1

Formal Links
2.1 Formal and contextual links:
We have seen how out feeling that a particular stretch of language m some way bangs together, or has unity,
(that it is. in other words, dtsc0urse). cannot be accounted for in the same way as our feeling for the acceptability of
a sentence. To account for discourse, we need to look at features outside the language: at the situation. the people
involved. what they know and what they are doing. These fads enable us to construct stretches of language as
discourses; as having a meaning and a unity for us. The way we recognize correct and incorrect sentences is
different. We can do this through our knowledge of grammar Without reference to outside facts.
We can describe the two ways of approaching language as contextual, referring to facts out5|de language.
and formal, referring to facts inside language. A way of understanding this difference may be to think of formal
features as in some way bull! In our minds from the black marks which form writing on the page, or from the speech
sounds picked up by our ears. While contextual features are somewhere outside this physical realization of the
language in the world. or pre-existing in the minds of the participants. Stretches of language treated only formally
are referred to as text.
Now although we indeed need to consider contextual factors to explain what it is that creates a feeling of
unity in stretches of the language of more than one sentence, we cannot say that there are no formal links between
sentences in discourse. There are some. as we shall see, and although language teaching and mainstream linguistics
have traditionally concentrated only upon those formal features With operating Within sentences, discourse analyses
may suggest ways of directing teachers‘ and students' attention to formal features which operate across sentences as
well. We shall now try to categorize these formal links and then examine how far they will go in helping to explain
why a succession of sentences is the discourse and not just a disconnected jumble.
Formal links between sentences and between clauses are known as cohesive devices and they can be dealt
with under the headings in 2.2 to 2.8.
2.2 Verb form
The form of the verb in one sentence can limit the choice of the verb form in the next, and we may be
justified in saying that a verb form in one sentence is ‘wrong‘, or at least ‘unlikely’, because it does not fit with the
form in another. If we look back at the exchange between the piano movers, for example, we can see that the verbs
(’5 gain, ’5 got to take, ain’t goin', don't, come on) are all in the present (although they refer to the future). There
seems to be a degree informal connection between them, a way in which the first tense conditions all the others, and
it would be very strange if the exchange had been:
A: Right, who’s goin’ to lift the bottom?
Well, someone had got to take hold of it.
B: I shan’t have been goin’ to.
A: Don’t . . . Come on will you?
2.3 Parallelism
TASK 5
What links are there between sentences in the following?
He vastly enriched the world with his inventions. He enriched the Field of knowledge by his teaching. He
enriched humanity by his precepts and his example. He died on December 17, 1907, and was buried in Westminster
Abbey with the honors due to a prince of men . . . (Arthur Mee (ed.): Immortal Heroes of the World).

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Another link within discourse is affected by parallelism, a device that suggests a connection, simply because
the form of one sentence or clause repeats the form of another. This is often used in speeches, prayers, poetry, and
advertisements. It can have a powerful emotional effect, and it is also a useful aide-mémoire. Here, for example, is
part of Christian prayer:
‘Teach us, Good Lord, to give and net to count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds, to toil and not
to seek for rest, to labor and to ask for no reward, save that of knowing that we do Thy will.’ (St Richard’s Prayer).
Here the discourse proceeds through a repeated grammatical structure (to X and not to Y the/for Z) into
which different words are slotted, creating a rhythm which is finally broken in the last phrase in a way which may
seem to imitate the sense of relief and reward the prayer concerns. (In a secondary school where this was regularly
used in morning prayers it had to be abandoned because the pupils exploited the rhythm created by the parallelism to
make it sound like a football chant!) This example employs parallelism to link clauses, but the same principle is
used to link sentences too. A televised address to the French people by President Pompidou began:
‘Le Genéral de Gaulle est mort. La France est veuve.’ (General de Gaulle is dead. France is a widow.)
Here the two sentences are linked because they follow the grammatical pattern, definite article + proper
noun + copula + complement, a link whose purely formal nature is revealed by the fact that it does not survive
translation into English, where the definite articles are not needed and an indefinite one is. In French, the two
sentences are further linked by the contrasted masculine and feminine genders reinforcing the metaphor of deceased
husband and bereaved wife.
Parallelism, which suggests a connection of meaning through an echo of form, does not have to be grammatical. It
may be sound parallelism: as in the rhyme, rhythm, and other sound effects of verse. One might even extend the idea
and talk of semantic parallelism where two sentences are linked because they mean the same thing. Comic duos
often exploit this for a humorous effect. The first comedian says something in a high-flown style, and the other
repeats the same information in a colloquial one:
A: The Good Lord, in His wisdom, has taken her away from us.
B: You mean the old girl’s snuffed it.
2.4 Referring expressions
These are words whose meaning can only be discovered by referring to other words or to elements of the
context which are clear to both the sender and receiver. The most obvious example of them is third-person pronouns
(she/her/hers/herself; he/him/his/himself; it/its/itself; they/them/their/ theirs/themselves). If we are listening to a
story and somebody says So I ate it we may well know the meaning of it from somewhere earlier in the story. We
choose the most likely meaning for it from the text. It is important to notice that our knowledge of the meaning of it
is only partly formal though. It involves our knowledge of the world as well, and if the story had gone
There was a pineapple on the table. So, I ate it.
we would assume the speaker had eaten the pineapple, not the table (even though the word table is nearer)
because we know that people are more likely to eat pineapples than tables. A computer would have to be given
knowledge about human eating habits before it could interpret this. There are extraordinary cases, however, and in a
story, anything can happen, even the digestion of tables.
In an extended piece of discourse, a common procedure, known as anaphora, is for the identity of someone
or something to be given once at the beginning, and thereafter referred to as she or be 0t it. This makes a kind of
chain, running through the discourse, in which each expression is linked to another:
a pineapple...it...it...it.

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It is not only third-person pronouns that work in this way. The meanings of this and that, and here and there
have also to be found either formally in another part of the discourse or contextually from the world.
The meaning of a referring expression is not always in another sentence or clause, of course. If two people
arrive at the door with a piano and say:
Where shall we put it?
we can assume that it means the piano. We choose the most likely meaning for it from the world, and in this
case, the meaning is contextual. One of the people with the piano might have had a pencil between their teeth, but
would probably have been annoyed if we had taken it to mean the pencil and said:
Put it on the mantelpiece. Sometimes people assume that the meaning of a pronoun is clear when it is not.
Then there are misunderstandings, and we have to say:
Not the pencil, you idiot, the piano!
Foreign language teachers, assuming that comprehension difficulties arise from new vocabulary, can
overlook the difficulties students can have in interpreting the meaning of referring expressions within the discourse.
TASK 6
Look at this opening section of a children’s book:
Here is Edward Bear, coining downstairs now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head, behind
Christopher Robin. It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming downstairs, but sometimes he feels that there is
another way, if only he could stop bumping for a moment and think of it. And then he feels that perhaps there isn’t.
Anyhow, here he is at the bottom, and ready to be introduced to you. Winnie-the-Pooh.
When I Erst heard his name, 1 said, just as you are going to say, “But I thought he was a boy? ’ (A. A. Milne:
Winnie-the-Pooh)
Identify the referring expressions, and the word(s) they refer back to. Are there any doubtful cases, and how
do you resolve them? (How do you know whether he refers to Pooh or Christopher Robin? What does the first word
Here mean?)
It is not always as simple as following the chain back until we come to a name or a noun. Even in a passage
as deceptively childlike as this, there are several more complex examples. Here refers either to an imaginary
Situation or to the picture on the facing page, which shows Pooh coming downstairs. It at the beginning of the
second sentence refers to coming downstairs (and not to his head, of course), and then the next it refers to another
way. The next here refers to a new imaginary situation. I am the author, and you are the reader-although here a trick
is played, and other talks to us as though we are there, listening rather than reading. This story is written to be read
out loud, and in many contemporary cultures, reading out loud is something done mostly for children. That, together
with the subject matter, accounts for our feeling at this point that the story is being sent to a child, you. So, we can
see how complicated this network of referring expressions is, and how skilled even quite young children are at
understanding it. Yet if, as teachers, we concentrate our attention on formal links within sentences. we are taking all
these skills for granted and may leave our students completely at sea.
TASK 7
Here is another chapter opening from the same children’s book. What is different about the use of the
pronouns?
Nobody seemed to know where they came from, but there they were in the Forest: Kanga and Baby Roo. (A.
A. Milne: Winnie-the-Pooh, Chapter 7)
Sometimes the chain has to be followed in the opposite direction. We are given the pronoun first and then
kept in suspense as to its identity, which is revealed later. This is known as cataphora, and it is a favorite opening

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device of authors who begin stories and novels with an unidentified he or she, both enticing us to look further, and
plunging us into the middle of a situation as though we already knew what was going on. Again, this device seems
to be one that children can handle quite early if Task 7 is a good indicator.
Referring expressions fulfill a dual purpose of unifying the text (they depend upon some of the subject matter
remaining the same) and of the economy because they save us from having to repeat the identity of what we are
talking about again and again.
2.5 Repetition and lexical chains
TASK 8
1. Timotei is both mild to your hair and to your scalp-so mild you can wash your hair as often as you like.
Timotei cleans your hair gently, leaving it soft and shiny, with a fresh smell of summer meadows.
2. This Schedule and Policy shall be read together as one contract and any word or expression to which a
specific meaning has been attached in any part of the said Schedule or Policy shall bear such specific
meaning wherever the word or expression may appear.
Both these extracts avoid referring expressions. Why? Would it make any difference if the second extract was
rewritten with referring expressions instead of repetition? Can you think of other discourse types that often avoid
referring expressions, and, if so, what are the reasons for this?
Repetition of words can create the same sort of chain as pronouns, and there are sometimes good reasons for
preferring it. In Britain, mother tongue learners of English are discouraged from using repetition because it is ‘bad
style’, and encouraged to use a device known as ‘elegant repetition’, where synonymous or more general words or
phrases are used. So instead of writing
The pineapple . . . the pineapple . . . the pineapple . . . the pineapple … they might write.
The pineapple . . . the luscious fruit . . . our meal . . . the tropical luxury.
The kind of link that we choose will depend upon the kind of discourse we are seeking to create, and elegant
repetition is not always desirable. It may sound pretentious in casual conversation, or create dangerous ambiguity in
a legal document (though this view of legal discourse can be challenged). As teachers, we need to sensitize students
to the interplay of discourse type and the choice between referring expressions, repetition, and elegant repetition.
TASK 9
In the following, is it possible or desirable to
1. replace repetitions with referring expressions
2. replace referring expressions by repetitions
3. replace either by elegant repetition
and, if so, would this affect the meaning, the style, or both? What does all this refer to in the third sentence?
Hold the disc by its labeled end, with the side you wish to use to the left. Now insert the disc into the drive slot
until it clicks home. All this should require no more than gentle pressure: if the drive appears to be resisting the
disc, stop. Whatever you do, don’t force it. The other thing to remember is that you can damage your discs by
inserting them before switching the computer on, or for that matter by leaving them in while you switch it off.
(Amstrad PCW8256 User Guide)
We have described referring expressions, repetition, and elegant repetition as establishing ‘chains’ of connected
words running through discourse. Such lexical chains need not necessarily consist of words that mean the same,
however. They may also be created by words that associate with each other. This association may be under some
formal semantic connection (good, for example, associates with its opposite bad; an animal with an example of an
animal like a horse; violin with the orchestra of which it is a part), or it may be because words are felt to belong to
some more vaguely defined lexical group (rock star; world tour; millionaire; yacht). This last kind of connection,
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though it is sometimes treated as a kind of cohesion (Halliday and Hasan 1976:284-7), is too dependent upon
individual experience and knowledge to be treated as a formal link. We shall return to it under another heading in 6.
2.6 Substitution:
Another kind of formal link between sentences is the substitution of words like do or so for a word or group
of words that have appeared in an earlier sentence. It would be very long-winded if we had always to answer a
question like Do you like mangoes? With a sentence like Yes I like mangoes or Yes I think I like mangoes. It is much
quicker, and it means the same if we say Yes I do or Yes I think so. Unfortunately, much traditional language
teaching, in its zeal for practicing verb tenses and using new vocabulary, has concentrated exclusively 0n longer
forms (Answer with a full sentence please!) and deprived students of briefer, more authentic options.
2.7 Ellipsis:
Sometimes we do not even need to provide a substitute for a word or phrase which has already been saying.
We can simply omit it and know that the missing part can be reconstructed quite successfully. Instead of answering
Would you like a glass of beer? with Yes I would like a glass of beer we can just say Yes I would knowing that as a
glass of beer will be understood. Or if someone says What are you doing? we can just answer Eating a mango
instead of I am eating a mango because we know that I am is understood and does not have to be said. Omitting part
of sentences on the assumption that an earlier sentence or the contextw1llmake the meaning clear is known as an
ellipsis.
TASK 10
Look at Tasks 5-9 again, and find any instances of substitution or ellipsis.
2.8 Conjunction:
Yet another type of formal relation between sentences-and perhaps the mom apparent-is provided by those
words and phrases which explicitly draw attention to the type of relationship which exists between one sentence or
clause and another. These are conjunctions. These words may simply add more information to what has already been
said (and add to that) or elaborate or exemplify it (for instance, thus, in other words). They may contrast new
information with old information, or put another side to the argument (or, on the other hand, however, conversely).
They may relate new information to what has already been given in terms of causes (so, consequently, because, for
this reason) or in time (formerly, then, in the end, next) or they may indicate a new departure or a summary (by the
way, well, to sum up, anyway). There are many words and phrases which can be put into this category in English.
and many different ways in which they can be classified. They indicate the relationship of utterances in the mind of
the world and are thus in a way contextual. Language learners need to know both how and when to use them. Their
presence or absence in discourse often contributes to the style, and some conjunctions can sound very pompous
when used inappropriately.
2.9 Conclusion:
We now have a means of assessing the extent of formal links within a piece of discourse. In 3 we shall see
that these links are neither necessary nor sufficient to account for our sense of the unity of discourse. Their presence
does not automatically make a passage coherent, and their absence does not automatically make it meaningless.
As teachers, we should notice that a clear understanding of the formal connections between sentences may
help to explain one of how foreign language students sometimes write supposedly connected sentences, each of
which is Well formed in itself, but which somehow add up to very strange discourse. It can also help us to identify
why a student is not achieving the stylistic effect he or she is seeking. It should be clear that the correctness and the
effect of some expressions cannot only be judged within the sentence but must be judged in connection with other
sentences in the discourse as well. We shall return to the question of how awareness of cohesive devices may affect
teaching practice in 11 and 13.
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