Cohesive Devices in Children Literature and Adult Literature

Abstract

Cohesive devices were crucial in maintaining coherence and facilitating effective communication in written texts. They served as linguistic tools that connected different parts of the text and ensured its logical flow. The results of the data analysis were presented based on the types of cohesive devices according to Halliday & Hassan (1976). This paper focuses on cohesive devices in text, examining how they are realized in two different genres, specifically adult and children’s literature. The writer explored the use of cohesive devices in adult and children’s literature, comparing the similarities and differences between these two genres. Personal reference remained the most dominant type of cohesive device used. However, unlike the reference, neither children’s nor adult literature showed any substitutions. There were differences in the conjunctions between children’s and adult literature. In children’s literature, simple conjunctions were used. On the other hand, in adult literature, several types of conjunctions were quite specific. In terms of lexical cohesion, there was no significant difference compared to grammatical cohesion. In conclusion, in both genres, the use of cohesive devices played an important role, but the level of difficulty or complexity differed, considering the different target readers.