COHESIONS IN CASUAL CONVERSATION BETWEEN MALES AND FEMALES

Abstract

The aims of this research are to analyze differences and similarities in the use ofcohesive devices and to analyze whether gender affects the choice of cohesion. The hypothesisof this research is that females tend to use different types of cohesions more than males. Theresults reveal that both males and females use five types of cohesion: reference, substitution,ellipsis, conjunction, and lexicon cohesion. Therefore, it appears that gender does not affect the choice of cohesion. However, when considering how the cohesion devices are appliedin male-female conversations, males lead the conversations, change the topics of conversation,and continue topics which they have already introduced; but males do not continue topicswhich females introduce. Females support the conversation and participate in the conversationas followers. At the same time, females continue topics which other participants haveintroduced.Keyword: Gender, Cohesion, and Casual conversation