A Study of the Elements of Cohesion in Sermon 109 of Nahj al-Balagha Based on Halliday and Ruqaiya Hasan’s Model

Halliday and Hassan proposed cohesion as a linguistic concept of the text; thus, if we are to examine the degree of relevance of a text, it is worthwhile to analyze it in terms of what we call the elements of cohesion. Elements are divided into three categories: grammatical, lexical, and conjunctive, each of which can be categorized into related categories. The existence of a text without cohesion is impossible and the difference between them is in the degree of its use, Nahj al-Balagha as a religious text is no exception to this rule. Therefore, the researchers in this study intend to use a descriptive-analytical method to determine the degree of cohesion in Sermon 109 of Nahj al-Balagha in terms of elements such as reference, substitution, ellipsis, repetition, collocation, and additive, contradictory, temporal, causal, and conditional. The result of this research is that although at first glance, this sermon has addressed a wide range of issues; this multiplicity has not diminished the degree of cohesion and integrity of the text. Another point is that the two elements of “ellipsis” and “substitution” have the most and the least role in the cohesion of the text, respectively.