The song "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" uses various cohesive devices to connect the lyrics. It employs lexical cohesion through repeated words and phrases that create lexical chains about seeing a face, kissing a mouth, and holding someone near. Grammatical cohesion is provided by pronouns, consistent use of past tense, and parallel structure between lines. Rhetorical cohesion comes from echoed lines at the end of each stanza. These cohesive devices give the lyrics flow and allow the romantic experience recounted in the song to be clearly conveyed.

1. Cohesion
Renee Redmond
Language Analysis: Grammar and Discourse
MA TESOL Program
Fall 2017
The New School
Professor: Leo Schmitt

2. Cohesion
From Thornbury’s An A-Z of English Language Teaching and Beyond the Sentence:
Cohesion is the use of grammatical and lexical means to achieve connected text,
either spoken or written. In other words, cohesion is what makes a text “hang
together.”
Cohesion is one of the elements that distinguishes a text from a “language event”
(Thornbury, 2005, p. 18-19.). To be considered a text, a piece of written or spoken
language must:
• be self contained
• be well-formed
• hang together (cohesion)
• make sense (coherence)
• have a clear communicative purpose
• be a recognizable text type
• be appropriate to its context of use

3. Two Main Types of Cohesion: Lexical and Grammatical
and a Third Type: Rhetorical Cohesion
Lexical Cohesion
• use of words from the same lexical set (sun, moon, stars,
skies, world) and lexical chains of topically related words
• repetition of words, or words from the same word family
or use of synonyms or antonyms
• use of general words to refer to something more specific
mentioned elsewhere (GCT the place, Graciethe girl)
• substitution of previously mentioned words with one/ones
• ellipsis of previously mentioned words
• collocations: i.e. orange peel, full moon

4. • Reference devices: pronouns and some determiners (e.g. this, that)
• Reference inside the text: anaphoric (back in the text), cataphoric (forward
in the text)
• Substitution of previously mentioned clause elements, with do/does, or
so/not
• Ellipsis of clause elements: Where have you been? At the mall. (I have been
at the mall )
• Linkers, such as therefore, what’s more, then
• Nominalization: using a general noun to make a reference to a specific
action, event, idea or utterance (situation, theory, opinion etc.)
• Tense
Grammatical Cohesion

5. Rhetorical Cohesion
• parallelism, i.e. sentences that “echo”
the structure of previous sentences
• question

6. Looking at Cohesion in a Song Lyric
What:
“The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face”
When:
1957
Who:
 written by British songwriter Ewan MacColl for his wife
 recorded by Peter, Paul & Mary in 1965
 recorded by pop singer by Roberta Flack and used in the 1971 film “Play Misty for Me”
Why:
 I believe in teaching from texts: they are engaging, relevant, meaning-based, and promote
critical thinking. I also find the incorporation of music in teaching effective.

7. The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
Ewan MacColl (1958) as performed by Peter, Paul & Mary
The first time ever I saw your face
I thought the sun rose in your eyes
And the moon and stars were the gifts you gave
To the dark and the empty skies, my love
To the dark and the empty skies.
The first time ever I kissed your mouth
I felt the earth move in my hand
Like the trembling heart of a captive bird
That was there at my command, my love
That was there at my command
The first time ever I held you near
And felt your heart beat close to mine
I thought our joy would fill the world
And would last till the end of time, my love
And would last till the end of time

8. Lexical Cohesion
1. Lexical sets
Sun, moon, stars, skies, earth, world
Face, eyes, mouth, hand, heart
2. Lexical chains
Saw your face, Kissed your mouth, Held you near
3. Repetition
The first time ever I…
My love
Last two lines of each stanza repeat (this is also parallelism)
4. Ellipsis of previously mentioned words
I thought our joy would fill the world
And (our joy) would last to the end of time

9. 5. Collocations
the first time
saw your face
kiss your mouth
heart beat
to the end of time
6. Rhyme
Eyes/skies
Hand/command
Mine/time
7. Musical and poetic cohesion
Strophic form – all verses are sung to the same music

10. Grammatical Cohesion
1. Pronouns
a. you, your, my, mine, our - these subject and possessive pronouns
serve to connect sentences in the text and to the context of the
relationship described
b. Relative pronoun, anaphoric reference: Like the trembling heart of
a captive bird that was there at my command
2. Article “the” and reference
The first time: creates a schema of three events outside the text
being described within the text. Thornbury (2005, p. 23) says “this
cross referencing serves to bind the text together… connecting the
text to its context”

11. 3. Repetition of sentence structure
The first time ever I…
saw your face I thought…
kissed your mouth I felt…
held you near I felt…
4. Tense
Except for the use of the modal auxiliary verb
“would” in the last verse, the text is in the simple past
tense. The consistent, narrative use of the simple past
brings the listener near, and is fitting for this intimate
story.

12. Rhetorical cohesion
1. Parallelism
To the dark and the empty skies, my love
To the dark and the empty skies
That was there at my command, my love
That was there at my command
And would last till the end of time, my love
And would last till the end of time

13. Cohesive Devices Not Used in this Text
1. Substitution for a whole clause using do/does or so/not:
Does this song touch you? I think so. (it touches you.)
Are you too jaded to cry when you hear it? I think not. (you are
not too jaded to cry.)
2. Linkers: connectors that link sentences:
Therefore, I brought some tissues to share.
3. Rhetorical question:
Could he possibly love her more?
4. Nominalization:
Analyzing cohesive texts like this song can be helpful to us and
to our learners. I hope you have enjoyed this process as much as I
have.

14. References
MacColl, Ewan: biographical information retrieved from
http://www.ewanmaccoll.co.uk/ewan-maccoll-biography/
Peter, Paul and Mary’s performance: retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6x3mRbZo3k
Thornbury, S. (2006). An A-Z of English Language Teaching. Oxford: Macmillan.
Thornbury, S. (2005). Beyond the Sentence. London: MacMillan.