspaper’s model has been changed and developedrapidly in order to agree with the trend

2.1.2 The Content of Newspaper

General-interest newspapers are usually journals of current news Those caninclude political events, crime, business, culture, sports and opinions (either editorials,columns or political cartoons) Newspapers use photographs to illustrate stories, theyuse editorial cartoonists, usually to illustrate writing that is opinion, rather than news

Some specific features of a newspaper may include are:

- Weather news and forecasts

- An advice column

- Critic reviles of movies, plays, restaurants etc

- Editorial opinions

- A gossip column

- Comic trips and other entertainment such as cross word, horoscopes

- A sport column or section

- A humour column or section

- A food column

2.1.3 Types of Newspaper

Newspaper types can be recognized as follows:

First, a daily newspaper is issued everyday, often with the exception of Sunday

and some national holiday and Saturday, and where they exits Sunday, editions of dailynewspaper tend to be larger, include more specialized sections and advertising insertsand cost more Typically, the vast majority of these newspapers’s reporters work fromMonday to Friday, so the Sunday and Monday editions largely depend on content done

in advance or content that is syndicated

Second, weekly newspapers are also common and tend to be smaller and less

prestigious than daily papers However, those Sunday newspaper that do not haveweekday editions are not considered weekly newspapers, and are generally equivalent insize and prestige to daily newspapers

Third, the next type is national newspaper – a newspaper that circulates

throughout the whole country – as contrasted with a local newspaper serving a city orregion

Nowadays, there has also been an emerging class of international newspaper

such as: The international Herald Tribune Often these international editions are scaleddown to remove articles that might not interest the wider range of readers

In short, at least four types of newspaper that is daily, weekly, national and

international newspaper are realized.

2.1.4 Circulation and Readership

The number of copies distributed, either on an average day or on particular days(typically Sunday) is called the newspaper’s circulation and is regarded as one of theprincipal factors used to set advertising rates Circulation is not necessarily the same ascopies sold since some copies or newspapers are distributed without cost Readershipfigures are higher than circulation figures because many copies are read by more thanone person

2.1.5 Advertising

There is one thing that may be greatly surprising, i e, most newspapers makenearly all their money from advertising whereas the income from the customer’spayment at the news-stand is small in comparison For that reason, newspapers areinexpensive to buy, and some are free

The portion of the newspaper that is not advertising is called editorial content,editorial matter or simply editorial, although the last term is also used to referspecifically to those articles in which the newspaper and its guest writers express their

opinions In recent years the advertorial emerged Advertorials are most commonlyrecognized as an opinion-editorial which third-parties pay a fee to have included in thepaper Advertorials commonly advertise new products or techniques such as a newdesign for golf equipment, a new form of laser surgery, or weight loss drugs; the tone isusually closer to that of a press release than of an objective news story.

Publishers of commercial newspaper strive for higher circulation, so thatadvertising in their newspaper becomes more effective, allowing the newspaper toattract more advertisers and to charge more for the service Many paid for newspaperoffer a variety of subscription plans Some others provide some or all of their content onthe internet, either at no cost or for a fee

It is obvious from all above ideas that profit is the most important point thatdecides the existence of newspapers Thus, their publishers always use their wits by allmeans to advertise and get benefit

2.2 General Information about the Material Selected

As the title of the thesis, we show much our concern for newspaper articlesrelating to the topic: nuclear issue in North Korea and Iran, one of the most typical andhottest issue in the world’s current affair and as once mentioned in the scope section, allpieces of newspaper articles are taken from the online Vietnam news newspaper

All of these newspaper articles are actually news stories which briefly describeVietnam and the world current affair Thus, though the articles are long, they are notnecessarily related to the description, opinion or expression rather than retelling andmaking list series of events In many cases, an individual sentence is also a paragraph

on its own Some general statistics of the selected materials are given in the followingtable

Table2.1- General Information about the selected material.

It is obvious from the above statistics that the average proportion of sentencesand paragraphs are not greatly uneven This once confirms our idea i.e, in news stories

in newspaper articles the paragraph is generally also a sentence itself

2.3 Grammatical Cohesion Seen as Its Types

2.3.1 Reference

2.3.1.1 Endophoric Reference

As we have just stated earlier, exphoric reference is reference outside the text.Thus, our survey will not include it Among two types of endophoric reference, i.e,anaphoric reference and cataphoric reference the survey witnesses anaphoric reference

to be the most frequently employed (520 times of occurrence in comparison with 619references in whole, holding 83,90%)

It is rather understandable for the fact that anaphoric reference is confirmed bylooking back objects or person in the news articles Moreover, the chief purpose ofnewspaper articles especially news articles is clear information That is the reason whyanaphoric reference is dominantly favourable compared to cataphoric reference Alsofor this reason, readers easily find anaphoric reference frequently used in newspaperarticles whereas cataphoric reference is often found in the opening sentences of the text

in literature

For anaphoric reference (AR), our survey demonstrates its frequent use refers tothings and objects rather than person (324 occurrences of 520 in whole referring toevents accounting for 62, 4%) This is easily explained by the fact that we are muchconcerned with nuclear issue in North Korea and Iran Thus, it appears that many wordsrelated to this event in comparison with words referring to person Here is a short piece

of a news article to illustrate

“While the world is pre- occupied with the war between Israel and its immediate neighbors, it show little inclination to foresee how the squabble over Iran’s nuclear programme will end.

Will the effort be declared mission impossible or will it be decided to meddle still further in the already chaotic Middle East?

The portents are for more of the latter.

For while the security council cannot stop the slaughter of Lebanese, Palestinian, and Israel civilians It can demand as it did on July 31 that Iran suspend its nuclear program by August 31 or face sanctions.

The resolution that for the first time included legally-binding demands was carried 14 to 1.

The security council’s only Arab representative, Quatar’s Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, said he voted “No” because of the war between Israel and Hezbollah”

(VietNam News, Aug 11, 2006)

In this text, there are four anaphoric references referring to things whereas onlyone anaphoric reference refers to person

The degree of anaphoric reference to person and thing in the whole material wehave already surveyed can be summarized in the following table

Total occurrences of AR referring to

person and things

AR referring toperson

AR referring tothing

Table 2.2 Frequency rates of anaphoric reference referring to person and thing

For cataphoric reference (CR), we witness 99 occurrences in 10 news articles,accounting for 17, 10% of the whole endophoric references Among CR, hardly can wefind any case that is used to refer forward to person or thing by producing the evidence

of pronoun Actually, we ourselves only investigate one example to illustrate this in thewhole material

Eg: This is especially true when we remember that the Security Council permanent member or otherwise are all still digesting the consequences of the 31 day Hezbollah – Israel war.

Paramount is to ensure the cease-fire holds.

So how will it garner enough support to “punish” Iran if Washington does not have any explicit evidence?”

(VietNam News, Aug 25, 2006)The other kind of CR is usually the case: one noun or a phrase refers to thewhole sentence or clause This is generally common with some following instances

“The question that should be asked is, what kind of punishment should be considered appropriate for this case? The carrot and stick approach has already failed

with North Korea …” VietNam News, Oct 27, 2007)

“Asking, demanding, bribing and threatening attempts have all failed What’s really required is a change in the approach to negotiations The need for a negotiated

solution is not only important, but also urgent…”

(VietNam News, Oct 27, 2007)

In the first example, the latter clause “what kind of punishment should be considered appropriate for this case” is taken advantage of as one case of CR referring forward to the former noun the question that should be asked Also the same situation

occurs to the second example

A possible explanation for this phenomenon is that using such CR is potentiallyavailable in news articles because they pay particularly great attention to complex

events rather than special case with resort to using such concrete pronouns: it, they etc

“… Any appearance on the part of Iran that it is willing to be serious about negotiations will give the Chinese, Russians and some extent the Europeans reason to want to avoid escalating the political crisis …” he said.

But here it pays to remember that Iran now awash with petro dollars has lived with United States sanctions for 27 years”

(VietNam News, Aug 25, 2006)

“ Leading us media, including the Washington New York and could trigger a global oil crisis as a result of punitive measures against Iran by the UN.

On the other hand, this will cause anger to the United States and the UN demands when Iran insists on its right to do uranium …”

{VietNam News, Aug 25, 2006)

For the first instance, reference “here” is taken to refer forward to the whole clause “Iran now awash with … 27 years” Similarly, the second example indicates that the determiner “this” is used as CR for the latter clause “Iran insists on its right to do uranium…” The table below gives us a general comparison between different cases

occurring to cataphoric reference

Total occurrences

of CR

CR referring toperson/thing

CR referring to thewhole clause

CR usedwithhere/this

Othercases

in the following table.

Endophoric reference

Table 2.4 Survey result on AR and CR.

2.3.1.2 Personal, Demonstrative and Comparative Reference

In terms of the different use of reference, Halliday and Hansan (1976) categorize

it as follows: personal reference, demonstrative reference and comparative reference

(1) Personal Reference

Personal reference items are demonstrated through pronouns and determiners.They are widely used to identify individuals and objects that are named at some otherpoint in the discourse Consider the two successively following instances quoted innews articles in Vietnam News

“… we express our strong concern for the July 4-5 missile lauches and the October 9 nuclear test by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea…”

(VietNam News, Nov 20, 2006)

“… the proposed statement calls on Iran to re-establish full and sustained suspension of all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities, including research and development It also instructs IAEA director”

(VietNam News, Mar17, 2006)

It is evident that the first example illustrates the use of personal reference with

the attendance of the determiner “our” (determiners are those words such as some, my

that stand before a noun to show how the noun is being used) which is reference

backward to the subject “we” The second instance draws out a clear case of personal reference resorting to pronoun “it”.

Among three main types of reference in terms of its different use, personalreference ranks second 189/619 occurrences (accounting for 30, 53%) Most commonare personal reference expressed through pronoun The following extract will illustratethis

“… Like it or not, we have to accept that the nuclear enabled North Korea is real To be able to pull the situation back from the brink, the six-nation talk must be resumed Both North Korea and the US should not impose conditions on each other if they really want to tackle this statement effectively…”

(VietNam News, Oct 27, 2006)

As can be seen from this example, “we” and “they” are personal pronouns referring to people whereas “it” plays as objective referring to thing These pronouns

are regarded as the head in terms of their grammatical function in the clause and theexistential as far as semantic category is concerned, i e they implicate the existence ofperson or thing in the real world

Interstingly, the number of personal reference employed by pronoun is slightlydenser than those by determiner The table below will explicitly prove it

personal reference

189

Table 2.5 The rate between personal reference by pronoun and determiner

As can be seen from the table, this number is not overwhelmingly uneven (58,73% vs 42, 17%)

This thesis adopts Halliday and Hansan’s (1976) classification of personalreference which includes personal reference expressed by noun (pronoun) and bydeterminer Determiner here encompasses possessive adjective and possessive pronoun

It would be more understandable to have a quick look at two instances below

“… But a day later, North Korea announced that it would not dismantle its nuclear programme before the US supplied it with actors to generate electricity… ”

(VietNam News, Nov 4, 2005)

“… We will see if the Iranians take our offer seriously The choice is theirs to make I want to solve this issue peacefully” said Bush.

( VietNam News, Mar17, 2006)The former exemplifies a case of personal reference expressed through

determiner as a possessive adjective “its” whereas the latter is possessive pronoun

“theirs” Interestingly, the latter example is the unique one among 78 occurrences of

personal pronoun manifested by determiner An acceptable explanation for thisphenomenon is that newspaper articles especially news ones always require explicitness and short ness without mentioning emotion or expression, thus, readers hardly findpossessive pronoun which is rather prevalent in spoken material than formal writtenone

(2) Demonstrative Reference

Demonstrative reference, on the other hand, is employed by the help of adverbs

(here/there) and determiners (this/that, these/those and non-selective determiner “the”.

Let us first see some instances in the extracts of a text below for the case ofdemonstrative reference

Eg(1): “ The minister conceded that the US may as it has done previously, resort to the disruption of Iran’s trade in dollars through its subordinate financial institutions.

But this would be more symbolic in nature than real threat to the country’s economy …”

(VietNam News, Aug 11, 2006)

As can be seen from the above example, the demonstrative reference “this” is

used to refer not only to a particular person or thing but also to the whole clause i.e along chunk of phrases In addition, from this example we can come to a clear conclusionthat demonstrative reference can represent a single word or phrase or much longerchunk of text ranging across several paragraphs or even several papers However, thefinal case has just mentioned will not be shown in the thesis on account of its limitationsize

Eg(2) : “… But we are also prepared if it does not next the termsset – to proceed here in the Security Council … with economic sanctions…”

(VietNam News, Nov 25, 2006)

The second one indicates a typical one of demonstrative reference in which

“here” used as adverb to refer forward to the whole adverb of place “in the Security Council”

Eg(3): “… North Korea’s President King Jong Illustrate, promised China’s President, Hu Jintao, that his country would re – join the talks during Ongyang last Friday.

But the result of the talks is difficult to forecast …”

(VietNam News, Nov 4, 2006)

As can be seen from the example, there are three occurrences of non-selectivedeterminer “the” (It is called non-selective determiner just because it neither refers backward nor forward but indicates the definiteness of a person, thing or an event) Thus, itsuse shapes its name

Actually, our survey results in the most typical occurrences of non-selective

determiner “the”( 374 times of the whole 406 demonstrative references) This is easily

explained by the fact that we always need the definiteness when mentioning to anypeople or event not only in newspaper articles but also in any other written material.Here is an example to indicate the dense occurrences of non-selective determiner “the”

in news stories

“All over the world people are tracking the diplomatic developments between Iran and UN and the difficulties over Teheran’s nuclear programme and most are hoping the crisis will be solved quickly and peacefully”

(VietNam News, Jun 9, 2006)Obviously, only one sentence but contains 4 times of non-selective determiner

“the”

It is not out of assumption when the second rank of demonstrative reference is

attributed to determiners “this/these” and “that/ those” The survey shows out 28

occurrences of determiner this/these and that/those in total 406 demonstrative

references, taking up 6,89% Let us see this case

Eg: “… The consensus about the meaning of the resolution is that if Iran remains defiant before next Thursday and deadline … These refer to commercial of diplomatic sanctions but exclude military forces…”

The Security Council is authorized to “adopt appropriate measures” in accordance with Articles 41 of chapter 7 of the world organization’s charter.

(VietNam News, Aug 25, 2006)

It is clear that what “these” refer to is “adopt appropriate … charter”

Eg: “… But dealing with the prevailing global violence, ethnic and racial conflict, political instability, poverty, diseases and potential pandemics, seems beyond the capabilities of the 191 member organization.

This includes the escalating Iranian crisis.”

(VietNam News, Mar 17, 2006)

Similarly, “this” in the second sentence refers to the whole previous one.

In those articles that we survey, there is also demonstrative reference expressed

through adverbs “here/ there” but not many The whole 16 news stories reveal only 4

occurrences of these adverbs This perhaps reflects the reality that newspaper articlesrelating to the topic: nuclear issue in North Korea and Iran is more concerned withevents rather than places of happened events The instance below will illustrate the

appearance of demonstrative reference employed by means of “here/ there”.

“ Any appearance on the part of Iran that is willing to be serious negotiations will give the Chinese, Russian and to some extent the Europeans reason to want to avoid escalating

But here it pays to remember that…”

(VietNam News, Aug 25, 2005)

To put in a nutshell, nearly all of demonstrative references are expressed

through non-selective determiner “the” The second rank is ascribed to the determiners

“this/there”, “that/those” It is demonstrative reference employed by adverbs here/there

hold the smallest amount of occurrences This is shown in the table below

DR

Shown by “the”

DRShown by determiners

DR

Shown by adverbs

Totaloccurrences

Eg(1): “… US secretary general Kofi Anna ends the second and final of two five year terms in December and it is difficult to imagine any one other then the very brave volunteering for the job…”

(VietNam News, Mar 17, 2006)The above example indicates the use of comparative reference resorting to

mentioning to difference (other) It is employed as an adjective.

Eg(2): “… The objectives are the same but the best approach is to leave room and leave sufficient time for all diplomatic efforts to play” say China’s envoy to the United Nations, Wang Guangya…”

(VietNam News, Mar 17, 2006)

As can be seen from the second instance, the comparative reference “same”

recognized as an adjective to express similarity

Eg(3): “… It has also extended the peace, keeping mandate until April is to give the two more time to work out their differences but the protagonists have proved indifferent to the effort…”

(VietNam News, Mar 17, 2006)

In this example, “more” is also treated as a comparative reference using for

particular comparison, i e, neither employing identity nor difference but referring to thecomparison between two items or more than that

Surprisingly, comparative reference is not often appeared in the material of thisthesis we ourselves witness only 24 occurrences of comparative reference in total 619references, constituting 3,87%

The following extract contains one of them

“European union foreign policy chief Javier Solana was less threatening Iran’s answers were extensive and therefore require a detailed and careful analysis He said.

Non- partisan, non- participants in the debate were more apt to see the response

as a tactic to prolong discussion.

Iran had not agreed to halt enrichment but seemed to offer the possibility of change so that Russia and China could call for more negotiations”.

(VietNam News, Aug 25, 2006)

It is the case from the above example that “less”, “more” are regarded as

adjectives and used for particular comparison, i.e, not referring to identity or difference