This paper aims to analyze lexical and grammatical cohesion in the opening page of Chapter One of Virginia Woolf's “Between the Acts”. I will first discuss lexical cohesion and then move on to grammatical cohesion.
My analysis concludes that words from the same semantic sets are used, which is essential for creating a coherent and cohesive text. For instance, conversational lexis—such as "talk," "said," "ask," "promised," "subject," "prove," and "heard"—conveys that there is an ongoing conversation between the characters. Also, lexis describing a proper farmstead is used—such as "house," "windows," "garden," "farmer," "wheat," "plough," "cow," "goose," "horse," "nightingale," "worms," "snails," "bird," "Liskeard," and "village"—which provides the setting for the story and conjures up a picture of a farm in the countryside somewhere in the rural parts of England. The use of body parts lexis—“eyes” and “goose-faced”—describes the appearance of the character Mrs Haines. Meanwhile, history-related lexis helps to describe the past in more detail. Words such as "centuries," "tombs," and "sleep" indirectly remind readers about the cycle of life and passage of time. In contrast, terms such as "Napoleonic," "Elizabethan," "Britons," "Romans," and "Indian Civil Service" refer directly to specific historical periods. Additionally, words such as "aeroplane," "cart," and "perambulator" provide historical context. For example, the term "stroller" was once commonly referred to as a "perambulator", and then there came a time when humanity moved from carts to planes.
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