Prospective and Retrospective Recurrence Impact on Text Coherence

Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences. 2013. Vol. 4. No. 9. P. 503–512.

Sorokina S. G., Musorina O. A.

The present research addresses the phenomenon of recurrence at structural, semantic and metatext levels and aims to analyze its impact on the author’s argumentative line and text identity. The paper focuses on the use of prospective and retrospective iteration that plays a particularly significant role in scholarly literature where an academic text is due to comply with specific regulations and to report on the research results in the most objective way. To achieve the goal academic writers rely on employing a system of concepts typical of a particular science, providing unquestionable arguments and critical approach to convince the readers and win their trust. Scholarly articles related to management studies have been exposed to content analysis methodology and the findings reveal that recurrence as a multifunctional phenomenon is an integral part of narrative since it structures the composition, discloses the author’s intention, supplements well justified reasoning through clarification, interpretation, explanation, accentuation and contributes to text consistency, cohesion and coherence.

Keywords: coherence, recurrence, argumentation, prospective exposition, retrospective exposition