Abstract:
The study examined how cohesive devices have been used by President John
Mahama to present the message in his State-of-the-Nation Address in 2016. The main
focus of the study was the analysis of cohesive devices and their communicative
implications in the address. Halliday and Hasan’s cohesion theory (1976) was applied as
a theoretical framework to analyse the use of both grammatical and lexical cohesive
devices in the address. The study discovered inter alia the use of grammatical cohesive
devices such as reference, substitution, ellipsis and conjunction as well as lexical
cohesive devices such as reiteration (repetition, synonymy, among others) and
collocation. Grammatical cohesive devices such as reference and substitution are
dominantly used to avoid unnecessary repetition in order to relieve his audience of
boredom so that their interest will be sustained to enable them to pay attention to the
address. Lexical cohesive devices such as repetition and synonymy among others are
preponderantly used to emphasise the achievements of his government and the plans he
hopes to carry out in the years ahead and to create simple variants for complex words so
as to break down the meaning of words in the address respectively. The study affirms and
concludes that the use of cohesive devices helps users of language especially politicians
to convince and sway their audience to their side on various issues, subjects, or particular
demands by using well-articulated and tightly knit speeches (Qudah, 2016, p. 1). The
study recommends among others that the study of cohesion should be made an integral
part of the English Language syllabi for teaching and learning for all levels of education.
Description:
A THESIS IN THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH EDUCATION, FACULTY OF
FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND COMMUNICATION, SUBMITTED TO THE SCHOOL
OF GRADUATE STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION, WINNEBA IN PARTIAL
FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR AWARD OF THE MASTER OF
PHILOSOPHY OF ENGLISH DEGREE
JULY, 2017