Abstract
As the title indicates, this study COHESION IN A TSWANA NARRATIVE TEXT aims at examining the occurrence of cohesion in a selected Tswana text. The study comprises eight chapters. The introductory chapter outlines the aim of the study, the method of research, the division of chapters, and further provides an explanation of key concepts, namely cohesion and coherence. Cohesion refers to the flowing together of ideas in a text thus adding to its coherence. Coherence is referred to as a mental phenomenon, something the reader establishes or wishes to establish.
The five different types of cohesion as classified by Halliday (1994) (for English) are reference, ellipsis, substitution, conjunction and lexical cohesion. Each of these cohesive ties has different categories. The aim is to establish how applicable they are to Tswana. These ties operate in different ways i.e. anaphorically, cataphorically and/or exophorically. These forms are concerned with the direction in the text. Ties that operate anaphorically point backwards to what precedes the text; those that operate cataphorically point to what is to follow and ties that operate exophorically point to that which is outside the text. They also reflect on the distance in terms of number of sentences or clauses between the cohesive item and the item it refers to.
The examples are taken from Tswana text Dilo di Masoke by Monyaise (1991). The general findings and overview of the research are outlined in the concluding chapter.
Dr. J.H.M. Kock