Coherence and Cohesion in English Discourse

Academic discourse

---

---

9
CHAPTER ONE
Coherence and cohesion in research articles: 
The role of indexicals
Olga Dontcheva-Navratilova
Abstract
This chapter studies coherence and cohesion in academic discourse by exploring the 
contribution of cohesive devices to the perception of coherence. While approaching 
coherence and cohesion as closely related but independent phenomena, the investigation 
focuses on the cohesive role of indexical devices and considers their potential to foster 
the perception of discourse coherence. The research is carried out on a small specialized 
corpus of 
research articles in the field of linguistics. The findings of the investigation 
show that both the anaphoric and the deictic interpretation of personal pronouns and 
demonstratives contribute to the establishment of cohesive links based on continuity of 
referents and discourse topic organization and thus enhance the perception of discourse 
coherence.