An Analysis Of Contextual Roles In Discourse Coherence

In the subject of discourse analysis, coherence is always considered as an important linguistic term. The book Cohesion in English, written by Halliday and Hasan in 1976, is set up as the landmark of cohesion theory. This book holds that whether a discourse is coherent or not, it can be viewed from the following two points: one is coherent with the context of situation and therefore consistent in register; and the other is coherent with respect to itself, and therefore cohesive. In this point, the two linguists have noticed context, as an extra-lingual factor, exerts function in discourse coherence. But it is a pity that they have not paid enough attention to the function of cohesion in discourse coherence and nearly neglected the role of context in capturing coherence.Gradually, many researchers find out that cohesion is neither the sufficient condition nor the necessary condition for the realization of coherence. Based on this recognition, more and more researchers devote themselves to analyzing coherence from other new perspectives. For instance, in 1974, Fries and Danes suggested the term of thematic progression. However, as a matter of fact, this theory is still under the limit of the function of cohesion in language itself. Though most scholars know that successful communication and the achievement of coherence are highly dependent on context, they merely mention the roles of context in their researches and do not analyze them in details, not to speak of the analysis of the various roles of contextual factors in discourse coherence.Therefore, this paper tries to analyze discourse coherence comprehensively from the angle of context, point out the different roles of contextual factors in discourse coherence, and gain some suggestions on the cultivations of English conversational and writing skills.The paper employs the study of context as a primary theory, and analyzes the contextual roles by adopting the short novel A Rose for Emily as a blueprint. Through the analysis of each perspective of contextual elements, the paper draws a conclusion that contextual factors play important roles in discourse coherence. The paper also reaches a point that situational context and social context have different functions in discourse coherence. The former is direct and transient, but the latter is continuous and indirect as a result of the pervasive and omnipresent features of social culture. The significance of this paper is both theoretical and practical. Theoretically, at the root of general theory system of previous linguists, the author uses its essence and explores deeply to complete a relatively comprehensive context theory. Practically, this research applies context theory to language acquisition of English learners, who can use the contextual knowledge to enhance and develop their conversational and writing skills. Especially, since context exerts great influence on oral exchange, as a hearer, he should not just understand the literal meaning from the language itself, but perceives the real purpose of the speaker from non-linguistic perspectives. Only in this way can the conversation go on fluently and completely. Meanwhile, literary works written by famous writers are fine sources to enhance language learners'context consciousness. For this reason, language learners can choose some interesting literary works and penetrably analyze how each situational element plays its role. Then, after a period, learners can cultivate their context consciousness. As a result of the indirect and pervasive characteristics of social context, learners need to take much more notice of the acquisition of cultural learning. The achievement in the subject will definitely promote human communication and advance the quality of people's life.