COHESIVE DEVICES IN HELON HABILA'S WAITING FOR AN ANGEL

Abstract

Linguists like Halliday and Hassan take the view that the primary determinant of whether a set of sentences do or do not constitute a text depends on cohesive relationships within and between the sentences which create "texture". This texture is provided by the cohesive relation. Cohesive relationships within a text are set up where the interpretation of some element in the discourse is dependent on that of another. These cohesive devices that make a text a unified whole are encapsulated in literary texts as demonstrated in the examination of Habila's Waiting for an Angel in this study. When a text is properly held together as a unit, it is said to be cohesive. Cohesion, therefore, is one of the devices used by authors to hold a text together. Findings show that Habila successfully employs cohesive devices to give vivid insight into life under a modern dictatorship and presents a moving testimony of trials, tribulations, injustices that reveal the excesses of the military in Nigerian politics.