1. Textual
equivalence
COHESION
GROUP 1: ĐẶNG THỊ THỦY NGUYÊN
HOÀNG THỊ HƯƠNG
LÊ THỊ DUYÊN
TRƯƠNG THỊ HUYỀN

2. Main parts
1. what is textual equivalence?
2. Overview of cohesion
3. Some kinds of cohesive devices
. Reference
. Substitution
. Ellipsis

3. I)What is textual equivalence?
Textual equivalence
= “any TL form (text/portion of text) which is observed to be
equivalent of a given SL form (text/portion of text)”
- main standard for text equivalence = the identity of
contextually relevant features:
e.g., I have arrived –tôi vừa đến

4. e.g. I have arrived –tôi vừa đến
Explain ( tense, truth of information)
.
The speaker ( I and not you or he)
• I have arrived and not left (arrive and not
leave),
• it is about an event that has already happened
and not something that will happen (have arrived
and not will arrive),
• the prior event is linked to the current situation
(have arrived and not arrive, or arrived),
• the current situation is present (have arrived and
not had arrived).

5. II) Overview of cohesion
Definitions :
- The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistic by PH.
Mathews(1997) defines cohesion is in term of syntactic
unit( sentence).
-A Dictionary of Linguistic and Phonetics by David
Crystal ( 1997) defines cohesion is term of grammatical
unit( word).
-MAKH and RH(1976) argued that concept of cohesion is
semantic one . For them, it refers to relation of meaning
that : exists with in the text, gives the text texture
=> Cohesion is expressed partly through vocabulary and
partly through grammar

6. Textual equivalence : cohesion -
reference
There are certain items in any language which can not be
interpreted semantically in their own right rather make
reference to something else within the text for their
interpretation.
Here is an example of reference
e.g. Doctor Foster went to Gloucester in a shower of rain
He stepped in puddle right up to his middle
And never went there again
Here in above example :
He -> refers back to Doctor Foster
There -> refers back to Gloucester
He and there show that information about them is retrieved
elsewhere within the text. It characterizes a particular type of
information which is called reference .
=> Reference is the continuity of meaning in a text

7. Textual equivalence: cohesion -
reference
Types of reference: there are three kinds of reference
1/ personal reference: he, she, it
2/ demonstrative reference: this, that
3/ comparative reference:
e.g 1.it is the same cat as the one we saw yesterday(
general comparison)
2.Take some more tea( particular comparison)

8. Textual equivalence: cohesion
Reference = the relationship of identity which holds between
two linguistic expressions (textual reference, situational
reference; co-reference also)
*Differs across discourse types and languages
e.g. in English: relies heavily on pronominal reference
in Brazilian Portuguese: prefers lexical repetition (+
inflects person and number = additional relations)
=> We have to recognize the different ways reference in
different languages.

9. Textual equivalence: cohesion
2. Substitution
is a grammatical relation where one linguistic item
substitutes for another
e.g. 1. My car is running badly
2. I should buy a new one
One of ( 2) substitutes for car in (1)

10. Textual equivalence: cohesion
2. Substitution
is a grammatical relation where one linguistic item
substitutes for another
e.g. 1. My car is running badly
2. I should buy a new one
One of ( 2) substitutes for car in (1)

11. Textual equivalence; cohesion –
substitution
Types of substitution; there are three types of
substitution
1/ nominal substitution: there are three nominal
substitutes ( one, ones, same)
e.g. I have heard some strange stories in my time, but
this one was perhaps strangest one of all
2/ verbal substitution :the verbal substitute is do. This
operates as head of a verbal group. Lexical verb is
replaced by do and its position is on the final group.
e.g. I don’t know the meaning of half those language
words and what's more , I don't believe you do either

12. 3/ clausal substitution: so and not are clausal
substitution
( substitution of report clause, substitution of condition
clause and substitution of modalized clause)
A: do you think he will come tommorow?
B: yes, i think so
or no, i think not

13. Textual equivalence : ellipsis
3.Ellipsis: involves the deletion of either the
noun or the verb . In English ellipsis occurs
most frequently in question – answer pair of
the following type
e.g. 1)which car do you like?
2) this is the nicest
Here, the word car of (1) is elided in (2):
( this car is the nicest)
* In Arabic : prefers pronominal reference
above all