Understanding Textual Cohesion and Lyric Poetry Genres

Posted on May 21, 2025 in English Studies. Language, Literature, and Culture

Cohesion is revealed in the relationships between different segments of the text. His absence could lead to misinterpretation, and even that is incomprehensible. It is equivalent to the textual syntax. Mechanisms that facilitate textual cohesion:

  1. Textual reference: It is in the text when an item refers to something already stated in the same (anaphora) or appears (cataphora).
  2. Ellipsis: Occurs when the text deletes linguistic elements that can be understood.
  3. Deixis: It has a signaling function. The deictic gestures can be used in a literal and in a symbolic sense.
    • Deictic use and gestural: I hurt myself here.
    • Deictic and symbolic use: Here the classes finish at six.
    Deixis in this case refers to the actual place where the message occurs.
  4. Lexical replacement: A lexical item substitutes another similar one. Different types include: repetition through synonyms, partial repetition of a nominal group, and repetition of hypernyms.
  5. Repetition of a keyword: The word is repeated often to allude to the core of the text.
  6. Connection: A connector is a word or group of words that reflect a relationship of meaning between different sentences, paragraphs, or parts of a text. Main connections include:
    • Conjunctions and conjunctive phrases: and, but, although…
    • Adverbs and adverbial phrases: eventually, however…
    • Some prepositional phrases: as a result of certain lexical items…
    In the prevailing narrative, connectors indicate the circumstances of time; in expository and argumentative texts, cause and consequence predominate; and in descriptive texts, circumstances of place.
  7. Relationship between verb tenses: Verbs have a mutually close relationship that makes logical-temporal development, primarily in narrative texts.

Main genres of lyric poetry:

  1. The song: It was sung accompanied by the ringing of a lyre. Sung by the people from the Middle Ages as a genuine expression of their sensibility. The carol is based on the repetition of words and verses. The popular song uses simple syntax and vocabulary and often repeats adjectives, phrases, or verses. It is minor art and often expresses the theme of love in its most varied aspects. The influence of polite literature and Baroque theater takes its subjects. The cult song is larger and created for individual reading. It has an intimate tone of sentimental confession, and the theme of love is expressed in a chosen language, with elaborate syntax and elegant expressive resources. It combines any number of seven-syllable verses and rhyming heroic verses at the poet’s ease.
  2. The Eclogue: A short poem that represents a pastoral country scene featuring stylized elements, which have nothing rude and much of cultured courtiers. The poet expresses his own feelings and the desire to harmonize human life with nature, evoking a primitive happiness alleged by the Locus Amoenus literary topic. It mixes resources with dramatic and lyrical narrative and intersperses dialogues. Employment is ideally suited to the condition of the characters and extends further.
  3. The ode: A poem of worship. It has equal stanzas with a variable structure. Its language expresses excitement or calm reflection on various issues (philosophical, loving, religious, or heroic). It is often dedicated to famous people, towns, or facts considered transcendent, praising their merits (Beatus ille).
  4. The elegy: A poem that expresses pain over the death of a recently deceased person. It conveys sadness, sorrow, and nostalgia. It always refers to a particular death, has a specific form, and contains many examples of great art.