The potential of cohesion analysis in the Analysis and Treatment of Aphasic Discourse

Abstract

This paper describes Halliday and Hasan's cohesion analysis (1976) and Hasan's later extension of this work to the cohesive harmony analysis (1985), and relates both to aphasic discourse. The roles of both lexical and grammatical cohesive devices are outlined, the lexical devices including repetition and collocation and the grammatical devices including reference (through the use of pronouns, definite articles, demonstratives and comparatives), substitution and ellipsis. The applicability of these analyses to treatment of the aphasic deficit is also discussed, with the notions of discourse and cohesion being related to communication across aphasic types and from the mild to the severe end of the aphasic continuum.

Key Words:

• Aphasic discourse
• cohesion
• discourse analysis
• cohesive harmony
• aphasia treatment