Cambridge Grammar of English Hardback with cd-rom a comprehensive Guide

INTRODUCTION

123

This chapter (123–139) looks at grammar beyond the level of the sentence. In

particular, it examines how grammatical links across sentence boundaries in writing

and across speaker-turn boundaries in spoken language create textual cohesion.

Cohesion is the sense of semantic unity possessed by texts as opposed to random

sequences of sentences. Cohesion is created by cohesive links between sentences.

The following extract is from a written text – an encyclopedia – about the process

of mining. Examples of cohesive links between sentences are marked in bold:

Mining

The 

extraction of useful mineral substances from the earth, either near the

surface or at some depth. 

It was practised in prehistoric times, widely used in

classical times, and be

came highly developed after the introduction of

mechanical power. In surface, strip, and open-cast 

mining, the soil is stripped

away, and 

the ore, coal, clay, or mineral is dug directly. At greater depths the

deposits are approached by horizontal tunnels dug from vertical shafts (drifts).

Variants of 

these digging methods are adopted for different geological

situations. 

Other methods of mining may be devised for particular substances.

Marked in bold are examples of lexical items which repeat or restate earlier

content (mining ➛ mineral; substances ➛ substances; dug ➛ dug), or which are

semantically linked in some way (mining ➛ extraction ➛ tunnels ➛ shafts; the

earth ➛ the soil

). Also marked are grammatical words which refer the reader to

entities in the text (mining ➛ it; these digging methods ➛ other methods) and

examples of grammatical repetition (e.g. past tenses). This chapter describes such

grammatical links which enable a string of sentences in sequence to be read as a

semantically cohesive text.