English-Arabic Translator Education Through Systemic Functional Linguistics: Analysis of Cohesive Devices in Investopedia Business Texts

In translation courses, students are asked to practice translation skills by translating a source text (ST) in a specific field. While teachers usually select texts based on topic and language accuracy, some such texts do not provide rich textual features that help students practice and improve their translation skills. This study aimed to analyze the cohesive features in business texts collected from “Investopedia” to investigate their suitability for use as STs to practice translation skills in the field of finance and administration. It was framed by Halliday’s (1978) systemic functional linguistics (SFL) approach to language and Halliday and Hassan’s (1976) cohesion analysis scheme. The findings demonstrated that the most prominent type used was lexical cohesion, followed by reference and conjunctions. Ellipses and substitution were rarely used. The findings indicated that the intensive use of lexical cohesion and the various subcategories used in these texts can help enrich the background knowledge of financial terminology and provide a communicative understanding of the ST while practicing various elements of textual features. The study provided a demonstration of the significance of SFL in providing coherent and cohesive STs that facilitate the needs of translation instructors and students in the field of finance and administration. Other SFL tools can be employed to provide a better understanding of these texts.

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A study of cohesion in international postgraduate Business students’ multimodal written texts: an SF-MDA of a key topic in finance

The Buckingham Journal of Language and Linguistics ◽

10.5750/bjll.v1i0.1047 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 8 ◽

pp. 56-78

Author(s):

Hesham Suleiman Alyousef ◽

Suliman Mohammed Alnasser

Keyword(s):

Meaning Making ◽

Systemic Functional Linguistics ◽

Business Students ◽

Capital Budgeting ◽

Multimodal Communication ◽

Accounting Students ◽

Lexical Cohesion ◽

Functional Linguistics ◽

Cohesive Devices ◽

Analysis Scheme

Empirical research studies of finance students’ language use have investigated students’ performance in finance courses and the effect of class attendance on students’ performance.Similarly, research on accounting students’ texts has been directed at readability of accounting narratives and lexical choices. Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) based research in multimodal communication and representation has been confined to school and workplace contexts. Whereas multimodal communication investigations in tertiary contexts has been conducted across the fields of mathematics, science and computing, and nursing, business courses have not been explored. The purpose of this paper is to report on a case study designed to investigate the key multimodal academic literacy and numeracy practices of ten international Master of Commerce Accounting students enrolled at an Australian university. Specifically, it aims to provide an account of the salient textual and the logical patterns through the analysis of cohesive devices in a key topic in the Principles of Finance course, namely capital budgeting techniques and management reports. This study is pertinent as most international ESL/EFL students’ enrolments in Australia and elsewhere is in business programs. This study is underpinned by Halliday’s (1985) Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) approach to language and Halliday and Hasan’s (1976) cohesion analysis scheme. The study employs a Systemic Functional Multimodal Discourse Analysis (SF-MDA) for the analysis of cohesive devices in the participants’ multimodal texts. Lexical cohesion formed the largest percentage of use, and in particular repetition of the same lexical items, followed by reference.The findings contribute to the description of the meaning-making processes in these multimodal artefacts. They provide a potential research tool for similar investigations across a broad range of educational settings. Implications of the findings for finance students and educators are finally presented.

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AN ANALYSIS OF COHESION OF EXPOSITION TEXTS: AN INDONESIAN CONTEXT

Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics ◽

10.17509/ijal.v7i3.9791 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 7 (3) ◽

pp. 515

Author(s):

Emi Emilia ◽

Nurfitri Habibi ◽

Lungguh Ariang Bangga

Keyword(s):

Systemic Functional Linguistics ◽

Case Study Research ◽

Written Language ◽

High Achievers ◽

Linguistic Features ◽

Lexical Cohesion ◽

Functional Linguistics ◽

Cohesive Devices ◽

Eleventh Graders ◽

Flow Of Information

The paper reports on the results of a study aiming to investigate the cohesion of exposition texts written by eleventh graders of a school in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia. The study used a qualitative case study research design, especially text analysis, involving 32 students. In the interest of space, the paper will present the data obtained from six texts written by 6 students, representing low, mid, and high achievers. The texts were analyzed using systemic functional linguistics (SFL), especially in terms of schematic structure and linguistic features, especially those contributing to the cohesion of the texts, such as Theme progression and cohesive devices. The results show that all texts show students’ grasp and understanding of the schematic structure of an exposition, including thesis, argument, and restatement of the thesis. All texts also successfully use the zig-zag and the Theme reiteration patterns, which indicate the students’ emerging capacity to create a text with cohesion at the clause level. However, only texts written by high achievers employ the multiple Theme pattern, indicating the students’ emerging capacity to create a text with better sense of connectedness, unity, and flow of information at the global level. High achiever texts also employ discourse features which allow the reader to predict how the text will unfold and guide them to a line of understanding of a text as a whole. Moreover, in terms of cohesive devices, all texts use some simple cohesive devices—reference, lexical cohesion, and conjunction. It should be mentioned that all texts are rudimentary with some inappropriate word choices and grammatical problems. This suggests that the students still needed more guidance and time to do research on the topic in focus, to go through the process of writing as professional do, to allow them to create a better text with more elaboration and characteristics of written language with consistency and accuracy. It is recommended that further research on different perspectives and foci of analysis of different text types using systemic functional linguistics, with more representative samples, and studies on the teaching of writing be conducted.

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Cohesion in TIME Magazine Article “How covid-19 will shape the class of 2020 for the rest of their live”

E-Structural ◽

10.33633/es.v3i01.3959 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 3 (01) ◽

pp. 57-68

Author(s):

Setyo Prasiyanto Cahyono ◽

Valentina Widya Suryaningtyas ◽

Raden Arief Nugroho

Keyword(s):

Research Design ◽

Sampling Method ◽

Systemic Functional Linguistics ◽

Time Magazine ◽

Purposive Sampling ◽

Lexical Cohesion ◽

Functional Linguistics ◽

Cohesive Devices ◽

On Line ◽

Descriptive Qualitative

Abstract. This study is aimed at investigating the types of cohesive devices and their relationship which are found in an article of Time magazine entitled “how covid-19 will shape the class of 2020 for the rest of their live”. In conducting this study, the researchers employ descriptive qualitative as the research design. Meanwhile, in collecting the data, the researcher applied a purposive sampling method by choosing an article in an on line Time magazine. Meanwhile, the text was analyzed using systemic functional linguistics (SFL) especially those contributing to the cohesion of the text, including grammatical and lexical cohesion. The result of this study reveals that the text is “hang-together” which is described by the successfully use of cohesive devices. These patterns indicate that the writer of the article introduces the capacity to create a text with cohesion not only at the clause level but also to create text with better unity, flow and connectedness of information of the whole text. Besides, the use of cohesion in the text can create a relationship between language elements. Furthermore, the text of the article uses some simple cohesive devices such as reference, conjunction, repetition, and synonym.Keywords: cohesion, cohesive devices, language elements, magazine, SFLAbstrak. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menyelidiki jenis perangkat kohesif dan keterkaitannya dalam artikel majalah Time berjudul “how covid-19 will shape the class of 2020 for the rest of their live”. Dalam penelitian ini, peneliti menggunakan metode deskriptif kualitatif. Sedangkan dalam pengumpulan data, peneliti menggunakan sampel purposive dengan memilih artikel di majalah on line Time. Sedangkan teks dianalisis dengan menggunakan linguistik fungsional sistemik (LFS) terutama yang berkontribusi pada kohesi teks, termasuk kohesi gramatikal dan leksikal. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa teks yang dihasilkan oleh penulis “saling terpadu” yang digambarkan dengan berhasilnya penggunaan elemen perangkat kohesif. Pola-pola ini menunjukkan bahwa penulis artikel memunculkan kapasitas untuk membuat teks dengan kohesi tidak hanya pada tingkat klausa tetapi juga untuk membuat teks dengan kesatuan, aliran, dan keterhubungan informasi yang lebih baik dari keseluruhan teks. Selain itu penggunaan kohesi dalam teks dapat menciptakan hubungan antar elemen bahasa. Lebih lanjut lagi, teks tersebut menggunakan beberapa perangkat kohesif sederhana seperti referensi, konjungsi dan juga pengulangan, dan sinonim.Kata kunci: kohesi, peranti kohesi, unsur bahasa, LSF, majalah, perangkat kohesif

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Text Cohesion in English Scientific Texts Written by Saudi Undergraduate Dentistry Students: A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Textual and Logical Relations in Oral Biology Texts

SAGE Open ◽

10.1177/21582440211032194 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (3) ◽

pp. 215824402110321

Author(s):

Hesham Suleiman Alyousef

Keyword(s):

Discourse Analysis ◽

Undergraduate Students ◽

Meaning Making ◽

Linguistic Knowledge ◽

Bachelor Of Science ◽

Lexical Cohesion ◽

Multimodal Discourse Analysis ◽

Multimodal Discourse ◽

Cohesive Devices ◽

Analysis Scheme

This qualitative study examined multimodal cohesive devices in English oral biology texts by eight high-achieving Saudi English-as-a-foreign-language students enrolled in a Bachelor of Science Dentistry program. A Systemic Functional Multimodal Discourse Analysis (SF-MDA) of the textual and logical cohesive devices in oral biology texts was conducted, employing Halliday and Hasan’s cohesion analysis scheme. The findings showed that students used varied cohesive devices: lexical cohesion, followed by reference and conjunctions. Although ellipsis was minimally employed in the oral biology texts, its discipline-specific uses emerged: the use of bullet points and numbered lists that facilitate recall. The SF-MDA of cohesion in multimodal semiotic resources highlighted the processes underlying construction of conceptual and linguistic knowledge of cohesive devices in oral biology texts. The results indicate that oral biology discourse is interdisciplinary, including a number of subfields in biology. The SF-MDA of pictorial oral biology representations indicates that they include instances of cohesive devices that illustrate and complement verbal texts. The results indicate that undergraduate students need to be provided with a variety of multimodal high-cohesion texts so that they can successfully extend underlying conceptual and logical meaning-making relations.

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An SF-MDA of the Textual and the Logical Cohesive Devices in a Postgraduate Accounting Course

SAGE Open ◽

10.1177/2158244020947129 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (3) ◽

pp. 215824402094712

Author(s):

Hesham Suleiman Alyousef

Keyword(s):

Meaning Making ◽

Systemic Functional Linguistics ◽

Business Students ◽

Financial Statements ◽

Making Meaning ◽

Lexical Cohesion ◽

Multimodal Discourse Analysis ◽

Multimodal Discourse ◽

Cohesive Devices

The use of cohesive devices in academic discourse not only improves the quality of writing but also enhances our learning experiences. This study aims to explain how the multimodal accounting discourse is constructed by postgraduate business students through the cohesive ties. Halliday and Hasan’s and Halliday’s cohesion analysis schemes were employed in the systemic functional multimodal discourse analysis (SF-MDA) of the cohesive devices in the multimodal accounting texts. The schemes are based on systemic functional linguistics (SFL) which suits the context of this study as it considers language as a social semiotic resource for making meaning. Its linguistic tools are capable of explaining the way we construct and make meanings. The SF-MDA findings showed the first and most frequently occurring cohesive device type in the orthographic texts was lexical cohesion, in particular repetition of the same lexical items, followed by reference and conjunctions. Lexical cohesive devices were higher in the tables than in the orthographic texts. Conjunctions were only employed in the orthographic texts to signal extension and enhancement relationships. One of the key features that characterize financial statements is the abundance of implicit hierarchically networked lexical ties that bind the separate lexical strings, thereby organizing the discourse of financial statements. The results contribute to our understanding of the complex multimodal meaning-making processes in accounting discourse.

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Teaching L2 writing through the use of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL)

Indonesian JELT ◽

10.25170/ijelt.v13i1.1450 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 53-72

Author(s):

Setyo Prasiyanto Cahyono

Keyword(s):

Systemic Functional Linguistics ◽

Thinking Skill ◽

Efl Learners ◽

Critical Response ◽

Functional Linguistics ◽

Thematic Progression ◽

Cohesive Devices ◽

Editing Activity ◽

Teaching Of Writing ◽

Textual Meaning

This study aims to describe the implementation of systemic functional linguistics (SFL) of the textual grammar of message (or textual meaning) to enhance students’ critical response to the text they created. For EFL learners, transferring their ideas into writing is already a difficult task and that to give a response to the text they read or write critically is even more challenging. This study intends to approach the teaching of writing by adopting Halliday’s idea of textual meaning and Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). The students were introduced to samples of hortatory texts and trained to analyze the thematic patterns and grammatical cohesive devices. It is hoped that by training them to understand textual grammar (including thematic progression and cohesion), students (as readers and writers) are able to build their critical thinking skill and evaluate their own works. After the training, students were assigned to produce a hortatory text and to do self-editing activity. The data of this study were the twenty students’ hortatory texts which was analyzed using a framework of textual meaning proposed by Butt (2000). The analysis of the students texts show that most students were able to self-edit their own writings and edit their peer’s writing using thematic progression and cohesive devices. Students adopted skills of using both strategies in creating cohesiveness in their writing. In addition, students also produced critical response to the topic given through its theme and thematic displayed in the text analysis.

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A Systemic Functional Linguistics Analysis of Cohesion and Coherence in Written Nursing Care Reports

International Journal of Educational Best Practices ◽

10.31258/ijebp.v1n2.p1-23 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 1 (2) ◽

pp. 1

Author(s):

Ahmad Kailani

Keyword(s):

Nursing Students ◽

Nursing Care ◽

Systemic Functional Linguistics ◽

Education Institution ◽

Research Focus ◽

Main Method ◽

Main Research ◽

Lexical Cohesion ◽

Functional Linguistics ◽

Text Cohesion

This study analyses 25 nursing care reports written by nursing students majoring in the International Class of Nursing Diploma at a higher education institution in Indonesia. The main research focus is to assess the cohesion and coherence of nursing care reports in relation to their grades. The Systemic Functional Linguistics framework, with a focus on the textual metafunction, serves as a tool for analyzing cohesion, Thematic structures and Thematic development of the texts. The analysis of text cohesion revealed that all texts predominantly used lexical cohesion and reference to build internal ties within the texts. Reiteration of the same lexical items throughout the texts and heavy use of personal pronouns indicated the exploitation of these systems. In terms of coherence via Thematic structure, it was found that textual Themes were predominantly used. All the texts relied heavily on unmarked Themes, with no evidence indicating a proportional use of marked and unmarked Themes. In terms of Thematic development, Theme reiteration was the main method of text development for all texts. However, a few instances of Zig-zag Thematic development were found in texts in the higher graded categories. None of the texts used multiple Rheme patterns as an alternative method of text development.

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THE SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL LINGUISTICS: THE APPROPRIATE AND INAPPROPRIATE USE OF DEVICES IN STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC TEXT

Lingua Didaktika Jurnal Bahasa dan Pembelajaran Bahasa ◽

10.24036/ld.v10i2.7197 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 127

Author(s):

Muhammad Affandi Arianto ◽

Refnaldi Refnaldi ◽

Rusdi Noor Rosa

Keyword(s):

Qualitative Research ◽

Systemic Functional Linguistics ◽

Functional Linguistics ◽

Inappropriate Use ◽

Cohesive Devices ◽

Subject And Object ◽

The Subject

LINGUISTIK SISTEMIK FUNGSIONAL: PENGGUNAAN PIRANTI KOHESIF YANG TEPAT DAN TIDAK TEPAT PADA TEKS AKADEMIS MAHASISWAAbstractThis qualitative research was conducted to describe the types of grammatical cohesive devices and to compare the frequency of using the appropriate and inappropriate of those devices used by students in composing analytical exposition text. The subjects of this research were chosen conveniently by selecting only 34 students of grade two of SMAN 7 Padang. The data was collected from the analytical exposition texts written by them. The result of this research shows that the students are able to use the grammatical cohesive devices in variant ways. Those four types found are reference, conjuction, ellipsis, and substitution. Reference and conjuction were found most frequent in students’ texts with the percentage of occurring those types were 62.77% and 31.88%. In adition, ellipsis dan substitusition, each of them gives contributes to students texts just 4.8% and 0.55%. Students tend to use the inappropriate pronoun reference when they try to refer between the subject and object in their sentences. Of 1104 times of using the devices, the most inappropriate use was located in using reference. The frequency of using these inapprorate references was 88 times.Key words/phrases: Grammatical Cohesive Devices, Analytical Exposition Text AbstrakPenelitian kualitatif ini dilakukan untuk menggambarkan tipe-tipe piranti kohesi gramatikal dan untuk membandingkan frekuensi penggunaan yang tepat dan tidak tepat dari tipe-tipe piranti tersebut yang digunakan oleh siswa dalam menulis teks eksposisi analitik. Subyek penelitian ini dipilih nyaman dengan memilih hanya 34 siswa kelas dua SMAN 7 Padang. Data dikumpulkan dari teks-teks eksposisi analitik yang ditulis oleh mereka. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa siswa menggunakan piranti kohesi gramatikal dalam banyak variasi. Empat tipe tersebut adalah referensi, konjungsi, elipsis, dan substitusi. Referensi dan konjungsi ditemukan paling sering dalam teks-teks siswa dengan persentase tipe tersebut adalah 62.77% dan 31.88%. Selain itu, elipsis dan substitusi, masing-masing memberikan kontribusi terhadap teks siswa hanya 4.8% dan 0.55%. Siswa cenderung menggunakan kata ganti referensi secara tidak tepat ketika mereka mencoba untuk merujuk antara subjek dan objek dalam kalimat mereka. Dari 1104 kali penggunakan piranti tersebut, penggunaan piranti yang paling sering terjadi kesalahan adalah dalam menggunakan referensi. Frekuensi menggunakan piranti referensi secara tidak tepat adalah adalah sebanyak 88 kali.Kata Kunci: Piranti Kohesi Gramatikal, Teks Eksposisi Analitik

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Evaluating Lexical Cohesion in Nigerian Newspaper Genres: Focus on the Editorials

International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature ◽

10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.6n.1p.240 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

pp. 240

Author(s):

Zubairu Malah ◽

Helen Tan ◽

Sabariah Md Rashid

Keyword(s):

Systemic Functional Linguistics ◽

Lexical Cohesion ◽

Functional Linguistics ◽

The Guardian ◽

Scholarly Attention ◽

Newspaper Editorials

Applied linguists paying scholarly attention to newspaper genres have often argued that findings emerging from such studies would be of pedagogical significance because most of the newspaper genres share certain conventional features with school genres. Similarly, this study explored lexical cohesion in newspaper editorials, and it is understood that the findings could help learners in handling persuasive writings. The study sought to identify the dominant sources of lexical cohesion in the editorials, and also to examine how lexical cohesion is utilized to achieve coherence in the editorials. Drawing on Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), the study applied Eggins’ (2004) model of lexical cohesion and analyzed 30 editorial texts of 20, 354 words drawn from three major Nigerian newspapers: The Guardian, The Nation, and Vanguard. The analysis revealed 2, 685 ties across 849 sentences. The data demonstrated that the major types of lexical cohesion in the editorials include: repetition (49.5%), expectancy relations (15. 8%), class/sub-class (11%), and synonymy (10.8%). It was further revealed that lexical cohesion devices, which formed into chains (586) and isolated ties (837), were utilized in building coherence in the editorial texts. It was finally shown how findings of the study could be beneficial in ESP, EAP, and EGP learning, especially in persuasive writings. Keywords: Editorials, Lexical cohesion, Newspaper Genres, Nigerian Newspapers, School Genres

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An Exploratory Study of Cohesive features in Selected Excerpts from Sefiata’s News from Home

International Journal of Linguistics Literature and Culture ◽

10.21744/ijllc.v3i6.576 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 3 (6) ◽

pp. 19

Author(s):

Innocent Sourou Koutchadé

Keyword(s):

Mixed Method ◽

Exploratory Study ◽

Systemic Functional Linguistics ◽

Linguistic Analysis ◽

The Novel ◽

Lexical Cohesion ◽

Functional Linguistics ◽

Linguistic Approach

This article aimed at providing a linguistic analysis of Sefi Atta’s novel entitled News from Home through the linguistic approach of cohesion drawn from Systemic Functional Linguistics. Two extracts were selected randomly from the novel and a descriptive mixed method of analysis was adopted. Aspects of cohesion studied in the text were reference, conjunction and lexical cohesion. The analyses revealed that various types of reference such as anaphoric, cataphoric, demonstrative, exophoric, and homophoric occurred in the selected texts. Features of conjunctions were used by the writer to display the logical relationships between elements of the texts. As for lexical cohesion, patterns of reiteration and collocation were used to point out the field of the study. The paper concluded that these cohesive patterns are organized to reveal the texture of the text.

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