Cohesion R Redmond
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The song "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" uses various cohesive devices to connect the lyrics. It employs lexical cohesion through repeated words and phrases that create lexical chains about seeing a face, kissing a mouth, and holding someone near. Grammatical cohesion is provided by pronouns, consistent use of past tense, and parallel structure between lines. Rhetorical cohesion comes from echoed lines at the end of each stanza. These cohesive devices give the lyrics flow and allow the romantic experience recounted in the song to be clearly conveyed.
Cohesion R Redmond
- 1. Cohesion Renee Redmond Language Analysis: Grammar and Discourse MA TESOL Program Fall 2017 The New School Professor: Leo Schmitt
- 2. Cohesion From Thornbury’s An A-Z of English Language Teaching and Beyond the Sentence: Cohesion is the use of grammatical and lexical means to achieve connected text, either spoken or written. In other words, cohesion is what makes a text “hang together.” Cohesion is one of the elements that distinguishes a text from a “language event” (Thornbury, 2005, p. 18-19.). To be considered a text, a piece of written or spoken language must: • be self contained • be well-formed • hang together (cohesion) • make sense (coherence) • have a clear communicative purpose • be a recognizable text type • be appropriate to its context of use
- 3. Two Main Types of Cohesion: Lexical and Grammatical and a Third Type: Rhetorical Cohesion Lexical Cohesion • use of words from the same lexical set (sun, moon, stars, skies, world) and lexical chains of topically related words • repetition of words, or words from the same word family or use of synonyms or antonyms • use of general words to refer to something more specific mentioned elsewhere (GCT the place, Graciethe girl) • substitution of previously mentioned words with one/ones • ellipsis of previously mentioned words • collocations: i.e. orange peel, full moon
- 4. • Reference devices: pronouns and some determiners (e.g. this, that) • Reference inside the text: anaphoric (back in the text), cataphoric (forward in the text) • Substitution of previously mentioned clause elements, with do/does, or so/not • Ellipsis of clause elements: Where have you been? At the mall. (I have been at the mall ) • Linkers, such as therefore, what’s more, then • Nominalization: using a general noun to make a reference to a specific action, event, idea or utterance (situation, theory, opinion etc.) • Tense Grammatical Cohesion
- 5. Rhetorical Cohesion • parallelism, i.e. sentences that “echo” the structure of previous sentences • question
- 6. Looking at Cohesion in a Song Lyric What: “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” When: 1957 Who: written by British songwriter Ewan MacColl for his wife recorded by Peter, Paul & Mary in 1965 recorded by pop singer by Roberta Flack and used in the 1971 film “Play Misty for Me” Why: I believe in teaching from texts: they are engaging, relevant, meaning-based, and promote critical thinking. I also find the incorporation of music in teaching effective.
- 7. The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face Ewan MacColl (1958) as performed by Peter, Paul & Mary The first time ever I saw your face I thought the sun rose in your eyes And the moon and stars were the gifts you gave To the dark and the empty skies, my love To the dark and the empty skies. The first time ever I kissed your mouth I felt the earth move in my hand Like the trembling heart of a captive bird That was there at my command, my love That was there at my command The first time ever I held you near And felt your heart beat close to mine I thought our joy would fill the world And would last till the end of time, my love And would last till the end of time
- 8. Lexical Cohesion 1. Lexical sets Sun, moon, stars, skies, earth, world Face, eyes, mouth, hand, heart 2. Lexical chains Saw your face, Kissed your mouth, Held you near 3. Repetition The first time ever I… My love Last two lines of each stanza repeat (this is also parallelism) 4. Ellipsis of previously mentioned words I thought our joy would fill the world And (our joy) would last to the end of time
- 9. 5. Collocations the first time saw your face kiss your mouth heart beat to the end of time 6. Rhyme Eyes/skies Hand/command Mine/time 7. Musical and poetic cohesion Strophic form – all verses are sung to the same music
- 10. Grammatical Cohesion 1. Pronouns a. you, your, my, mine, our - these subject and possessive pronouns serve to connect sentences in the text and to the context of the relationship described b. Relative pronoun, anaphoric reference: Like the trembling heart of a captive bird that was there at my command 2. Article “the” and reference The first time: creates a schema of three events outside the text being described within the text. Thornbury (2005, p. 23) says “this cross referencing serves to bind the text together… connecting the text to its context”
- 11. 3. Repetition of sentence structure The first time ever I… saw your face I thought… kissed your mouth I felt… held you near I felt… 4. Tense Except for the use of the modal auxiliary verb “would” in the last verse, the text is in the simple past tense. The consistent, narrative use of the simple past brings the listener near, and is fitting for this intimate story.
- 12. Rhetorical cohesion 1. Parallelism To the dark and the empty skies, my love To the dark and the empty skies That was there at my command, my love That was there at my command And would last till the end of time, my love And would last till the end of time
- 13. Cohesive Devices Not Used in this Text 1. Substitution for a whole clause using do/does or so/not: Does this song touch you? I think so. (it touches you.) Are you too jaded to cry when you hear it? I think not. (you are not too jaded to cry.) 2. Linkers: connectors that link sentences: Therefore, I brought some tissues to share. 3. Rhetorical question: Could he possibly love her more? 4. Nominalization: Analyzing cohesive texts like this song can be helpful to us and to our learners. I hope you have enjoyed this process as much as I have.
- 14. References MacColl, Ewan: biographical information retrieved from http://www.ewanmaccoll.co.uk/ewan-maccoll-biography/ Peter, Paul and Mary’s performance: retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6x3mRbZo3k Thornbury, S. (2006). An A-Z of English Language Teaching. Oxford: Macmillan. Thornbury, S. (2005). Beyond the Sentence. London: MacMillan.