Coherence and Cohesion in English Discourse

lonely island of poverty, languishing in the corners of American society and 
finds himself an exile in his own land
) conceptualizes society as a bound space in 
which those who have the power to define societal values and norms are situated 
in the normative centre while those who are regarded as not complying with the 
established ideology (i.e. 
the Negro
) are relegated to the periphery or cast outside 
of the societal space. The lexical items comprised in the metaphors form local 
cohesive chains, e.g. 
poverty
– 
prosperity
; 
injustice
– 
captivity
– 
segregation
– 
discrimination
; 
island
– 
ocean
– 
land
, coherently framed by the anaphoric 
repetition of the temporal indicator 
one hundred years later
which reiterates 
paraphrastically the opening phrase 
five score years ago 
and stresses the length 
of the period elapsed since the abolition of slavery, thus making the demands for 
desegregation even more pressing. The use of the inclusive 
we
, which projects 
the collective identity of the participants in
the civil rights movement into the 
discourse, enhances its persuasiveness by allowing the orator to assume wide 
support for his ideas and demands, which are further developed in the rest of the 
body of the speech.
2. Narrative of achievements
As a persuasion strategy, the narrative of achievements enables the speaker 
to expand on the discourse topic by referring to outstanding past deeds and by 
associating him/herself with these to prove his/her intention, dedication and 
ability to succeed in facing similar challenges and leading the party, nation or 
movement towards the aim at hand. This strategy is applied by Barack Obama in 
his victory speech in 2008 to present the major events of the past century through 
the perspective of the life story of a 106-year-old black woman, who has cast her 
vote in the elections (5). While asserting the historical importance of his election 
to the presidency, Obama invites the audience to see the past through the eyes of 
one of 
the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this 
election
, the typical American.
 
In addition, her Afroamerican origin associates 
her closely with the new President-elect, who is thus represented as one of ‘us’. 
This personalized perspective on recent history guarantees the coherence of the 
passage based on the cohesive chain referring anaphorically to the 
woman who 
cast her ballot in Atlanta, Ann Nixon Cooper
who has witnessed a century of 
American history – a life span which is an outstanding achievement on its own.

---

146
(5) 
This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for 
generations. But one that’s on my mind tonight is about a woman who 
cast her ballot in Atlanta. She’s a lot like the millions of others who stood 
in line to make their voice heard in this election except for one thing – Ann 
Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.
She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no 
cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn’t vote 
for two reasons – because she was a woman and because of the color of 
her skin.
And tonight, I think about all that she’s seen throughout her century in 
America – the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the