1. Watch the following video
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbHYX
What do they talk about? (Topics)
• Who do they talk about? (People)
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2. Cohesion in conversation
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What is cohesion?

3. Cohesion in conversation
One element in the discourse depends on
another.
• Connections are created and threaded.
• (Halliday and Hasan, 1985) Grammatical and
lexical cohesive devices.
• Grammatical: Pronouns and demonstratives →
People, things or propositions.
• Substitution and ellipsis: Use of auxiliary and
modal verbs.
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4. Cohesion in conversation
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Substitution:
• So do I
• Did she?
• Yes, I do
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Ellipsis:
• I don’t know (where the umbrella is)
• I can’t (go to the cinema)
• She should (pay for the damage)

5. Cohesion in conversation
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Discourse markers such as
conjunctions are also cohesive
devices because they connect or
thread the discourse.
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AND
OR
BUT
BECAUSE
OTHERS

6. Cohesion in conversation
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Lexical cohesive devices:
• REPETITION: You repeat the same
words along the discourse to emphasize,
remind, highlight, clarify, etc.
• SYNONYMS: You use them to avoid
repetition or monotony in the discourse.
• LEXICAL CHAINS: You use words
related to the ones mentioned. E.g. died –
dead – death – buried – funeral – coffin,
etc.

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Cohesion in conversation
Penny: Now, let’s assume, by some miracle, you actually catch a
fish. You’re going to have to know how to gut it. So, what you’re
going to do is you’re going to take your knife, slice him right up the
belly. (Howard gags) You want me to stop?
Howard: No, I’m fine. Keep going.
Penny: All right. Now, you don’t want to cut too deep into its guts,
or the blood will just squirt all over your face. (Howard, Leonard
and Raj gag) Oh, my God. What is with you guys?
Leonard: It’s not our fault. Our dads never did anything like this
with us.
Penny: What, never?
Leonard: My dad was an anthropologist. The only father-son time
he spent was with a 2,000-year-old skeleton of an Etruscan boy. I
hated that kid.

8. Cohesion in conversation
COHESION

9. Cohesion in conversation
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Common mistakes of cohesion:
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Wrong use of pronouns
Wrong use of relative pronouns (where)
Wrong use of conjunctions
Wrong use of substitute verbs
Wrong use of ellipsis (modals)
Non-paralell use of structures
Overrepetition
Lack of synonyms
Lack of repertoire for topic related words.

10. Interaction in conversation

11. Interaction in conversation
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ADJACENCY PAIRS
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TURNTAKING
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TOPIC MANAGEMENT
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CONVERSATION MAINTENANCE

12. Interaction in conversation
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ADJACENCY PAIRS:
utterances that usually occur together. The
most often used adjacency pair is
question-answer but there are others such
as: a.greeting-greeting; b. congratulationsthanks; c. apology-acceptance; d.
inform-acknowledge; e. leave taking-leave
taking

13. Interaction in conversation

14. Interaction in conversation

15. Interaction in conversation
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Moves and exchanges:
• COMMAND : Use of imperatives
• STATEMENT: Use of declaratives
• OFFER: No congruent form
• QUESTION: Interrogatives

16. Interaction in conversation

17. Interaction in conversation
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Discretionary alternatives:
• TRACKING MOVES
• CHALENGING MOVES

18. Interaction in conversation

19. Let’s analyze a script together
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COHESIVE DEVICES
• GRAMMATICAL
• LEXICAL
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INTERACTIONAL MOVES
• ADJACENCY PAIRS

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Use of vague language
Use of fillers
Use of lexical phrases
Use of discourse markers
Use of interactional signals
Use of cohesive devices
Use of adjacency pairs

21. References
Thornbury, S. and Slade, D. (2006).
Conversation: From description to
pedagogy, p. 108. CUP