10

CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

A. Prior Research

Based on the research by Devi that entitled An Analysis of

Lexical Cohesion on the students writing text of State

Islamic College Jurai Siwo Metro in Academic Year

2012/2013 that is conducted at STAIN Jurai Siwo Metro in year

2012. The researcher is aimed at describing the phenomena of

some common errors of students on lexical cohesion on

text in the level of repetition, synonym, and antonym. The

research used descriptive-qualitative research for collecting the data. It

described that synonym error was more dominant mistake

than repetition and antonym. It is shown from the

frequency of synonym error was 51%, the second one was

repetition 42% and the last was antonym 7%.1 Moreover,

considering the research above, the students analysis of

lexical cohesion on writing text is good enough. There were

several students that could understand with the pattern of

1 Devi Ulma Sari, An Analysis of Lexical Cohesion on The Students

Writing Text of State Islamic College Jurai Siwo Metro in Academic Year
2012/2013, (2013), p. 47
 11

how to analyze the text and use lexical cohesion in writing

whereas the other has still low understanding about it.

Another study is by Fatimah and Yunus that entitled The Use of

Lexical Cohesion among TESL Post Graduate Students in Academic

Writing. The research is conducted in 2014. It aimed to identify the types,

the most and least usage of the types and how the TESL post graduate

students used lexical cohesion in their writing. Moreover, this study

collected the data by qualitative type research design which concentrated

more on essay writing. The result showed that there were four types of

lexical cohesion used commonly by the students such as repetition,

synonym, antonym and collocation. Furthermore, repetition was the most

frequently used in the respondents essay writing while synonym was the

second highest, antonym was the sixth highest and collocation was used

the least frequency.2

Furthermore, a research by Azizah that entitled Cohesion Analysis

on the students descriptive paragraph of English educations study

program of the Sate Islamic College (STAIN) Jurai Siwo Metro.

Moreover, the research is conducted at STAIN Jurai Siwo Metro in year

2011. The researcher aimed at describing cohesion on descriptive

2 Siti Nurfatimah Haris and Melor Md Yunus, The Use of Lexical

Cohesion among TESL Post Graduated Students in Academic Writing,
(American Research Institute for Policy Development: Journal of
education and Human Development), Vol. 3, 2014, p. 854
 12

paragraph of students of Englishstudy program of STAIN Jurai Siwo

Metro in academic year of 2009/2010. It used inductive approach to

analyze and to describe the students descriptive paragraph about the

existence of cohesion. It described that the types of cohesive device were

frequently used by students in descriptive paragraph writing were

conjunction and reference items. Meanwhile, repetition, ellipsis, and

substitution as grammatical cohesion were rarely used. Synonymy and

hyponymy were too. Then, antonymy and collocation were not found. 3

However, there were some students that still did not understand about the

pattern to put the cohesive device appropriately. Moreover, considering the

research above, cohesion inter paragraphs on students descriptive

paragraph is influenced by the cohesion of each paragraph.

Additionally, a study by Mawa and Mirahayuni that entitled An

analysis of lexical cohesion in w. Somerset Maughams two short stories

Mr. Know-All and The Outstation. This study is conducted in 2010 that

had the purposes for determining the kinds and the connections of lexical

cohesion between two short stories. The study used descriptive-qualitative

research for collecting the data. Moreover, they found that the novel Mr.

Know-All used seven types of lexical cohesion, namely repetition,

synonym, superordinate, general word, complimentary, part to whole, and

proximity with five entities. Meanwhile, in the second novel, The

3Yusiati Azizah, Cohesion Analysis on the students descriptive

paragraph of English education study program of the State Islamic
College Jurai Siwo Metro, (Metro. 2011), p. 54
 13

Outstation used nine types of lexical cohesion like repetition, synonym,

superordinate, general word, collocation, complementary, part to part, part

to whole, and proximity with twelve entities.4 Furthermore, from the

analysis above, the writer finds that the interpretation of lexical cohesion

in the stories well formed. There were elements that were related to each

other between sentence and the relation of the sentence built the lexical

ties that make the text coherent. It was shown from the entities that are

found in the stories. This occurrence showed a relatedness of the stories.

Based on the researches above, the students analysis of

lexical cohesion on essay writing text is good enough.

Those types of lexical cohesion created cohesiveness

toward the ideas conveyed by the students in writing.

Therefore, the writer proposes a research to find other

types of lexical cohesion on students writing specific text

to figure out the students writing quality.

B. Theoretical Review
1. The Concept of Writing

a. The Definition of Writing

4Firdaus Mawa and Ni Ketut Mirahayuni, An analysis of lexical cohesion in w.

Somerset Maughams two short stories Mr. Know-All and The Outstation,
(Parafrase Vol. 10 No. 02 September 2010), p. 50
 14

Writing is a method that is used by human to do

intercommunication by means, marks or symbols that

are usually visible.5 It is also used to convey or to

communicate nonverbal message, idea, expression,

feeling, or thought. In other words, writing can be used

as a tool which is extremely needed for expressing

some amazing ideas or feelings in written form. As a

result, the communication among people can still run

well enough even though they are not meeting each

other directly.

Furthermore, Siahaan states that writing is a

written productive language skill. It is one of skills that

is used to convey some information to readers.

Moreover, it is effectively realized by writers ability to

apply the rules of the language that she or he is

writing to transfer the information from her or his mind

to the readers.6 Accordingly, writing is a language skill

that is really needed to share some important

messages from the writer to the reader.

5R.R Jordan, Academic Writing Course, (England: Longman, 2003), p.

41
6Sanggam Siahaan. The English Paragraph. (Yogyakarta: Graha Ilmu,
2008), p. 2
 15

Another definition is also proposed by Marianne. She

defines that writing is the production of the written word that results

a text but the text must be read comprehensively in order to have

communication between the writer and the reader will occur.7

Moreover, writing consists of four basic recursive

processes namely planning, writing, editing and

reviewing.8 However, these activities do not

necessarily occur in the fixed order that is suggested.

Writers move to in accordance with their individual

goals of the moment although more time is spent on

planning or thinking at the start, and on editing and

reviewing at the end naturally. Hence, writing is a skill

that needs a good relationship among some aspects in

order to make an excellent writing text as writers want

to.

Basically, there are two elements of writing. The

first is content; it is what the writer has to say. The

second is form; it is the way the content, or message,

7Marianne Celce-Murcia and Elite Olshtaim. Discourse and Context in

Language Teaching, A Guide for Language Teachers.( New York:
Cambridge University Press, 2000), p. 142
8 James Hartley, Academic Writing and Publishing, A Practical
handbook, (London and New York: Routledge, 2008), p. 10
 16

is presented.9 Moreover, the form of a written includes

its organization and layout. Form gives a reader an

immediate idea of what to expect. Without reading a

word you could probably recognize a written piece by

its form.10 Consequently, the second one is strongly

noticed because it is a really significant element of

writing some texts.

Based on the theoretical foundation above,

writing is a method that is used by people to share

their thoughts, feelings, and ideas. It is also as a way

of one of activity of language user to share some

essential information and to appreciate or describe

some great ideas and activities of people around the

world that product in the written text such as book,

newspaper, magazine, drafting, blog, diaries, and the

like. Then, it needs a composing process for producing

a good product of writing.

b. The Writing Process

9Development and Production: Laurel Associates, Inc, Writing: English

in Context, (USA: Saddleback Educational Publishing, 2000), p. 6
10Ibid.
 17

When the writers will write, they do more than

just put some words together to make good sentences.

Good writers use several steps to produce a piece of

writing.11 According to Harmer the writing strategy and

the writing process were categorized identically. It has

four main elements: Planning > drafting > editing

> final draft12

1) Planning

Before starting to write, the writers decide what

they are going to write. In this case, the writers

should think about three main issues. The first is

they have to consider the purpose of their writing,

including the type of the text, the language that

they will use and the information that they will

choose to construct their writing. Secondly, the

writer has to think of the readers who read their

writing. For example, it is formal or informal writing.

Sixthly, the writers have to consider the content

structure of their writing. It is about how to

11Dorothy E. Zemach and Lisa A. Rumisek, Academic Writing from

Paragraph to Essay, (Universidad De Sevilla: Macmillan), p. 3
12Jeremy Harmer, How To Teach Writing, (England: Longman, 2004),
p.5
 18

sequence the facts, ideas, or arguments which they

have decided to include.13

2) Drafting

The first action in making a piece of writing is

drafting. It should be arranged after planning. In

other words, the writers start to write their ideas

based on their planning before. It will be the first

version of writing that produced by the writer.14

3) Editing and Revising

The writers need to correct the draft which they

have produced. Perhaps the order of the information

in the text is not clear. The content of the text may

be equivocated or confused so that it hard to

understand by the readers. Consequently, the writer

has to make an editing that whished for changed in

correct writing. In other words, the writer revises his

writing to make appropriate revisions.15

4) Final Draft

After editing their draft, the writers make the

changes what they consider to be necessary, they

produce their final draft. It considerably different

13Ibid,p.4
14Ibid, p.5
15Ibid.
 19

from both the original plan and the first draft,

because it have changed in the editing process. It

becomes the final version that will be read by the

audience.16

Furthermore, Brown explains that there are three

stages of writing process that tend to be framed namely

prewriting, while writing (drafting), and post writing

(revising).17

1) Prewriting

Prewriting is a first process when the writers begin

to write. In this process they are deciding and

planning what they are going to write.18 According

to Zemach and Lisa, there are three steps in

prewriting:

a) The first step is choosing a topic that is not too

narrow (limited or brief) and broad (general).

b) The second step is gathering ideas after getting

a topic then think about what the writer will

write about the topic. This way is known as

16Ibid.
17H.Douglas Brown, Teaching by principles: An Interactive Approach to
Language pedagogy, Second Edition, (London: Longman, 1998), p.348
18 Dorothy E. Zemach and Lisa A. Rumisek, Academic Writing., p. 5
 20

brainstorming. It can help the writers get

started when they have no topic to develop. It

also can identify information which needed to

support the point of view quickly. In other

words, brainstorming is one of the several

different ways to begin writing.

c) The last step is organizing. In this step the

writers decide the ideas which will be used and

choose which of the ideas that will be talked

first, next and last.

2) While writing (drafting)

After exploring the ideas, the writer puts them

into paragraph or essay form. The time when the

writers have been writing or putting the idea into a

paragraph is called while writing. It is commonly

known as drafting process. Besides, Karen says

that this process is the physical act of turning oral

language into a written form.19 It is started by

writing down the objective or the main idea.

Furthermore, Brown adds that in this process, all of

writers discover how they can best express their

19Karen Kuelthau Allan, et. al, Learning to Write with Purpose, (New
York: The Guilford press, 2009), p. 23
 21

ideas in the clearest manner possible in order to

the reader will receive the same message.20

3) Post writing (revising)

The most important stage in writing process is

revising. The revising process is where the writers

check what they wanted to say in a clear and

appropriate way. It might take place while the

writers are drafting or after finishing all of the

drafts.21 In this process the writers need to assess

their draft in order that they produce a good

writing before finishing their writing. Moreover, the

writers check the content and purpose of the drafts

clearly and appropriately for the reader in

particular writing situation. It is not only checking

spelling, punctuation, and grammar but also

arranging, changing, adding, leaving out the word,

and so on.22

20 H.Douglas Brown, Teaching by principles., p.353

21Kristine Brown and Susan Hood, Writing Matters: Writing skills and
strategies for students of English, (New York: Cambridge University
Press, 1993), p. 20
22Ibid.
 22

Based on the statement above, the writing process

involves prewriting, while writing, and post writing.

Prewriting is a very essential step in writing process. It

is relevant with the asserting the main idea of writing,

the content structure of writing, and brainstorming.

Furthermore, while writing is the process of drafting

that is the real implementation of prewriting that

needs the real action of writing such as developing the

main idea. In addition, the post writing is the revising

process such as look about the ideas, scratch out the

irrelevant information, find out the grammatical errors,

and change the text order or make some additions.

c. The Types of Writing

Freedman & Medway say that a long rhetorical

tradition has described genres as specific types of

writing with particular features or formats: description,

narrative, explanation, instruction, and persuasion.

Moreover, Johns adds that these five types have been

adopted by schools and state standards. 23 Here are the

explanations about the types of writing:

1) Descriptive

23 Karen Kuelthau Allan, et. al, Learning to Write., p. 6

 23

Writing that creates a clear and vivid

impression of the topic is description. Furthermore,

description translates the writers experience of a

person, place, or thing into words, often by

appealing to the physical senses like sight, hearing,

smell, taste, and touch.24 Therefore, descriptive text

is used for describing or imaging some things

around the writers based on what they see, hear,

smell, taste, or touch.

2) Narrative

Narrative text is used for entertaining the

reader in an imaginative experience. Beside,

narrative texts are organized based on setting,

event leading to a problem and solution. The main

features of narrative text are defined characters,

descriptive language, and past tense.25 Furthermore,

narration tells of a story simply, not only it can be

for entertaining but also informing the readers. The

24 Susan Anker, Real Writing: Paragraphs and Essays for College,

Work, and everyday life, (New York: Bedford/St. Martins, 2010), p. 155
25 PDST (professional Development Service For Teachers), Writing
genre-A: structured Approach,2013,
http://www.pdst.ie/sites/default/files/Writing%20Booklet%20to
%20circulate.pdf, 21 Januari 2016, p. 3
 24

stories in narrative texts can be fiction (made up) or

nonfiction (the retelling of an incident that actually

happened).26 Therefore, narrative text is a text that

tells the story of event or an experience both fiction

and nonfiction.

3) Explanation

Explanation is a text that is used for explaining

how something works or the process involved in

actions, events or behavior. For example, how does

a rainbow occur? Explanation texts are organized by

a definition or statement, and a sequenced

explanation. Besides, the features of explanation

writing are non-human participants, cause and

effect relationships, passives and timeless present

tense.27

4) Procedure

The text that is used for explaining how

something is done in a series of sequenced steps is

26 Gayle Feng-Checket and Lawrence Checket, The Write Start
Sentence to Paragraph Fourth Edition,(USA: Wadsworth Cengage
Learning, 2010), p. 177
27 PDST (professional Development Service For Teachers), Writing
genre-A., p. 17
 25

descriptive text. They are organized by goal,

material, method and evaluation. Moreover, the

features of procedural writing include: detailed

factual description, reader referred to in a general

way (draw a line), linking words to do with time,

tense is timeless.28

5) Persuasion

Writers use persuasion when they are trying to

convince someone else that their point of view or

belief is correct.29 Furthermore, persuasive text

gives the writers opinion on the topic and tries to

get the readers to agree with it. The verbs which are

used in a persuasive topic sentence are most often

should/should not or must/must not.

Based on the explanation above, the writer

concluded that there are many kinds of writing text that

are usually used by some writers for expressing their

feeling, knowledge or experience. Therefore, in this

28 Ibid., p. 11
29 Gayle Feng-Checket and Lawrence Checket, The Write Start., p. 261
 26

research the writer will focus on one of writing types

namely descriptive text.

d. The Descriptive Writing Text

The writers description should show to their

readers about what the writers mean, not just tell

them. Also, sensory details can bring the writers

description to life.30 Accordingly, the main point in this

text type is the main impression that the writers want

to create for their readers. If the writers do not have a

main impression about their topic, it usually helps to

think about how it smells sounds, looks, tastes, or

feels.

Furthermore, there are two types of description,

namely objective description and subjective

description.31 Objective description tells what the

writer actually sees and relies on factual detail without

much embellishment. In contrast, subjective

description shows how the writer feels and creates an

identifiable emotion or impression easily.

30 Susan Anker, Real Writing., p. 159
31 Gayle Feng-Checket and Lawrence Checket, The Write Start., p. 160
 27

Moreover, for making a good descriptive text

easier, the writers should know about the generic

structure of it. There are two generic structures of

descriptive text that are commonly used by some

writers32:

Identification (introduction about the subject): it

contains introduction about the people, the

thing, the animal, or the place generally.

Description (describing): it contains about the

characteristic of the subject (people, thing,

animal, or place) like physical, quality, behavior,

or other special characteristics that are

significantly shown.

1) Characteristic

32Alexander Mongot Jaya, et.al, English Revolution Fourth Edition,

(Kediri: Mawas Press, 2008), p. 14
 28

Every types of writing have some

characteristics for distinguished among them. It is

usually called as a grammatical feature.

Furthermore, according to Alexander, there are

some characteristics of descriptive text:

a) Having specific or clear word thing like my dog,

my car, my new house, etc. furthermore, all of

the things have some unique characteristics.

For example: My dog doesnt like bones.

b) Using simple present tense. For example: I live

in a simple house; the house is very beautiful; it

has a wonderful park.

c) Using noun phrase for imaging the things

specifically. For example: I have a white

skinned girl-friend.

d) Using some adjective for describing,

numbering, or classifying the things. For

example: two strong legs.

e) Using action verb. For example: my cat eats

mouse.33

33 Ibid., p. 14
 29

Moreover, Susan Anker adds that there are

four basic of good writing when the writers make a

descriptive text34:

1) It creates a main impression an overall effect,

feeling, or image about the topic.

2) It uses specific examples to support the main

impression.

3) It supports those examples with details that

appeal to the five senses: sight, hearing, smell,

taste, and touch.

4) It brings a person, place, or physical object to

life for the reader.

Therefore, the writers should comprehend

the characteristics of descriptive text when they

are describing or imaging some things, people,

places, or animal in order to their written text will

be an excellent text.

2) Function

34 Susan Anker, Real Writing., p. 155

 30

Descriptive text aims to translate some

experiences of a person, place, or thing into

words, often by appealing to the physical senses:

sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. 35 Moreover,

Gayle says that it is like a painter using color on a

canvas, the writer uses word as a color to create

pictures in the readers mind as a canvas. 36 Thus,

it is clear that the purpose of descriptive text is for

describing a person, place, or thing in order to

create images in the readers mind by using some

specific details. Here are the functions of

descriptive text specifically:

a) Describing place

When describing some places, the writers

try to make the readers understand about the

image of the place and they can easily find

where the location is placed. Furthermore,

when the writers make this text type, they

often use some prepositions to tell how a

spaces organized.37 Some common and useful

35Ibid.
36 Gayle Feng-Checket and Lawrence Checket, The Write Start., p. 159
37 Dorothy E. Zemach and Lisa A. Rumisek, Academic Writing., p. 26
 31

preposition are like in front of/behind, on top

of/on the bottom of, next to, above/below,

underneath, to the right of/to the left of, in the

middle of, around, between, etc.

b) Describing people

Usually, when describing people, the

writers describe a particular person through

his/her physical and psychological condition.

Besides, it can be focused on what the people

use, how they walk, how they speak, how their

hair color type, how their body, how their face,

etc. Moreover, in this text type the writers tell

the people look like, the character, and

personality.

When description is mentioned, the writers

think mainly about adjectives and perhaps

adverbs. Here are some common adjectives for

describing people.38

38Ibid., p. 27
 32

Personality: happy, satisfied, relaxed,

exciting, nervous, angry, serious, sad,

depressed, outgoing, etc.

Physical characteristics: big, large, tall,

small, tiny, short, thin, heavy, strong, weak,

(haired) brown-, black-, blond-, red-,

(skinned) light-, dark-.

c) Describing animal

Commonly, in this text type, the writers

describe the physical characteristics of the

animal. It is like describing the people, the

writers also tell about animals behavior.

Accordingly, the writers should use some

adjectives for making a dominant impression in

order to be easily understood and not is vague

about the animal.

d) Describing thing

In describing thing, the writers illustrate

the thing physically and its features

specifically. Besides, the writers can explain

 33

about the materials that are used for making

some things and the functions of thing.

It can be concluded that, every types of

writing texts have special functions and aims in

order to make the differences among them. For

example descriptive text has a function that is

describing some people, animals, things, or

places. Therefore, by this function both the

writers and readers will easily comprehend the

text.

2. The Concept of Lexical Cohesion

a. The definition of cohesion

The concept of cohesion or cohesive is a semantic

one. It refers to relations of meaning that exist within

the text and define it as a text. Furthermore, it occurs

where the interpretation of some element is dependent

on the other in the discourse.39 Like other semantic

39 M.A.K. Halliday and Ruqaiya Hasan, Cohesion in English, (London:
Longman, 1976), P. 4
 34

relations, cohesion expresses through the strata

organization of language that can be explained as a

multiple coding system comprising three levels of

coding or strata namely the semantic (meaning), the

lexicogrammatical (form) and the phonological

(expression). Therefore, in everyday terminology,

meaning is put into wording, and wording into sound or

writing.40 Here is the schema of strata (meaning-

wording-sound writing):

Meaning (the semantic system)

Wording (the lexicogrammatical system,

grammar, and vocabulary)

Sounding/writing (the phonological and orthographic

system)

Within this stratum, the guiding principle in

language is that the more general meanings are

expressed through the grammar and the more specific

40Ibid., p. 5
 35

meanings through the vocabulary. Furthermore,

cohesion is expressed partly through the grammar and

vocabulary. Therefore, it refers to grammatical

cohesion and lexical cohesion.41

The term of cohesive is commonly defined as an

over feature of the text, providing surface evidence for

the texts unity that are connected each other.

Moreover, cohesion is realized linguistically by devices

and ties that are used to form a larger text (spoken or

written) as the elements or units of language. It relates

to the readers linguistic competence since cohesion

trust strongly on grammatical and lexical devices.42 In

other word, cohesion becomes a special feature that

has some devices in producing some text.

Moreover, Marianne and Olshtain say that

cohesion is the use of various cohesive ties to link

together the entire proposition in a text results in

cohesion of that text explicitly.43 It means that the

most clear structural prime of such connected

41Ibid.
42Marianne celce-Murcia, Elite olshtain, Discourse and context in
Language Teaching(First Published), (USA: Cambridge University,
2000), p. 126
43Ibid., p. 7
 36

discourse are the cohesive ties identified and

discussed. Furthermore, the term of tie is for one

occurrence of pair of cohesively related items that

refers to a single instance of cohesion.44

Generally, Halliday and Hasan divide cohesive ties

into five kinds, namely reference, substitution, ellipsis,

conjunction, and lexical cohesion.45 Furthermore, it is

commonly known as grammatical cohesion and lexical

cohesion. Reference, substitution, ellipsis, and

conjunction are grammatical devices and lexical has

two devices that are reiteration and collocation.

In conclusion, the concept of cohesion in producing

a writing text is very extremely needed besides

coherent aspect. It is the way how the meaning of the

text can relate each other both grammatically

(grammar) and lexically (vocabulary). Without

relations between ties of those ones, the whole text

cannot be clear and readable. Therefore, the existence

of cohesion in writing is that the meaning of the text

can be understood by the reader.

44M.A.K. Halliday and Ruqaiya Hasan, Cohesion in English., p. 3

45Ibid., p. 4
 37

b. The definition of lexical cohesion

Lexical cohesion is one of aspects of cohesion

through vocabulary patterns of sentence level. The

relation among vocabulary items can occur from clause

and sentence limitations in written text. The relation

between vocabulary items in texts described by the

Halliday and Hasan model are two principal kinds

namely reiteration and collocation.46

According to Nunan, lexical cohesion occurs when

two words in a text are semantically related in some

ways-in other words, they are related in terms of their

meaning.47 Moreover, Hoey argues that lexical cohesion

is the single most important from cohesion, accounting

for something like forty percent of cohesive ties of

texts. His work to agree within any detail here is too

complex. However, it is good look concisely at his main

idea.48

46Michael McCarthy, Discourse Analysis for Language Teachers, (New

York: Cambridge University Press, 1991), p. 65
47David Nunan, Introducing Discourse Analysis (first Published),
(England: Penguin Books, 1993), p. 28
48Ibid., p. 31
 38

Furthermore, According to Flowerdew and

Mahlberg, lexical cohesion is about meaning in text in

which as the way of lexical items relate to each other

and to other cohesive devices to build the continuity of

the text.49 It means that lexical cohesion is related to

the meaning in the text in order to the connection of

the text is created.

Based on the above theoretical foundation, it is

clear that lexical cohesion is one of kinds of cohesion

that is realized through vocabulary. It is the relationship

between and among words in a text or sentence and as

the way how the meaning of the text is continuity.

c. The types of lexical cohesion

Haliday and Hasan via Nunan state that the two

major categories of lexical cohesion are reiteration and

collocation.50 Reiteration includes repetition, synonym

or near synonym, super ordinate, and general word. 51

49John Flowerdew and Michaela Mahlberg, Lexical Cohesion and
Corpus Linguistics, (Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company,
2009), p. 1
50 David Nunan, Introducing Discourse., p. 28
51 Ibid., p. 29
 39

Moreover, Akindele says that reiteration involves doing

or saying something numerous times while collocation

involves the connotation of lexical items that

frequently appears which involves pairs of words from

the same other series.52

Reiteration can be shown to be a significant

feature of the text. There may be something for the

language teacher to exploit. Reiteration is a form of

lexical cohesion which involves repetition, synonym, or

near-synonym, superordinate, and general word.

Furthermore, here are the explanations about them:

a) Repetition

Generally, the meaning of repetition is same

with reiteration. Raphael says that repeating

important words is one thing that makes texts

coherent.53 Moreover, Winter via kaisa says that

repetition can be seen as a link between the

clauses or sentences in which the repeated or

replaced items occur, and not just as a tie between

52Siti Nurfatimah Haris and Melor Md Yunus, The Use of Lexical
Cohesion., p. 854
53Raphael Salkie, Text and Discourse Analysis, (New York: Routledge,
2001), p. 3
 40

the items. In short, Hoeys idea is to use repetition

relations as cues to find those sentences in a

particular text that are most central to the

meaning of the text and thus also reveal the

organization of the text.54

The example of repetition:

what we lack in a newspaper what we should get.

In a word, a popular newspaper may be the

winning ticket.55

b) Synonym

Synonym is a word which means same each

other.56 Furthermore, Raphael says that synonym is

a word that has a meaning as another word. He

thinks that it can be boring if the same word is

repeated, and this is the reason why synonym

54Sanna-Kaisa Tanskanen, Collaborating towards Coherence,

(Amsterdam: John Benyamin Publishing Company, 2006), p. 42
55 David Nunan, Introducing Discourse., p. 29
56Michael Stubbs, Word, phrase and meaning,(USA: Blackwell
Publishing, 2002), p. 36
 41

should exist in the text.57 Moreover, Wagiman says

that synonym is sameness of meaning which is not

concerned with the conceptual meaning of words,

but relation of words which have, more or less, the

conceptual meaning.58

The example of synonym:

You could try reversing the car up the slope. The

incline isnt all that a steep.59

c) Superordinates and general word

The term of superordinate is another way of

linking words in a text and creating coherences to

refer back to a word. Furthermore, the general

word is called the superordinate, and the more

specific one is called a hyponym. 60 Likewise,

Wagiman adds that the term to refer to a set or a

group of words that are included in a higher term

of word is called hyponym. Therefore, the higher or

57Raphael Salkie, Text and Discourse., p. 9

58Wagiman Adisutrisno, Semantics, an introduction to the basic
concepts, (Yogyakarta: ANDI, 2008), P. 31
59David Nunan, Introducing Discourse., p. 29
60Raphael Salkie, Text and Discourse., p. 15
 42

upper term or word is called a superordinate, and

hyponym is the lower term.61

Furthermore, Salkie adds that hyponym

which is often is often used first in a text and

superordinate is used to refer back to it. 62 This is

the example of the relation of them:

Brazil, with her two-crop economy, was even

more several hit by the Depression than other

Latin American states and the country was on the

verge of complete collapse.63

From the short text above, the link is between

Brazil and country. It means that Brazil is hyponym

as a specific instance of the more general word

country as a superordinate of it.

d) Opposites and related word

Even though Halliday and Hasan do not

explain about opposites and related word in their

theory, the writer tries to add it based on the

61Wagiman Adisutrisno, Semantics, an introduction., p. 36

62Raphael Salkie, Text and Discourse., p. 16
63Ibid., p. 15
 43

Raphael theory because it is as another

relationship between words that can be used as

cohesive device. Ones such relationship is when

two words or phrases are opposite in meaning.64

Raphael says that using the words near each

other obviously enables the writer to express a

contrast, but it is also contributes to the cohesion

of the text.65 Moreover, he adds that something

near one end of the scale will be simple, something

near the other end will be complex, but there is no

clear dividing line in every case, and something

can be more or less simple, more or less complex.

Pairs of words like these are called antonym. 66

Therefore, it is clear that antonym is the opposite

meaning of the word or phrase in a text. Here is

the example of opposite meaning in the short text:

At least 125 people died of AIDS in Bulawayo

between April and June this Year, According to City

64 Ibid., p. 23
65Ibid.
66Raphael Salkie, Text and Discourse., p. 24
 44

Health authorities... Out of the 125, 71 were males

while 54 were females.67

From the example above, the underlined

words are opposite each other. We know that the

meaning between two words males and females

are contrast. Therefore, it can be called as

antonym or the opposite in meaning.

e) Collocation

The last type of lexical cohesion is

collocation. Actually, collocation is the most

problematical part of lexical cohesion. Nunan says

that:

Most linguists who have written about

cohesion admit that lexical collocation is a
problem, and some refuse to deal with it
because of this. Martin (1981b: 1) points out
that, while there are problems in defining
collocation, its contribution to coherence in
text is so significant that it cannot be ignored.
The problems arise because collocation is
expressed through open rather than closed
class items. Closed lexical items include all
grammatical words such as pronouns,

67Ibid., p. 23
 45

conjunctions and prepositions-membership

which is finite. In contrast, there is no limit to
the items that can be used to express
collocation. This means that it is difficult to
establish sets of regularly co-occurring words
and phrases.68

However, Halliday and Hasan try to explain

that collocation is all lexical cohesion that is not

covered by what we have called reiteration

without attempting to classify the various meaning

relations that are involved.69 Furthermore,

Wagiman says that collocation is a term to refer to

word that tend to appear together or to keep

company.70

According to Kaisa, the relation of collocation

is an association meaning relationship between

regularly co-occurring lexical items, for example:

words that keep each other company.71 For

instance, the association can achieved when the

68 David Nunan, Introducing Discourse., p. 29

69M.A.K. Halliday and Ruqaiya Hasan, Cohesion in English., p. 287
70Wagiman Adisutrisno, Semantics, an introduction., p. 38
71Sanna-Kaisa Tanskanen, Collaborating towards., p. 12
 46

lexical items have a tendency to appear in similar

lexical environment.

Moreover, she adds that since cohesion

refers to connections between longer stretches of a

text (clauses and sentences), items that are

regarded as being related by collocation in the

cohesive sense cannot be closest in that text. 72

Therefore, the term of collocation is also used to

relate and connect among the texts cohesively.

Another type also adds by Hasan as cited in

Kaisa, he divided two main categories of lexical

cohesion:

The first is general category included repetition,

synonymy, hyponymy, meronymy (part-whole

relation), and antonym.

The second is instantial category, to deal with

those relations which are not general, but

created by the text. The category includes the

relations of equivalence (the sailor was their

72Ibid., p. 33
 47

daddy), naming (the dog was called Toto) and

semblance (the deck was like a pool).73

Based on the explanation about the types of

lexical cohesion above, it can be concluded that all

of them are required in writing every text types.

Therefore, the writer will involve all of the types of

lexical cohesion as a reference in this research

except collocation type because there is no specific

pattern that explains about it.

d. The differences between grammatical and lexical

cohesion

Both grammatical and lexical cohesion are

needed in helping the coherences of sense of the text.

However, coherence is generally achieved by having

cohesion first. Those ones have some ties that can be

as a reference in forming and relating words, clause,

and sentences in a text to be meaningfully.

Nonetheless, all of the ties of cohesion have the

difference of its specific functions in the text.

73Ibid., p. 35
 48

Furthermore, the distinction between grammatical

and lexical cohesion is really only one of degree.

Grammatical cohesion is realized through the grammar

and lexical cohesion is realized through the

vocabulary.74 Therefore, lexical cohesion is the cohesive

effect achieved by the selection of vocabulary and

grammatical cohesion achieved by the form of

grammar.

3. The Analysis Theory of Lexical Cohesion

Halliday and Hassan (1976) give theory analysis of the types of

cohesive relationship which can be formally established within a text.

Therefore, the main cohesive devices which bind a text together are of two

main categories namely grammatical and lexical devices. The kinds of

lexical cohesive ties discussed by Hasan in kaisa are general and instantial

category. General category includes repetition, synonymy, hyponymy,

meronymy (part-whole relation), and antonym. Meanwhile, instantial

category includes the relations of equivalence, naming and semblance. 75

The theory analysis of lexical cohesion represented below for explicitness.

74Ibid., p. 6
75 Ibid.
 49

Lexical Cohesion

General category Instantial category

Synonymy
Equivalence
Hyponymy
Naming
Antonymy
Semblance
Meronymy

Figure I: Theory Analysis of Lexical Cohesion by Hasan76

Based on figure theory analysis above, it can be

concluded that the theory analysis of lexical cohesion

can be practiced by two categories that are general and

instantial category. Moreover, general category consists

of synonym, hyponymy, antonymy, and meronymy.

Besides, instatial category consists of equivalence,

naming, and semblance. Therefore, the researcher

76 Linda Gerot and Peter Wignel, Making Sense of Functional Grammar,

(Australia: An Introductory Workbook, 1994), p. 177-178
 50

applies this theory to analyze lexical cohesion ties of

product of the students writing descriptive text at the

sixth semester students of English study program of

STAIN Jurai Siwo Metro in academic year 2015/2016.