Cohesion, Coherence, and the Construction of Discourse Objects: a Glimpse of a Sociocognitive and Interacional Perspective on Teaching of Writing

Abstract

This article aims at presenting how current theoretical advances on Text Linguistics in its sociocognitive and interactional perspective, by approaching the concepts of cohesion, coherence, and referentiation, may contribute to the pedagogical practice regarding the teaching and learning of writing vis-à-vis the development of writing proficiency. Hence, cohesion and coherence are considered the criteria for textualization, and both their reciprocity and their mutual determination in the referentiation process are here acknowledged. From this point view, the construction of cohesion and coherence is a dynamic process that occurs via inferences and cognitive devices to which the linguistic marks, the speakers’ interaction, and the context contribute. Accordingly, a selection of nominal forms in the building of representations of discourse objects is to be highlighted and related to the project of saying enounced by the herald of college entrance essays. The hypothesis is thus that, by constructing representations of discourse objects, referentiation establishes a groundwork for text structuring and provides hints to produce meaning in writing. The main studies this article is grounded on are Koch (2006), Marcuschi (2006; 2007; 2008), Cavalcante et al. (2010), and Bentes (2012).