A text — whether spoken or written — must hang together as a meaningful whole. The properties that make this possible are cohesion and coherence. In informal texts, these are achieved through both formal linguistic devices and shared contextual knowledge.
| Concept | Definition | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Cohesion | The formal (structural) links within a text that connect sentences and clauses | Pronouns referring to earlier nouns; repeated words; conjunctions |
| Coherence | The sense that a text makes as a whole; the logical and communicative connectedness | A conversation topic that flows sensibly from one exchange to the next |
Cohesion is a textual property: you can point to specific linguistic devices. Coherence is an interpretive property: it depends on the reader or listener’s background knowledge and inference.
KEY TAKEAWAY: A text can have high cohesion but low coherence (grammatically connected sentences that are logically unrelated) or low cohesion but high coherence (a fragmented conversation that still makes sense to participants because of shared context). Both matter for analysis.
Reference is the use of a word to point back (anaphoric) or forward (cataphoric) to another element:
- Sarah called. She wants to catch up. (anaphoric pronoun)
- Guess what? The exam was cancelled. (presupposes shared reference)
In informal texts, reference chains are often deliberately compressed — pronouns are used without prior introduction because speakers assume shared knowledge: Did you see what he did?
Ellipsis omits words that can be recovered from context:
- I can come Friday if you can. (= if you can come Friday)
- Seen it? (= Have you seen it?)
Substitution replaces an element with a pro-form:
- I asked for a coffee and she got one. (one substitutes for coffee)
Informal texts use ellipsis heavily — it relies on and signals shared context.
Additive: and, also, furthermore
Adversative: but, however, though
Causal: because, so, therefore
Temporal: then, after, before
Informal texts rely heavily on parataxis — coordination with and and but — rather than complex subordination. This creates a loose, flowing structure.
EXAM TIP: When identifying cohesive devices, be precise. Don’t just say “the writer uses pronouns.” Explain the specific reference chain: The pronoun “she” in line 4 creates anaphoric reference to “Mrs Patterson” introduced in line 2, maintaining cohesion across the exchange.
Lexical chains link ideas across a text:
- Repetition: the same word used again (She loves the beach. The beach is her happy place.)
- Synonymy: related words (dog… canine… mutt)
- Hyponymy/superordinates: She bought a labrador. The dog is enormous. (labrador is a hyponym of dog)
- Collocation: words that typically occur together (fish and chips, black and white)
Coherence in informal texts relies on:
Shared knowledge: participants fill gaps using what they know about each other, the situation and the world.
Implicature: meaning is inferred beyond the literal words (Gricean maxims).
Genre conventions: participants know what kind of text this is and what to expect from it. A casual greeting exchange has a predictable structure that creates coherence even if the individual utterances are elliptical.
Context: the immediate situational context anchors interpretation.
COMMON MISTAKE: Students sometimes assume that informal texts are structurally chaotic or incoherent. In fact, informal texts are highly structured — the structure is just different from formal text. Adjacency pairs, topic management and discourse markers all contribute to coherence.
APPLICATION: In your analysis, identify which cohesive devices are most prominent and explain why. In informal texts, heavy ellipsis and pronoun reference without prior introduction indicate a high level of shared context and intimate tenor — the language is doing less explicit work because the relationship does the rest.
VCAA FOCUS: VCAA expects students to distinguish cohesion from coherence and to explain how specific discourse-level features contribute to both. Practise identifying reference chains, ellipsis and lexical cohesion in transcripts and written informal texts.
