Cohesion in Malay Social Letters from the 17th to the 19th Century

(Kohesi dalam Warkah Sosial Melayu Abad Ke-17 hingga Abad Ke-19)

Abstract

This paper discusses the varieties of cohesion in Malay social letters from the 17th to the 19th century. Malay social letters have their own unique structure, making them different from other texts. Each text component that underlies it has a relation to the process and is also a comment on the details of the contents. Therefore, the interrelation between meaning and language elements in the discourse can be traced through cohesion. The presence of cohesive elements according to Fairclough's (1992) three-dimensional conception of discourse correlates statements that involve explanation, deduction and structure that construct the discourse. The analysis of 21 letters is empirical in nature because it discusses the data contained in these texts. In line with a qualitative approach, the analysis of the data was done in a descriptive manner. Based on the framework of cohesion using the Functional Components of the Semantic System by Halliday & Hasan (1976), it is found that the relationship between words, clauses and sentences takes place in a variety of ways in order to produce a good text. Among these are two main categories, firstly, a grammatical one involving elements of reference, substitution, ellipsis and conjunction, as well as lexical categories such as reiteration and collocation. The cohesion analysis guides the sender to supply textual elements, and forms a continuity between clauses and sentences to form a better text. Every element of cohesion elaborates the ideational, interpersonal and textual components as semantic functions that connect the linguistic elements in the texts of Malay social letters.

Keywords: cohesion, Malay social letters, Functional Components of the Semantic System, semantic, continuity