Abstract

Sentence connectors may be small words, but their importance is not to be neglected, especially in writing. The logical relationship between sentences depends on the sentence connectors. On the one hand, a connector can induce a series of suppositions about the truth of the sentences connected; on the other hand, another connector can create a different series of suppositions regarding the same sentences. Therefore, the semantics of the sentences will differ according to their connector. Following M.A. K. Halliday’s perspective on cohesion, we shall try to identify the means to make a text meaningful and fluent, “since cohesion is the relation between sentences in a text, and the sentences of a text can only follow one after the other.” (Halliday 1976: 227). Once coherent, the text gets identity of the author’s writing style. This paper will focus on identifying markers of cohesion in E. Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, taking into account Halliday’s theoretical concepts.