Towards understanding and studying cohesion in schizophrenic speech

Cohesion analysis has been used to investigate the language of schizophrenics and that associated with other psychiatric syndromes. Alverson and Rosenberg (1990) reviewed this technique. Such analyses properly imply the necessity and value of a broad approach to language and language use. To be optimally useful, cohesion analysis must be seen in its theoretical context. Cohesion is one means of creating text, and therefore it cannot account for all aspects of the pretheoretical notion of coherence. Cohesion may realize elements of register and code, but these concepts are distinct and account for different kinds of variation in language use. As a research tool, cohesion is one initial step of linguistic analysis that can meet the dual criteria of both an analysis of language in context and in reliability.