Measures of cohesion for source criticism, pericope boundary analysis, etc.
MJ. Smith
MVP Posts: 54,562 
M.A.K. Halliday in his Introduction of Functional Grammar provides a very useable way to analyze the cohesion of a text. (https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1101750.pdf provides a great non-technical description). Unlike discourse analysis, this particular aspect of functional grammar is appropriate in K-12 education. In scripture study, it allows the user to (a) verify/understand the reasoning behind source criticism, (b) verify pericope boundaries whether assigned by others or chosen by the user as the text for a sermon or lesson, and (c) to verify the quality of cohesion in their own sermons and lessons.
The four ways cohesion is generated is by (1) conjunctions, (2) reference, (3) ellipse, and (4) lexical coordination. Conjunctions include not only grammatical conjunctions but also terms indicating continuity. References include the antecedents and relationships terms noting especially whether the reference is inside the passage or external to the passage. Ellipses are cases where portions of the sentence are omitted because they are understood by context. Finally, lexical coordination includes repetition, synonyms, antonyms ... the way word choice adds to cohesion. I provide this overview for those who don't read the PDF to understand that this is not ivory tower linguistics but a rubber meets the ground linguistics with application to Bible studies.
I leave it to the Faithlife design team to make design choices ... although I naturally have my own ideas as to how I would do it ... an approach that would be clause driven to emphasize that aspect of Halliday's functional grammar.
The four ways cohesion is generated is by (1) conjunctions, (2) reference, (3) ellipse, and (4) lexical coordination. Conjunctions include not only grammatical conjunctions but also terms indicating continuity. References include the antecedents and relationships terms noting especially whether the reference is inside the passage or external to the passage. Ellipses are cases where portions of the sentence are omitted because they are understood by context. Finally, lexical coordination includes repetition, synonyms, antonyms ... the way word choice adds to cohesion. I provide this overview for those who don't read the PDF to understand that this is not ivory tower linguistics but a rubber meets the ground linguistics with application to Bible studies.
I leave it to the Faithlife design team to make design choices ... although I naturally have my own ideas as to how I would do it ... an approach that would be clause driven to emphasize that aspect of Halliday's functional grammar.
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
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