Project information
Coherence and Cohesion in English Discourse

Project Identification

GA405/08/0866

Project Period

1/2008 - 12/2012

Investor / Pogramme / Project type

Czech Science Foundation

Standard Projects

MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Education

Keywords

coherence, cohesion, discourse, interaction, language means, explicitness, implicitness, genres, registers

The aim of the Project is twofold: 1) to conceptualize cohesion and coherence as constitutive components of human communication, and 2) to apply theoretical insights to an analysis of written and spoken English discourse. For this purpose, specialized collections of texts will be created. The analysis will scrutinize how coherence is achieved in different genres (face-to-face and telephone conversation, panel discussions, public speaking, media and academic discourse) and how cohesion enhaces a coherent interpretation of discourse.The features contributing to the perception of cohesion and coherence in different genres will be contrasted.

Results

The project explored aspects of coherence and cohesion in different genres of spoken and written discourse. The
theoretical research was focused on defining concepts related with coherence and cohesion and on motivating the
choice of a dynamic, interpretative approach to coherence and cohesion which is seen as contextually bound. The
understanding of cohesion and coherence and the approach applied to the analysis of these phenomena is based on
the functional approach to language phenomena and is rooted in the research methodology developed within the
fields of discourse analysis, critical discourse analysis and genre analysis. Within this approach the construal of
coherence and cohesion is perceived on all planes of discourse (ideational, interpersonal and textual); the
interpersonal plane is considered to be primary as the interpretation of the relations on the ideational and textual plane
are dependent on the established interpersonal meaning relations. A further outcome of the theoretical investigation
was the development of models for the analysis of the situational context and of aspects of coherence and cohesion. It
is therefore possible to state that the objectives of the theoretical investigation were successfully met.