Cohesion in systemic functional linguistics: a theoretical reflection

This chapter is concerned with cohesion in Systemic Functional Linguistics specifically but will have relevance for functional linguistics more generally. The chapter has three purposes. The first two sections present the two descriptions of cohesive devices which have, at least until now, been the most prominent in the theory. This comparative task is necessarily informed by mapping the respective descriptive accounts in the wider theoretical architecture of SFL. A second goal of the chapter is to briefly chart some of the more applied work on cohesion in SFL since Halliday and Hasan’s seminal work 'Cohesion in English'. Third and finally, I propose where future work on cohesion in SFL may usefully be invested so as to advance our understanding of these different cohesive devices given the theory’s orientation and goals.