Cohesion and Coherence in English and Arabic: A Cross-Theoretic Study (Published)
Cohesion and Coherence Theory plays a significant role in the field of discourse analysis. Despite the fact that it occupies an important status in the Western linguistic literature, its linguistic roots in other cultures especially those in Arabic have not been paid enough attention. In Arabic, the classical linguistic renown study, namely Al-Nadhm Theory, proposed by Al-Jirjani seems to be an antecedent version,in a way or another, to the Western one. Thus, a scholar investigation of this claim is worth conducting to form a solid and clearer picture about cohesion and coherence as linguistic notions. This has prompted this paper to concern itself with the task of cross-theoretically contrasting the two theories so as to show the similarities and differences between them. Additionally, it attempts to find out some aspects of convergence between them. In association with the aforementioned aims, this study hypothesizes that the Western theory is a merely developed version of an antecedent version, namely the Arabic one. Though the two theories expose differences, they show similarities and share many linguistic areas where they meet. To achieve the aims of this study and test its hypotheses, it adopts a procedure which involves reviewing cohesion and coherence in the two theories in question, contrasting them, and, on the basis of the findings of the contrast, drawing some conclusions that accord with aims and hypotheses of this piece of research work. The conclusions are drawn to show whether the hypotheses of the study are verified or rejected.