Lexical cohension used in the story "White fang" by Jack London

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

THE UNIVERSITY OF QUY NHON

VÕ THỊ NGỌC ÁI

LEXICAL COHESION USED IN THE STORY “WHITE FANG”

BY JACK LONDON

Field: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS

Code: 8 22 02 01

Supervisor: NGU THIEN HUNG, Ph.D

BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN

VÕ THỊ NGỌC ÁI

LIÊN KẾT NGỮ VỰNG TRONG TIỂU THUYẾT ―NANH TRẮNG”

CỦA TÁC GIẢ JACK LONDON

Chuyên ngành: Ngôn ngữ Anh

Code: 8 22 02 01

Người hướng dẫn: TS.NGŨ THIỆN HÙNG

i

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I totally assure that the thesis ―Lexical cohesion used in the novel

―White Fang‖ by Jack London‘‘ is my own work for the purpose of

graduating the MA course of English Linguistics.

The content of this thesis has not been published or written by any

other authors except for some references which are used in this thesis.

The thesis has not been submitted for any degree or diploma in any

university.

Quy Nhon, August, 2022

VO THI NGOC AI

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

During the period of doing the research, considerable support and great

encouragement from my teachers, friends and family were given to me so that

I could overcome difficulties and complete my master thesis.

First of all, I would like to show my deep gratitude to my respected

supervisor, Dr. Ngu Thien Hung who gives me his helpful guidance and

stands by me from the beginning to the end of my thesis. Without his

accompaniment and encouragement, I could hardly finish this MA thesis.

Second, I owe an unpaid debt to all the qualified and experienced

teachers who helped me broaden my knowledge about English Linguistics

and my friendly classmates who gave me unforgettable memories.

Last but not least, I am extremely thankful to my beloved family and

my friends for their love, care and support during the fulfillment of this study.

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ABSTRACT

This study aims to examine the lexical cohesion realized through

lexical cohesive devices in the first four chapters of ―White Fang‖ by Jack

London in order to gain an insight into the distribution of types of lexical

devices and their textual functions. As a descriptive study, the thesis sought

the qualitative and quantitative information for the issues of the lexical

cohesive devices used in the first four chapters of ―White Fang‖ by Jack

London, the lexical ties performed by these lexical cohesive devices in the

Thematic Progression of the text of the novel. Adopting the descriptive

framework by Halliday and Hasan (1976) and Halliday and Matthiessen

(2004), the study analyzed the data collected from clauses and sentences

containing lexical items that created the cohesion and coherence of the text.

The analysis of 1.002 instances of Reiteration and Collocation reveals that

instances of Reiteration with repetition of the same word(s), synonymy,

antonymy, hyponymy, meronymy and general words outnumbered those of

collocation with binomials and lexical chains. The instances of lexical

cohesion were also found with the textual functions as elaborating, extending

and enhancing. In fulfilling these functions, the lexical items that realized the

cohesive text also were acknowledged with their contribution to Thematic

progression of the text of the novel. Finally, implications about the teaching

and learning concerning lexical cohesion were put forwards to the

employment of the framework of Systemic Functional Grammar by Halliday

and Matthiessen (2004) in analyzing the cohesion of a text, and the

recommendation to pedagogical moves in enhancing the interpretation of a

text and the writing skills with the use of lexical devices to achieve a cohesive

text.

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TABLE OF CONTENT

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ...................................................................i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..............................................................................ii

ABSTRACT.....................................................................................................iii

TABLE OF CONTENT...................................................................................iv

LIST OF TABLES ...........................................................................................vi

LIST OF FIGURES.........................................................................................vii

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................... 1

1.1. Rationale..................................................................................................... 1

1.2. Aims of study ............................................................................................. 4

1.3. Research questions..................................................................................... 4

1.4. Scope of the study ...................................................................................... 4

1.5. Justification of study .................................................................................. 5

1.6. Organization of the study........................................................................... 6

CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL

BACKGROUND............................................................................................... 7

2.1. Review of previous studies ........................................................................ 7

2.2. Theoretical Background........................................................................... 11

2.2.1. Definitions of coherence .......................................................................... 11

2.2.2. Definitions of cohesion............................................................................ 12

2.2.3. Lexical cohesion ...................................................................................... 13

2.2.3.1. Reiteration ............................................................................................ 14

2.2.3.2. Collocation ........................................................................................... 16

2.2.4. Theme – Rheme Structure........................................................................ 18

2.2.5. Thematic Development ............................................................................ 19

2.3. Summary .................................................................................................. 21

CHAPTER 3. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY..........................22

3.1. Research design........................................................................................ 22

v

3.2. Research methods..................................................................................... 22

3.3. Data collection ......................................................................................... 23

3.3.1. Sample and sources of data ...................................................................... 23

3.3.2. Data Collection Procedures...................................................................... 24

3.4. Data analysis ............................................................................................ 24

CHAPTER 4. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS .......................................... 27

4.1. Lexical Devices ....................................................................................... 27

4.1.1. Reiteration .............................................................................................. 28

4.1.2. Collocation .............................................................................................. 50

4.2.2. Extending ................................................................................................ 64

4.2.3. Enhancing................................................................................................ 66

4.3. Lexical Cohesive Devices as Tools for Thematic Progression................ 73

4.4. Summary .................................................................................................. 84

CHAPTER 5. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS .............................. 85

5.1. Conclusions.............................................................................................. 85

5.2. Implication to the Language Teaching and Learning .............................. 87

5.3. Limitation and Recommedation to Further Study ................................... 88

REFERENCES................................................................................................ 90

APPENDICES

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 4.1. Quantitative results of lexical devices used in first four chapters

of the novel White Fang by Jack London..................................... 27

Table 4.2. Distribution of Reiteration with lexical items in the first four

chapters......................................................................................... 28

Table 4.3. Reiteration of the same word(s)..................................................... 36

Table 4.4. Reiteration of synonyms............................................................... 41

Table 4.5. Reiteration with antonyms............................................................. 43

Table 4.6. Reiteration with hyonyms and hypernyms .................................... 46

Table 4.7. Reiteration with general words...................................................... 48

Table 4.8. Reiteration with meronyms............................................................ 50

Table 4.9. Collocation with binomials............................................................ 53

Table 4.10. Collocations with lexical chains.................................................. 55

Table 4.11. Textual functions of lexical Devices of cohesion........................ 72

Table 4.12. Thematic Progression Patterns with Lexical cohesion ................ 81

vii

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1. zig-zag Thematic Progression pattern (Eggins, 1994) ................. 19

Figure 2.2. Repeated Thematic Progression Pattern (adapted from Danes,

1974) ............................................................................................. 20

Figure 2.3. Derived Thematic Progression Pattern (adapted from Eggins,

2004) ............................................................................................. 21

1

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1. Rationale

From the linguistic view, text is a communicative occurrence which

meets seven standards of textuality that should be satisfied for a text to be

communicative. Beaugrande and Dressler (1992), these standards are the

constitutive principles defining communicative purpose of the text and help to

realize the connectedness of occurrences through syntactic relations on the

surface (cohesion); through conceptual relations in the text (coherence),

through the attitudes of the author and reader to the text (intentionality and

acceptability), through the transfer of the information (informativity), through

the setting (situationality); and through the reciprocal relationship of separate

texts (intertextuality). In linguistics and literary studies, textuality is the

property by which successive sentences form a coherent text. Among the

three basic domains of textuality - texture, structure, and context, the term

texture encompases the various devices used in establishing continuity of

sense and thus making a sequence of sentences working in terms of both

cohesion and coherence.

Cohesion analysis has been a growing interest in several branches of

linguistics. Halliday and Hasan (1976), Halliday and Matthiessen (2004),

Tanskanen (2006) aimed to develop an appropriate taxonomy for the analysis

of all kinds of texts. Newmark (1987), the topic of cohesion has always been

the most useful constituent of discourse analysis or text linguistics applicable

to translation. Analysis of cohesive devices within a text gives us more insight

into how writers structure what they want to say and may be crucial factors in

our judgments of whether something is well-written or not. Cohesion helps to