National open university of nigeria school of arts and social sciences
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- 3.2 Reiteration Another word for reiteration is repetition
- Kunle
| 3.0 Main Content 3.1 What is Lexical Cohesion Lexical cohesion is the use of lexical items to connect and unify a text. The connection of a text through the use of lexical items is sometimes referred to as ab lexical chain. A lexical chain is a sequence of related words in the text, spanning short (adjacent words or sentences) or long distances (entire text. A chain is independent of the grammatical structure of the text and in effect it is a list of words that captures a portion of the cohesive structure of the text. A lexical chain can provide a context for the resolution of an ambiguous term and enable identification of the concept that the term represents. Lexical cohesion involves the selection of a lexical item that is in someway related to one occurring previously. It is established through the structure of the lexis or vocabulary. Lexical cohesion or chain maybe achieved by repetition of the same lexical item or reiteration. It could also be achieved through the use of lexical items that are similar or nearly similar in meaning. Other ways of achieving cohesion through the selection of lexical item are hyponymy (use of general and specific items, meronymy (part-whole relationship, and collocation (habitual lexical co-occurrence). We shall be discussing each of the lexical devices, one after the other in the following sections of the Unit. 3.2 Reiteration Another word for reiteration is repetition. Reiteration is the clearest way to show that two lexical items are related. The whole idea is that the writer or speaker keeps repeating a particular word each time he needs to make reference to it in a text. Sometimes Repetition can be boring to the reader and the listener, therefore some scholars do not see it as a very effective means of signaling lexical connectedness. Examples of texts with lexical reiteration are 13.1. Kunle is my friend. Kunle and I attended the same primary and secondary school. Kunle was the best student in my set in the secondary school. 13.2. Man is asocial animal. The biblical account spells it out that man was created to have dominion overall other animals. Man in the 20 th century has really maintained dominion over the world. One significant things that has happened to man in the century is the invention of computer. From the two text produced above, we can see clearly instances of repetition. In 13.1, Kunle is repeated in the three sentences in the text. Likewise in 13.2, man keeps recurring in each of the sentences. These are clear instances of use of reiteration or repetition to achieve cohesion. Download 0.49 Mb. Share with your friends:
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