M. A. I english P. C3 & C6 Modern Linguistics title pmd

10.1 
Distinction between Text and Discourse 
To put it in simple words, a text is made up of sentences having the property 
of grammatical cohesion whereas discourse is made up of utterances having the 
property of coherence. In other words a text is a formal structure, an object, whose 
main quality is its distinctive syntactic and phonological shape. Discourse, on the 
other hand, is a text mediating relationships between language users: not only 
relationships of speech, but also of consciousness, ideology, role & class. Text is 
defined in terms of its being a physical product. Discourse is viewed as a process, 
by which we create, relate, organize and realize meaning. In other words, meaning 
emerges through social interaction. 
 
10.2 
Discourse Analysis 
Discourse Analysis is concerned with the functional use of language. 
Discourse analysis includes all studies investigating the supra-sentential structure of 
any stretch of language, spoken or written. 
 
10.2.1 Cohesion 
Texts must have a certain structure which depends on factors quite different 
from those required in the structure of a single sentence. Some of those factors are 
described in terms of cohesion or ties and connections which exist within texts.
It implies semantic links between or across utterances, paragraphs and 
chapters. However, cohesion would not be sufficient to enable us to make sense of 
what we read. There is some other factor that enables us to distinguish connected 
texts which make sense from those which do not. This factor is described as 
coherence. 

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10.2.2 Coherence 
The term coherence is used in the technical sense as the way in which the 
content of a text hangs together as distinct from that of random assemblages of 
sentences. The key to the concept of coherence is not something which exists in the 
language, but something which exists in people. It is people who make sense of 
what they read and hear. They try to arrive at an interpretation which is in line with 
their experience of the way the world is.