vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS

CERTIFICATE OF ORGININALITY OF STUDY PROJECT REPORT. i
ABSTRACT ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv
LIST OF TABLES v
PART A: INTRODUCTION 1
1. Rationale for the study 1
2. Aims of the study 2
3. Research questions of the study 2
4. Significance of the study 2
5. Scope of the study 3
6. Methodology 3
7. Design of the study 5
PART B: DEVELOPMENT 5
Chapter 1: Theoretical Background & Review of Related Literature 5
1.1. Discourse and discourse analysis 6
1.1.1. The concept of discourse 6
1.1.2. Spoken and Written Discourse 7
1.1.3. Discourse Analysis 8
1.1.4. Context in Discourse Analysis 8
1.2. Cohesion 9
1.2.1. The concept of cohesion 9
1.2.2. Classification of cohesion 11
Chapter 2: An overview of Functional Food and Functional Food Advertisements 16
2.1. The notion of Functional Food 16
2.2. Functional Food Advertisements 18
2.2.1. The functions of advertising 18
iv
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

FFs : Functional Foods

FFAs : Functional Food Advertisements

DA : Discourse Analysis
v
LIST OF TABLES Page
Table 1: Types of cohesion
12
Table 2: The frequency of occurrence of lexical cohesive devices
in English and Vietnamese FFAs
24
Table 3: The frequency of occurrence of reiteration in English
and Vietnamese FFAs
25
Table 4: The frequency of occurrence of repetition in English and
Vietnamese FFAs
26
Table 5: The frequency of occurrence of collocation in English

an emerging field in food science due to their increasing popularity with health-conscious
consumers. With its easy use, ability to support good health with nutrients and improve the
immune system, functional food is winning the hearts of more and more consumers. As a
matter of fact, functional foods seem to be sort of new to a large number of Vietnamese
people. There exist different ideas, even contrary ideas on this new kind of product. The
idea of investigating this kind of product to have a better understanding on it comes deeply
to my mind.
As mentioned before, consumers‟ interest in functional foods has been increasing
during the late twentieth century as people's interest in achieving and maintaining good health
increased. People‟s demand has increased; offering an opportunity for the age of advertising,
advertising has been gaining its great popularity. Different kinds of customers potentially
demand different ways of presenting advertisements. Advertisements are so available around
us that we cannot help taking notice of them. They are informative and keep us in touch with
the world. We can see them in newspapers, magazines, radios, televisions, or public places. It
is the fact that they play a remarkably important role in the socio-economy of any country. For
this reason, I decide to involve myself in the field of advertising.
Reasons for investigating lexical cohesive devices

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During my attending discourse analysis lectures delivered by Professor Nguyen
Hoa, I was attracted by his talk explaining the two notion “cohesion” and “coherence”
clearly and understandably. Referring back to my interest in the language of advertising, I
combine these two to make a decision of analyzing lexical cohesion in advertising
discourses. It is noticeable that many researches on cohesive devices and particularly on
lexical cohesive devices have been carried out in many discourses and genres. Also, many
studies of advertising discourse have focused on the language used in advertisements.
However, none has been done to functional food advertisements.
In the light of discourse analysis, cohesion and coherence are among major aspects
studied. Basing on the theory of these two terms, I analyze the linguistic features in terms
of syntax of functional food advertisements in which I can see the frequency of occurrence

Especially, this study is of great importance to me; it reflects my interest and
concern about advertisement genre, this study is a valuable assertion on my effort to sort
out the kinds of magazine and collect the advertisement samples. More importantly, thanks
to this study, I could create a worthy opportunity for myself to have a true and deep
understanding on a new and blooming kind of product in the world in general, in Vietnam
in particular, then it is my hope that this study can contribute to raising people‟s awareness
of functional foods and FFAs.
Last but not least, this study can be a foundation for further studies on analysis of
Function Food advertising in the light of other linguistic branches such as pragmatics,
semantics.
5. Scope of the study
Due to the limited time and knowledge, it is not my ambition to have a
comprehensive analysis of FFAs. I merely focus on the lexical cohesive devices in the
advertisements for only one kind of products namely FFAs. The investigation on one of
two main aspects of cohesion, grammatical one, is beyond of the scope of this study, and
this issue should be left for further study.
The samples include 10 English FFAs and Vietnamese ones with equivalent
number for the purpose of contrastive analysis. All the data collected will be analyzed to
explore their contribution to the creation of the cohesive and coherent text with precision,
unambiguity, and tightness.
6. Methodology
Description of data:
Subjects for this study are advertisements of functional foods, a large number of
which can be found on televisions, on newspapers, on the internet, and so on. However,
this study focuses on samples of advertisements taken out from some magazines in both
English and Vietnamese because magazines are one of written discourses in which the
author can find it easier to explore lexical cohesive devices and their role and contribution
to the effective advertisements. Moreover, FFAs are not frequently found in newspapers.

4

generalizations of explanations and form questions for further research.
- Qualitative and quantitative methods: Qualitative method helps the study
approach the advertising samples, then find out general features of these advertisements.

5
After the qualitative analysis, the data is also quantitatively analyzed. This quantitative is
exploited most of the time to search for what the lexical cohesive devices are used.
- Descriptive method: In the investigation of data, the descriptive method is
employed to give a detailed description of data in terms lexical cohesion. It is through this
process that the significance level of each lexical cohesive device to the advertisements is
specified.
7. Design of the study
Within the scope mentioned above, the thesis is structured as follows:
Part A: INTRODUCTION
This part introduces the rationale, aims, methods, scope, significance, and the
design of the study.
Part B: DEVELOPMENT
This part consists of three chapters:
Chapter 1: Theoretical Background & Review of Related Literature which covers
some theoretical knowledge on discourse analysis in general, on cohesive devices in
particular.
Chapter 2: An overview on Functional Foods & Functional Food Advertisements.
This chapter deals firstly with the defining characteristics of FFs (Functional Foods) and
then with advertising discourse together with general descriptions of FFAs.
Chapter 3: An analysis of lexical cohesive devices in English and Vietnamese
FFAs. The third chapter in Part B, also the main one of the study, focused on the analysis
of the lexical cohesive devices employed
Part C: CONCLUSION: Firstly, I attempt to present recapitulation with some major
findings. Finally, some limitations and suggestions are mentioned.


event”, meanwhile the term “discourse” is reserved to refer to the interpretation of the
communicative event in context.”. Crystal (1992:25) says: “Discourse is a continuous
stretch of language larger than a sentence, often constituting a coherent unit such as a
sermon, argument, joke, or a narrative”.
According to Halliday & Hasan (1976:2, Cohesion in English), “a text has texture
and this is what distinguishes it from something that is not a text”. The primary
determinant of whether a set of sentences do or do not constitute a text depends on
cohesive relationships within and between the sentences. They also state “A text is a unit of
language in use. It is not a grammatical unit, like a clause or sentence”. (Halliday &
Hasan, 1976:1). To emphasize the semantic role of text, they add “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). Halliday

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(1985:290) states that “discourse itself is a process and the term text is usually taken as
referring to the product”.
Hoang Van Van (2006:15) argues that text and discourse could be used
interchangeably with the explanation that “text or discourse is analysis instance of
language in use”, or “any attempt to distinguish text from discourse will result in
complicating the problem”. Nguyen Hoa (2000:20) states that “discourse is the
communicative process while text is the verbal or physical records of this process”.
To sum up, it is believed that discourse is a combination of sentences which are not
arranged randomly but orderly to express a complete meaning. That is the why a
combination of some sentences well-formed but meaningless cannot be seen as a
discourse.
Actually, it is not easy to make a clear cut between text and discourse. In this study,
I would like to take Brown & Yule‟s viewpoint on text and discourse as the base, “the text
is the representation of discourse”.
1.1.2. Spoken and Written Discourse
DA (Discourse Analysis) is not only concerned with the description and analysis of

of situation and the linguistic means to carry out these purposes.” He makes it clear that
the subject matter of discourse analysis is “language in use”. Only by language in use, can
we recognize the message that advertisers wish to convey. In this study, the writer would
like to take this viewpoint as the base.
1.1.4. Context in Discourse Analysis
The term “context” has been received various views from various scholars. Simply,
Nunan (1993:7) defines: “Context refers to the situation giving rise to the discourse, and
within which the discourse is embedded”. According to him, context consists of two types:
linguistic and non-linguistic. Linguistic context is in fact referred to as co-text. It surrounds
or accompanies the piece of discourse. Non-linguistic context was first noticed by the
anthropologist Malinowski who created the terms “context of situation” and “context of
culture”. Lately, Halliday & Hasan (1976) focus on the context of situation. With the
belief in the role of context to meaning, Halliday & Hasan (1989:12) suggest a three-
component model of context: field (of discourse), tenor (of discourse), and mode (of
discourse). The mode of context can be represented as follows:
a. Field of discourse refers to what is happening, to the nature of the social action
that is taking place.
b. Tenor of discourse refers to who is taking part, to the nature of the participants,
their statuses, and roles. It is the tenor that relays the relationship between the addressee
and the addresser.
c. Mode of discourse refers to what part the language is playing, what is it that the
participants are expecting the language to do for them in that situation.

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For short, these three notions could be understood in the simplest way:
- Field of discourse relates to the subject matter of discourse/ what the speaker talks about.
- Tenor of discourse relates to interpersonal relations between participants.
- Mode of discourse relates to channels o ways by which discourse is conducted.
In summary, field, mode, and tenor of discourse are in a dialectical relationship.
They collectively define the context of situation of a text. They are contextual variables of

that of another”.(Halliday & Hasan,1976:4). Vo Dai Quang (2006:27) and Nguyen Hoa
(2000:23) cohesion could be simply understood as “formal links or relationship which
exist between sentences that cause texts to cohere or stick together.”
Following is a brief introduction about Cohesion and text as the basement leading
to the analysis of cohesion.
Cohesion and text
In the seminal work Cohesion in English,( 1976:292), Halliday & Hasan say that,
“a text, as a semantic unit, is REALIZED in the form of sentences the expression of the
semantic unity of the text lies in the cohesion among the sentences of which it is
composed.”. They also state that in any text, every sentence except the first one has a
cohesive relation with the preceding sentence. Besides, they state that “a new text begins
where a sentence shows no cohesion with those that have preceded.”
Cohesion is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the creation of a text. What
creates text is the textual, or the component of the linguistic system. Cohesion is only one
part in this system, and cohesion plays an important role in the creation of text with its role
of providing texture. “Cohesion expresses the continuity that existed between one part of
the text and another”(Halliday & Hasan, 1976:299). Cohesion provides the text the
continuity, which enables readers or listeners to supply all the missing pieces necessary to
its interpretation.
Cohesion and Coherence
Let‟s take one example to see how these two notions contribute to the creation of a text.
Yesterday, I went to school with my friends at 11 am. Then I came back home and
had breakfast.
From lexical and grammatical point of view, the example above is perfectly correct.
However, it is not logical, and coherent. When reading it, everyone will find that it lacks
coherence. The reason is that the events in that utterance are not in logic order. After 11
am, one cannot have his meal called breakfast. All the clauses in the utterance are fine but
the order in which the processes or events occur is not chronological. In a nutshell, these
two sentences cannot belong to a text or cannot create a meaningful text or discourse.
In fact, cohesion is the network of different kinds of formal relationships that

Reference
Exophoric
Reiteration

Same word/ repetition
Endophoric
- personal
- demonstrative
Synonym/ near
synonym
- comparative
Super-ordinates
Substitution
Nominal substitution
General words
Verbal substitution
Collocation
Noun + Noun

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Clausal substitution
Verb + Noun
Ellipsis
Nominal ellipsis
Adjective + Noun
Verbal ellipsis
Verb + Verb
Clausal ellipsis
Adverb + Verb
Conjunction

lexical item could refer back to another related item by having a common referent.
According to Halliday and Hasan (1976:278), reiteration can be classified into four types,
the same word, a synonym or near-synonym, a super-ordinate, and a general word.
“Reiteration is a form of lexical cohesion which involves the repetition of a lexical item, at
one end of the scale; the use of a general word to refer back to a lexical item, at the other end of
the scale; and a number of things in between- the use of a synonym, near-synonym, or super-
ordinate”.
Halliday and Hasan (1976: 278)

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This classification can be illustrated by the following example which I took out
from the book namely “Cohesion in English” by the two authors, Halliday & Hasan
(1976:280).
There is a boy climbing the old elm.
a. That elm isn‟t very safe.
b. That tree isn‟t very safe
c. That old thing isn‟t very safe.
In (a), elm is repeated, (b) selects the super-ordinate tree, and (c) the general word
thing is used.
Here below is a brief overview of these subtypes of reiteration.
Repetition
Repetition refers to the same lexical item with the same meaning occurring more
than once in the same discourse.
However, in the case repetition is overused in texts; the readers themselves may
feel a bit unpleasant on reading. Hence, it is realized by writers or copywriters to know
how to combine lexical repetition with other lexical devices.
Synonymy and Near- synonymy
As a matter of fact, for some certain words, repetition becomes more effective in
emphasizing an issue while for some others, expressing their meanings in different ways is
better. Synonymy refers to the relation between different words bearing the same meaning.

Person, people, man, girl, child (human)
Place (place)
Thing, object (object)
Question, idea (fact)
The class of “general noun” lies between grammatical and lexical cohesion. A
general noun in cohesive function is almost accompanied by the reference item “the” or a
demonstrative as an alternative. These items are important sources when analyzing
cohesion of any text.
The following is an illustration of using general word with cohesive function:
They are fixing the house. I lived in that place during my childhood.
“That place” is the general word. We can understand this word only if we refer
back to find out what “that place” generalizes for. We can also see the reference item
“that” before the word “place” which is the indication of cohesive relations between two
sentences.
Collocation
It is safe to say that many instances of cohesion are purely lexical, and independent
on the relation of reference. In other words, two lexical occurrences can be cohesive
without having the same referent or without bearing any referential relations. This is true
with another type of lexical cohesion: Collocation. With lexical reiteration, the nature of

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cohesive relation is relatedness of reference, whereas collocation occurs when lexical items
related to each other in terms of the form.
Collocation refers to lexical cohesion that is achieved through the association of lexical
items that regularly co-occur, these lexical items “tend to occur in similar environment”
(Halliday & Hasan, 1976:287). They illustrate collocation that “In general, any two lexical items
having the similar patterns of collocations- that is, tending to appear in similar contexts – will
generates a cohesive force if they occur in adjacent sentences”.(1976:286). From grammatical
point of view, lexical collocation occurs when two lexical items collocate in pairs directly. Let‟s
take an example: “There was a heavy rain last night.”

For short, when analyzing lexical cohesion reflected in a text, the most important
thing is to use common sense, combined with the knowledge they have of the nature and
structure of its vocabulary.
Chapter 2: An overview of Functional Food and
Functional Food Advertisements

In the previous chapter, we have mentioned the theoretical background of the study
with some key information on discourse and discourse analysis. In order to complete the
theoretical picture of this minor thesis, it is necessary to take into account also a brief
understanding on the controversial notion “Functional Foods” (FFs) in general and
“Functional Food Advertisements” (FFAs) in particular.
2.1. The notion of Functional Food
The term “functional foods” was first introduced in Japan in the mid-1980s and
refers to processed foods containing ingredients that aid specific bodily functions in
addition to being nhutritious. Clearly, most foods are functional in some way. What makes
a “functional food”, however, is its potential ability to positively affect health.
Benefits of FFs
Those functional foods that have the potential to improve health and well-being,
reduce the risk from, or delay the onset of, major diseases such as cardiovascular disease
(CVD), cancer and osteoporosis. Combined with a healthy lifestyle, FFs can make a positive
contribution to health and well being. In other words, FFs offer great potential to improve
health and/or help prevent certain diseases when taken as part of a balanced diet and healthy
lifestyle. FFs not only provide basic nutrients, but also prevent diseases and improve heath
due to their anti-oxygen elements. FFs may be categorized as whole foods, enriched foods,
fortified foods or enhanced foods. The general category of FFs includes processed food or

17

because of specific nutrients or non-nutrients contained within it (e.g. folate can reduce a
woman's risk of having a child with neural tube defects, and sufficient calcium intake may
help to reduce the risk of osteoporosis in later life).

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However, some claims will fall outside of the purview of the Food and Drug
Administration and be accompanied by the disclaimer: “This product is not intended to
diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease." Such a disclaimer typically accompanies
supplements rather than foods, but since the definition of functional food is still evolving
and somewhat amorphous, a functional food may find itself bearing the warning.
Although manufacturers may use health claims to market their products, the FDA's
stated intention is that the purpose of health claims is to benefit consumers by providing
information on healthful eating patterns that may help reduce the risk of disease such as
heart disease and cancer.
As far as I know, Vietnamese functional foods are realized with the health claim
usually labeled on the product, that is, “Thực phẩm này không phải là thuốc, không có tác
dụng thay thế thuốc chữa bệnh”. (This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or
prevent any disease.) In other words, FFs should not be considered to be a kind of
medicine which can cure disease or replace medicine.
2.2. Functional Food Advertisements
In the previous part, I attempted to examine the notion “functional food”. In this
part, I shall first have a brief look at the notion “advertising” with the functions, strategies,
and languages investigated. Then, Functional Food Advertisements will be taken into
consideration in terms of the context and the structure.
2.2.1. The functions of advertising
The informational and directive functions would dominate in advertising discourse.
Besides, another function of advertising is the establishment of multidimensional
relationships, between individuals, companies, brands, products, services, and texts. For
example, there is always an immediately relationship between the reader of the
advertisement (so-called the advertisee) and the text itself, and the relationship between the

Advertising can be divided into two main types: Commercial and Non-commercial
advertising.
Non-commercial advertising is one whose main purpose is not to sell anything to
make a profit for a company or specific individual. It could be used for the charity work,
politics activities, it can be the propaganda for stopping smoking, using drug, or stop
family violence or being against HIV, AIDS.
Commercial advertising much relates to commercial purposes. It aims at selling
goods, which requires the advertisers to bring products‟ information to customers in the
most effective and clearest ways.
FFAs belong to the second kind – commercial advertising because of the reason
that the advertisers‟ purpose is urging readers to buy the products.
2.2.4. General Description of Functional Food advertisements
2.2.4.1. Context of English and Vietnamese FFAs

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a. Genre
A functional food advertisement belongs to commercial advertisement genre, one
of genres of discourse “magazines”.

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b. Register:
FFAs, certainly are advertisements in general, so they are registered by the
language of advertising. Therefore, they are certain to share some characteristics of
advertisements, which are mentioned earlier.
c. Field
The field of FFAs is nothing more than the field of business. These advertisements
aim at introducing kinds of different functional foods to the consumers and then urging
them indirectly to buy these products. For this, language used in FFAs tends to be
persuasive, informative, and nice.
d. Tenor