An analysis of lexical cohesion of english and vietnamese economic news discourse

Nguyễn Thị Tuyết Tạp chí KHOA HỌC & CÔNG NGHỆ 94(06): 85 - 90 
 85
AN ANALYSIS OF LEXICAL COHESION OF ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE 
ECONOMIC NEWS DISCOURSE 
Nguyen Thi Tuyet* 
 College of Sciences – TNU 
SUMMARY 
The main aim of this study is to search for the similarities and differences between English and 
Vietnamese economic news with regard to the utilization of sub-types of lexical cohesion. 
To fulfill this objective, ten pieces of English economic news and ten pieces of Vietnamese 
economic news of equal types were selected, categorized, and analyzed based on the taxonomies 
provided by Halliday and Hasan (1976). The percentages of sub-categories of lexical cohesion in 
both English and Vietnamese economic news were calculated and the results were compared and 
contrasted between and within text groups. The results obtained from the study indicated that the 
overall features of English and Vietnamese economic news discourse in terms of lexical cohesion 
are nearly the same - there is no significant difference in statistics between other lexical cohesive 
devices in English and Vietnamese economic news. All types of lexical cohesive ties are employed 
in this type of discourse of both English and Vietnamese. Moreover, the frequencies of occurrence 
of subtypes of lexical reiteration decrease respectively in both English and Vietnamese. 
The results of this study can be utilized as a basic theoretical description of lexical cohesion in 
English and Vietnamese. Moreover, they can be of benefit as referential material for pedagogical 
and translation. 
Key words: Lexical cohesion, lexical cohesive devices, English economic news, Vietnamese 
economic news, taxonomies. 
INTRODUCTION* 
Nowadays, the need of international 
communication has been increasing rapidly 
and English is regarded as a predominant 
means of international communication, 
particularly in transferring written 
information. Most of magazines, newspapers, 
internet sites, etc. of both English speaking 
countries and non-English speaking countries 
are published, exchanged in English. Vietnam 
is not an exception. 
This study focuses on analyzing economic 
news discourse because it is one type of press 
used in everyday newspapers, magazines with 
information and idealogy. According to 
Nguyễn Thị Vân Đông (2001), the function of 
press is “informing and provoking reader’s 
curiosity and satisfying their choice.” As a 
result, it is widely available and easily 
accessible data that provide rich sources for 
research, studying, teaching and learning. 
This type of discourse not only represents 
speech communities' use of and attitudes 
towards languages but also influences them. 
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Moreover, it helps us to understand a lot 
about social meanings and stereotypes 
embedded in, produced and reproduced 
through discourse and communication. 
Through reading economic news we can also 
learn more about the culture of other nations. 
In this thesis, the mode of economic news is 
in the form of written language, thus it has 
several features: 
• It uses a number of noun phrases modified 
by various adjective phrases, and the 
sentences are in the form of subject - 
predicate structure 
• Information provided in this type of 
discourse must be exact and current. 
• The economic news consists of a number 
of paragraphs. 
• The main idea of the economic text is 
expressed in the headlines and in the topic 
sentences. 
• The economic news is registered by 
mixture of language. Firstly, plain and neutral 
lexis is employed to transfer information 
directly and effectively. It is registered by 
official, formal and expressive lexis as well. 
Số hóa bởi Trung tâm Học liệu – Đại học Thái Nguyên 
Nguyễn Thị Tuyết Tạp chí KHOA HỌC & CÔNG NGHỆ 94(06): 85 - 90 
 86
• The tenor of the economic news is 
interpersonal between the writers and readers 
as they are working on the discourse. 
Coherence and cohesion in general and 
lexical cohesion in particular play such an 
important role in understanding economic 
news discourse due to their function of 
binding texts together by creating sequences 
of meaning. 
Lexical competence is indispensable part of 
communicative competence as it indicates the 
ability to use language in different contexts. 
According to Halliday and Hasan “A text is 
best regarded as a semantic unit: a unit not of 
form, but of meaning A text does not 
consist of sentences; it is realized by, or 
encoded in sentences”(Halliday﹠Hasan, 
1976: 2). This means that a good article is not 
a patchwork of several sentences, but a 
cohesive unity linked by many cohesive ties. 
As a linguistic phenomenon, the lexical 
cohesion has been discussed by many 
linguists. Lexical cohesion was first discussed 
in terms of collocation by Firth (1957) and 
later studied seriously by Halliday & Hasan. 
Lexical cohesion is defined as “the cohesive 
effect achieved by the selection of 
vocabulary” (Halliday & Hasan, 1976:274). 
Halliday & Hasan’s viewpoint is shared by 
David Nunan (1993:28) when he stated that 
“lexical cohesion occurs when two words in a 
text are semantically related in some way.” 
Halliday & Hasan (1976) classified lexical 
cohesion into two main categories: reiteration 
and collocation. A reiteration may be a 
repetition, a synonym or near-synonym, a 
superordinate, or a general word. (1976:278). 
For Halliday & Hasan, superordinate and 
general word are considered as two separate 
categories. However, a general word is called 
general superordinate according to Mc. 
Carthy’s classification (1991:66). In this 
study, thus, superordinate and general words 
are treated under the heading superordinate. 
Halliday & Hasan (1976) also pointed out that 
the lexical relationship that features as 
cohesive force can be extended as there is 
cohesion between any pai ... other in some word-
meaning relation. Therefore, this would 
include not only repetition, synonym/ near-
synonym, and superordinate but also pairs of 
opposites which are put under the heading 
antonyms; or pairs of words indicating part to 
whole relation which is termed as meronymy, 
or part to part relation which is called co-
meronymy 
In this paper, to be clarified, synonym/near-
synonym will be treated under the heading 
synonym; any relations related to 
superordinate or meronym will be treated 
under the heading superordinate/ meronymy. 
Specifically, reiteration is divided into four 
subtypes, namely, repetition, synonym, 
antonym, superordinate/ meronymy. 
In order to analyse lexical cohesion of 
English and Vietnamese in economic news 
this research raises a question “What are the 
similarities and differences between the use 
of lexical cohesive devices in English and 
Vietnamese economic news discourse?” 
This research question will be clarified by 
three other sub-questions as follows: 
(i) How is lexical cohesion via lexical 
devices realized in English and Vietnamese 
economic news discourses? 
(ii) What are the most frequently used 
lexical cohesive devices in English and 
Vietnamese economic news discourses? 
(iii) What are the overall features of English 
and Vietnamese economic news discourse in 
terms of lexical cohesion? 
RESEARCH METHODS 
Research methods of description, analysis 
and statistics in linguistics have been used to 
fulfill the objectives of the study. 
Specifically, document analysis is the 
primary research method used in this study, 
which focuses on analysis of lexical 
cohesion in the economic news. 
Halliday and Hasan’s (1976) model is mainly 
adopted to identify lexical cohesive ties in the 
data. Yet, the definition and classification of 
lexical cohesive ties are carefully explained 
and illustrated. 
Số hóa bởi Trung tâm Học liệu – Đại học Thái Nguyên 
Nguyễn Thị Tuyết Tạp chí KHOA HỌC & CÔNG NGHỆ 94(06): 85 - 90 
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The data for the present analysis have been 
selected from mainstream newspapers written 
in English including Economics, Real Life 
Economics, The Times, Times online, The 
Sunday Times, The Wall Street Journal 
and Vietnamese such as Thời Báo Kinh Tế 
Việt Nam, Tiền Phong, Người Lao Động, 
Thanh niên, Kinh tế Tài chính và Thị 
trường Chứng khoán,  The study uses a 
collection of ten pieces of English economic 
news and ten pieces of Vietnamese ones 
written by different journalists. All lexical 
cohesive ties in these news discourses are 
picked up, the types of lexical cohesive 
devices are noted. However, only outstanding 
examples are used to illustrate, the 
percentages of various type of lexical 
cohesion in each language are calculated and 
the results are compared and contrasted 
within and between text groups of the same 
genre in both English and Vietnamese. 
A COMPARISON OF LEXICAL COHESION 
OF ECONOMIC NEWS IN ENGLISH AND 
VIETNAMESE 
Frequency of occurrence of two major 
types of lexical cohesion 
The data reveal that in both English and 
Vietnamese economic news, reiteration is the 
more frequently occurring category of lexical 
cohesive ties with the percentage of 
contribution up to 88.5 in English and 89.8 in 
Vietnamese. Since reiteration is 
subcategorized into four types and the 
investigation of the random selected 
economic news in English and Vietnamese 
reveals that the four sub-types of reiteration 
do not occur with equal frequency. Therefore, 
the frequency of occurrence and the main 
features of each sub-type of reiteration ties 
will be discussed in detail in the next part. 
Table 1: Frequency of occurrence and percentage of 
contribution of two major types of lexical cohesion in 
English and Vietnamese economic news 
Lexical 
cohesive 
ties 
In English 
economic 
news 
In Vietnamese 
economic news 
Reiteration 524 (88.5%) 519 (89.8%) 
Collocation 68 (11.5%) 59 (10.2%) 
Total 592 (100%) 578 (100%) 
The sub-categories of lexical reiteration 
As shown in table 2, the distribution of 
different categories of lexical reiteration tie is 
roughly the same in English and Vietnamese 
economic news. Repetition is the most 
frequent lexical reiteration tie used in 
economic news discourse of both languages 
(73.7% in English and 80.3% in Vietnamese). 
However, among all types of reiteration, only 
repetition is used more frequently in 
Vietnamese economic news while all the 
other types are utilized more in English 
economic news 
Table 2: Frequency of occurrence and percentage 
of contribution of sub-categories of reiteration in 
English and Vietnamese economic news 
Sub-categories 
of reiteration 
ties 
in English 
economic 
news 
in Vietnamese 
economic news 
Repetition 386 (73.7%) 417 (80.3%) 
Synonym 74 (14.1%) 62 (11.9%) 
Antonym 33 (6.3%) 19 (3.7%) 
Superordinate/ 
Meronymy 31 (5.9%) 21 (4.1%) 
Total 524 (100%) 519(100%) 
Repitition 
Table 3: Frequency of occurrence and percentage 
of contribution of sub- categories of repetition 
Sub-categories 
of repetition 
in English 
economic 
news 
in Vietnamese 
economic news 
Simple lexical 
repetition 342 (88.6%) 406 (97.3%) 
Complex 
lexical 
repetition 
44 (11.4%) 11 (2.7%) 
Total 386 (100%) 417 (100%) 
As presented in table 3, in both English and 
Vietnamese economic news, the number of 
simple lexical repetition is much higher than 
complex ones. However, simple lexical 
repetition is used more in Vietnamese 
economic news with the total number of 
appearance up to 406 (97.3%), whereas 
complex lexical repetition is employed more 
in English economic news at 44 (11.4%). 
Số hóa bởi Trung tâm Học liệu – Đại học Thái Nguyên 
Nguyễn Thị Tuyết Tạp chí KHOA HỌC & CÔNG NGHỆ 94(06): 85 - 90 
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The investigation result indicates that the 
most natural and common simple lexical 
repetition in both English and Vietnamese 
economic news is repetition of nouns or 
noun phrases. 
Synonym 
The result of the survey shows that the 
number of synonym is a bit higher in English 
economic news than in Vietnamese ones. 
Synonyms can be nouns, verbs, or adjectives. 
Antonym 
The data in table 4 indicates that the total 
number of antonym in English economic 
news is higher than that in Vietnamese ones. 
Among these types, the contrary relation and 
ordered series occur more frequently in 
English than in Vietnamese economic news. 
Hardly any complementary relation is found 
in economic news of both languages. 
Table 4: Frequency of occurrence and percentage 
of contribution of subtypes of antonym 
Subtypes of 
antonym 
In English 
economic 
news 
In 
Vietnamese 
economic 
news 
Contrary 
relation 15 (45.4%) 10 (52.6%) 
Complementary 
relation 0 (0%) 1 (5.2%) 
Relational 
opposite 4 (12.1%) 4 (21.1%) 
Ordered series 14 (42.5%) 4 (21.1%) 
Total 33 (100%) 19 (100%) 
Superordinate/ Meronymy 
As presented in table 2, superordinate/ 
meronymy are of the smallest proportion 
among other types of reiteration accounting 
for only 5.9% in English and 4.1% in 
Vietnamese economic news. 
Collocation 
There are three subtypes of lexical collocation: 
resultative collocation, modificational 
collocation, and contextual collocation (cited in 
Hoàng Văn Vân: 2006:84) 
As shown in table 1 and table 5, the total 
number of collocation in English economic 
news (68) is a bit higher than that in 
Vietnamese ones (59). Specifically, 
resultative collocation accounts for only small 
portion (5.9% in English and 3.4% in 
Vietnamese economic news) among three 
types. Modificational collocations occur more 
frequently in English economic news (53%), 
whereas contextual collocation appears more 
often in Vietnamese economic news (67.8%). 
Table 5: Frequency of occurrence and percentage 
of contribution of subtypes of lexical collocation 
Subtypes of 
lexical 
collocation 
in English 
economic 
news 
in Vietnamese 
economic news 
Resultative 
collocation 4 (5.9%) 2 (3.4%) 
Modificational 
collocation 36 (53%) 17 (28.8%) 
Contextual 
collocation 
28 
(41.1%) 40 (67.8%) 
Total 68 (100%) 59 (100%) 
CONCLUSIONS 
The results taken from the study of both 
English and Vietnamese economic news give 
the answers for all the questions mentioned 
previously. 
The following concluding remarks give the 
answer for the first question: 
- All types of lexical cohesive ties are 
utilized in both English and Vietnamese 
economic news. 
- The densities of English and Vietnamese 
economic news regarding to the utilization of 
lexical cohesive devices are nearly the same. 
- The differences between other forms of 
lexical cohesive types are not statistically 
significant. 
- In both English and Vietnamese economic 
news discourses, the percentage of occurrence 
of subcategories of lexical reiteration ties 
decrease respectively. 
For the second question, the result indicates 
that there is a general tendency in using 
repetition in both English and Vietnamese 
economic news. Obviously, this is the most 
popular form of lexical reiteration in both 
languages. 
Số hóa bởi Trung tâm Học liệu – Đại học Thái Nguyên 
Nguyễn Thị Tuyết Tạp chí KHOA HỌC & CÔNG NGHỆ 94(06): 85 - 90 
 89
The investigation also reveals that the overall 
features of English and Vietnamese economic 
news discourse in terms of lexical cohesion 
are nearly the same. 
The last and also the different characteristic 
between English and Vietnamese economic 
news is that in English the role of reference 
item, typically ‘the’ or the demonstratives 
‘this’, ‘that’, ‘these’, ‘those’ are emphasized. 
Whereas, in Vietnamese, sometimes these 
reference items can be omitted without losing 
the cohesive force. 
RECOMMENDATIONS 
This study would suggest that the high 
proportion of similarities in lexical cohesive 
ties use between English and Vietnamese 
economic news are elements to be positively 
exploited. 
1. Implications for teaching and learning ESP 
With the primary aim to equip students with 
academic knowledge and social knowledge, 
the designing and developing of ESP reading 
material is a very essential task for every ESP 
teacher. Using economic news as teaching 
and learning materials for ESP teachers and 
learners is a good idea to help to improve 
their own skills. 
2. Implications for teaching and learning 
translation 
Of the lexical cohesive devices employed in 
both English and Vietnamese economic news, 
collocations should receive the central 
attention in translation. Obviously, 
collocations occur quite often in English and 
Vietnamese economic news. However, 
learning collocations is not an easy task as it 
is such a diverse subject. The learner’s task is 
then to recognize the possibility of certain 
words which tend to occur together. It is 
advisable for the learners to raise their 
awareness of collocations in translating. This 
will enable them to avoid word-for-word 
translation and foster their awareness of the 
linguistic convention of collocations. 
REFERENCES 
[1]. Brown, G and Yule, G. (1983). Discourse 
Analysis. Cambridge: CUP 
[2]. Dong, Nguyen Thi Van. (2001) A Study of 
Socio-Cultural Headlines in English Press. 
Unpublished M.A thesis. Hanoi. 
[3]. Halliday, M.A.K & Hasan, R. (1976) 
Cohesion in English. London: Longman 
[4]. Hasan, R. (1984) Coherence and Cohesive 
Harmony. London: Longman. 
[5]. Hill, J. and Lewis.M, (1997) LTP Dictionary 
of Selected Collocations. Hove: Language 
Teaching Publications. 
[6]. McCarthy, M. (1992). Discourse analysis for 
language teachers. New York: Cambridge 
University Press. 
[7]. Swales, J.M. (1990) Genre Analysis. 
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 
[8]. Ban, Diep Quang (1990) Văn bản và liên 
kết trong Tiếng Việt (Tái bản lần thứ nhất). Nxb 
Giáo dục. 
[9]. Them, Tran Ngoc. (1985) Hệ thống Liên 
kết Văn bản Tiếng Việt. Hà Nội: Nxb Khoa học 
Xã hội. 
Số hóa bởi Trung tâm Học liệu – Đại học Thái Nguyên 
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 90
TÓM TẮT 
PHÂN TÍCH CÁC PHƯƠNG TIỆN LIÊN KẾT TỪ VỰNG TRONG DIỄN NGÔN 
TIN KINH TẾ TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT 
Nguyễn Thị Tuyết* 
Trường Đại học Khoa học – ĐH Thái Nguyên 
Mục đích chính của nghiên cứu này là tìm ra những điểm tương đồng và khác biệt trong việc sử 
dụng các phương tiện liên kết từ vựng trong diễn ngôn tin kinh tế Tiếng Anh và Tiếng Việt. 
Để thực hiện mục tiêu này, mười diễn ngôn tin tức kinh tế Tiếng Anh và mười diễn ngôn tin tức 
kinh tế Tiếng Việt cùng loại được lựa chọn, phân loại, và phân tích dựa trên các nguyên tắc phân 
loại của Halliday và Hasan (1976). Tỷ lệ các loại liên kết từ vựng trong cả diễn ngôn tin kinh tế 
tiếng Anh và Tiếng Việt được tính toán, kết quả được so sánh và đối chiếu giữa và trong cùng 
nhóm văn bản. Các kết quả thu được từ nghiên cứu này chỉ ra rằng các phương tiện liên kết từ 
vựng trong diễn ngôn tin kinh tế Tiếng Anh và Tiếng Việt nhìn chung khá tương đồng - không có 
sự khác biệt đáng kể nào. Tất cả các loại phương tiện liên kết từ vựng đều được sử dụng trong cả 
diễn ngôn tin kinh tế Tiếng Anh và Tiếng Việt. Bên cạnh đó, mức độ sử dụng các phép lặp từ vựng 
giảm tương ứng trong cả hai ngôn ngữ. 
Kết quả của nghiên cứu này có thể được sử dụng như một tiền đề mô tả lý thuyết cơ bản về liên kết 
từ vựng trong diễn ngôn tin kinh tế Tiếng Anh và Tiếng Việt. Hơn nữa, chúng có thể được xem 
như nguồn tài liệu tham khảo cho việc giảng dạy và dịch thuật. 
Từ khóa: Liên kết từ vựng, phương tiện liên kết từ vựng, tin kinh tế Tiếng Anh, tin kinh tế Tiếng 
Việt, nguyên tắc phân loại 
Ngày nhận: 28/04/2012; Ngày phản biện:28/05/2012; Ngày duyệt đăng:12/06/2012 
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