Grammatical Cohesion

Here is a passage from the Guardian’s coverage of Liverpool’s FA Cup 4th Round win over Brighton:

Salah produced a sublime assist, his fourth since returning from the Africa Cup of Nations, and scored from the penalty spot as Liverpool moved into round five with a commanding victory over Fabian Hürzeler’s struggling team. There was no evidence of Brighton not performing for their under-pressure manager but their lack of cutting edge was glaring, as was the case when visiting here in the Premier League.

What allows the reader to make sense of this as a text that feels like a unified whole rather than a random collection of words is what is called texture. As I outline here it is the resources of cohesion that creates this texture, and consists of grammatical and lexical cohesion. Grammatical cohesion primarily contributes to the textual metafunction, helping organize discourse so that it unfolds coherently. However, it also interacts with ideational meaning (through participant tracking) and interpersonal meaning (through choices like demonstratives: this, that).

Grammatical cohesion refers to the grammatical resources that link clauses and sentences together. In SFL, grammatical cohesion typically includes:

• Reference
• Substitution
• Ellipsis
• Conjunction

These resources operate at the level of grammar (rather than vocabulary) and help create continuity of meaning.

Reference

Reference occurs when an element in the text points to something else for its interpretation. Instead of repeating a name or a noun phrase, we use “pointers.”

Anaphoric Reference: Pointing backward.

Example: Salah produced a sublime assist, his fourth (“his” points back to Salah).

Cataphoric Reference: Pointing forward (often used for dramatic effect).

Example: When he arrived, the President looked tired. (“He” points forward to the President).

Exophoric Reference: Pointing outside the text to the real world.

Example: their lack of cutting edge was glaring, as was the case when visiting here in the Premier League (“here” refers to the real-world Anfield Stadium).

Reference is crucial for participant tracking, especially when examining how texts build continuity around people, objects, or abstract concepts.

Substitution

Substitution occurs when one item is replaced with another grammatical item. There are three types of substitution:

• Nominal: “I lost my pen. I need a new one.”
• Verbal: “Do you like coffee? I do.”
• Clausal: “Is it going to rain? I think so.”

Ellipsis

Ellipsis involves omitting something that is understood from context. It is essentially substitution by zero where the omission of a word or phrase is “understood” from the preceding context. SFL views this as a high-level cohesive bond because the reader must actively fill in the blanks. In spoken and written discourse, ellipsis contributes to cohesion by relying on shared grammatical structure. It signals that parts of meaning are recoverable, reinforcing connectedness.

Example: Salah produced a sublime assist, his fourth [assist] since returning from the Africa Cup of Nations (the second, omitted “assist” links the two)

Conjunction

Conjunctions don’t point to specific words, but signal the logical relationship between entire clauses or paragraphs. They tell the reader how to transition from one thought to the next and comprise:

• Additive: Adding information (and, furthermore, besides).
• Adversative: Showing contrast (but, however, yet).
• Causal: Showing cause and effect (because, therefore, consequently).
• Temporal: Showing sequence in time (then, afterwards, finally).