Every day we listen to many different discourses and we do not stop to analyze how it is that we can comprehend and sometimes memorize these dialogues, speeches, debates, or conversations. Discourse comprehension is the act of interpreting a written or spoken message by integrating the received information into the memory or knowledge structures of the interpreter. .
Cohesion is the property of unity in speech within a text or sentence that holds it together and gives it a meaning. It is related to the broader concept of coherence. Studies have identified several categories of cohesion: reference, substitution, ellipsis, lexical cohesion and conjunction. .
Reference is one form of cohesion in which the information necessary to interpret a term or phrase is found in another part of the discourse. This includes pronouns, demonstrative and comparative references. There are two referential devices that can create cohesion; Anaphoric and Cataphoric reference. Anaphoric reference occurs when the writer or speaker refers back to someone or something that has been previously identified, to avoid repetition. Some examples: replacing "the fireman" with the pronoun "he" or "two boys" with "they". Cataphoric reference is the opposite of anaphora: a reference forward as opposed to backward in the discourse. Something is introduced in the abstract before it is identified. For example: "Here he comes, our award-winning actor. Tom Hanks!".
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Ellipsis is the omission of words on the assumption that the listener or reader will be able to supply them mentally. An example of this cohesion is: I would love to visit Cappadocia but I can't afford to. (. visit Cappadocia.) A Conjunction sets up a relationship between two clauses. These are the words that show how ideas are connected. The most basic but least cohesive is the conjunction and. Other conjunctions are: so, or, but, and yet. Lexical cohesion refers to the ties created between lexical elements, such as words, groups, and phrases.
