LINGUIST List 13.2997

Mon Nov 18 2002

Qs: Coherence, 'Insults'

Editor for this issue: Renee Galvis <reneelinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. REHAM KARRAM, coherence vs. contrastive
2. sergio scalise, A Dissertation on Insults

Dear Sir or Madam,

My name is Reham Omar Karram. I'm doing a research paper on "The
language of magazines in English and Arabic: a contrastive study in
coherence and text organization". In fact, I have some questions which
I'd like you. These questions are:

1- What is the meaning of coherence? Why it is always confused with
that of cohesion?

2- Is the definition "coherence means that a text hangs together",
scientific? If so, then on what criteria should we judge a text to be
coherent or not?

3- What are the theories or the methods of analysis that one should
use to analyze coherence? (To analyze cohesion, for instance, we
depend on Halliday & Hasan's Cohesion in English 1976)

4- What is the relation between coherence and text organization, or in
other words, between coherence and macro-structure?

5- Do you think that there is a relation between coherence and
thematic structure (theme- rheme structure)?

6- Do you think that Arabic written texts have coherence and text
organization? Why?

I'm so sorry that in my first time to write to you, I am asking all
these questions. Actually, I would like to share the ideas with you,
and I hope - if you allow me - to send you a copy of my thesis so that
you can judge it and write to me your suggestions.

Thank you in advance for your time and effort.

Sincerely,

Reham Omar Karram

23 July St., Qena

Egypt

 

Dear colleagues,

A student of mine would like to write her dissertation on 'insults'
(from a linguistic point of view). Can you help me to find the
relevant literature on this topic? many thanks

Sergio Scalise

P.S. I will post the results of this little inquiry if I receive
interesting answers.
_______________________________________
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