This document discusses cohesive devices, which are words or phrases that link different parts of a text together and help guide the reader's understanding. It provides examples of various types of cohesive devices like conjunctions, pronouns, and ellipses. Conjunctions link sentences or clauses and express logical relationships, while pronouns and ellipses help avoid repetition. Cohesive devices help create a unified whole and improve comprehension by signaling relationships between ideas.

1. Recognizing and interpreting cohesive devices
 Cohesive devices sometimes called linking words, linkers,
connectors, discourse makers or transitional words.
 Cohesive devices are words or phrases that show the relationship
between paragraphs or sections of a text or speech.
 Cohesive devices are words like ‘for example’,’ in conclusion’,
‘however’ and ‘moreover’.
cohesive devices tell us what we are doing in a sentence and help to
guide us through our writing .they give signal to us what the
relationship are between the different clauses ,sentence and
paragraphs.
Let’s look two examples below.
 The public transport in this city is unreliable and it’s cheap.
 The public transport in this city is unreliable but it’s cheap.
There are two cohesive devices in the sentences above: ‘and’ and ‘but’.
Both are showing the different signals and change the meaning of the
sentence.
The first sentence tells the reader that ‘it’s cheap ‘ is simply being
added to the previous information ,however the second sentence tells
the reader that they are giving a contrasting opinion to the first part of
the sentence by using the word ‘but’. The word ‘but’ conveys that
whole message without needing to literally say it.
What are they?
 Cohesive devices are like bridges between parts of your paper.

2.  They are cues to help the reader to interpret ideas in the way that
you as a writer want them to understand.
Function: The major function of cohesion is text formation.
 Helps in achieving unity of text as a semantic whole
 Unified whole of linguistic items.
 A text must be meaningful.
 A text that is not cohesive is never meaningful.
 They show the logical relationship between sentences and
paragraphs.
 They help expand the context, such as; - whether information is
completely new, - related to information in other sentences, - or is a
reference to "old" information from a previous sentence.
 Improves reading and comprehension skills.
Types of cohesive devices
Reference
• Reference is used to describe the different ways in which entities-
things, people, events are referred to within texts
• Linguistic features e.g. pronouns are used to refer to the already
mentioned entities.
There are two referential devices that can create cohesion.
• E.g. Sara went to the market in rain. She stepped in puddle and
never went there again.

3. She and there show that the information about them is retrieved
elsewhere within the text. This type of cohesion is called reference.
Anaphoric reference
Anaphoric reference occurs when the writer refers back to someone or
something that has been previously identified, to avoid repetition.
Some examples: replacing ‘the taxi driver’ with the pronoun ‘he’ or ‘two
girls’ with ‘they’. Another example can be found in formulaic sequences
such as ‘as stated previously ‘or ‘the aforementioned’.
Cataphoric reference
Cataphoric reference is the opposite of anaphoric: a reference opposed
to backward in the discourse. Something is introduced in the abstract
before it is identified. For example ‘here he comes, our award winning
host……its john doe. Cataphoric reference can also be found in written
text.
There is one more referential device, which cannot create cohesion:
Exo-phoric reference
Exo-phoric references used to describe generics or abstracts without
ever identifying them (in contrast to anaphoric and cataphoric, which
do identify the entity and thus are forms of endophora) rather than
introduce a concept, the writer refers to it to by a generic word such as
‘everything’ .the prefix ‘exo’ means ‘outside ‘and the person or events
referred to in this manner are never identified by the writer.

4. Ellipsis
Ellipsis is another cohesive device .it happens when, after a more
specific mention, words are omitted when the phrase must be
repeated.
A simple conversational example:
A: where are you going?
B: to school.
The full form of b’s reply would be: ‘I’m going to school’. A simple
written example: the younger child was very outgoing, the older much
more reserved. The omitted words from the second clause are ‘child’
and ‘was’.
Substitution
A word is not omitted, as in ellipsis, but is substituted for another, more
general word .for example, ‘which ice-cream would you like? ‘I would
like the pink one’. Where ‘one’ is used instead of repeating ‘ice-cream’.
• It is replacement of one linguistic item by another i.e.
replacement of one word/phrase with another word/phrase.
• Used to avoid repetition of a particular item.
• Something you use instead of the thing you would normally use.
E.g. the glass broke. I must get another.
A: I will have two eggs on the bread.
B: I will have the same.

5. Conjunctions
Conjunctions are linking devices between sentences or clauses in a text.
Unlike the other grammatical devices, conjunctions express the logical
semantic relation between sentences rather than between words and
structures. In other words they structure the text in a certain logical
order that is meaningful to the reader or listener. Conjunctions are
divided into four types namely additive, adversative, causal, and
temporal.
Types of conjunctions
Additive conjunctions
Additive conjunctions connect units that share semantic similarity
.examples of additive conjunction are, and, likewise, furthermore, in
addition, etc.
Adversative conjunctions
Adversative conjunctions are used to express contrasting results or
opinions. This type of conjunctions is expressed by word such as, but,
however, in contrast, whereas, etc.
Causal conjunctions
Causal conjunctions introduce results, reasons, or purposes. They are
characterized by the use of items such as so, thus, therefore, because,
etc.
Temporal conjunctions
Temporal conjunctions express time order of events such as, finally,
then, soon, at the same time, etc.