Teaching Transactional and Interpersonal Conversation: A Classroom Action Research (CAR)


LANGUAGE CIRCLE Journal of Language and Literature Vol. IX/1 October 2014  25 

 

SOFIA THE FIRST:  

WHAT MAKES A TEXT MAKE SENSE 

Djoko Sutopo 

Semarang State University 

 

ABSTRACT 

Based on the concern that in teachings, our teachers are not sure how to exploit texts, this 
study aims at describing what makes a text and what makes a text make sense. A literary 
work entitled Sofia the First has been the object of the study. The focus is on unlocking the 
text before analyzing its cohesiveness and its coherence. Reference and topic /comment of 
the text is also discussed before describing the advantages of using such literary text in 
teaching and learning process. The findings suggest that individual sentence has been a 
concern of traditional language teaching. However, it its natural state, language is not isolated 
sentences. Rather, it is the text that is the significant unit of language. As teachers of foreign 
language users, our top priority is to help learners understand and produce texts for different 
purposes in a variety of genres. Issues such as what makes a text and what makes a text 
make sense are significant to address.  

 

Key words: text, cohesive, referent, coherence, topic and comment, literary work. 

 

INTRODUCTION 

A preliminary research in English graduate 

program classes suggests that in 

teachings, our teachers are not sure how 

to exploit texts. Instead, they simply used 

them as a vehicle for teaching item of 

sentence grammar. They used them to 

develop the skills of listening and reading. 

They didn’t pay attention to the text-

specific features of their composition. The 

texts are quite often unauthentic since they 

were written for teaching purposes. A lot of 

material available in published course 

books is sentence-based. Indeed, 

sentences have a relatively fixed and 

describable grammar. But language is 

realized as text. It is not isolated 

sentences.   

They need to be encouraged to explore 

this rich resource with their learners. They 

need to be motivated to go beyond the 

sentence. To be more specific, they should 

have a better idea of what text is, how to 

categorize and describe them in terms of 

their genre, function organization and style. 

They should have learned how to exploit 

texts for language teaching purposes, how 

to unpack hidden messages of texts and 

how to use literary texts in the classroom. 

They need to encourage their students to 

cope with texts and make sense of them 

as well as produce them. 

A few basic text-unlocking techniques 

can be applied to start exploiting texts for 

language work. Following an introduction 

to a text – such as one entitled “Sofia the 

First” – learners can be asked to count 



26   LANGUAGE CIRCLE Journal of Language and Literature Vol. IX/1 October 2014 

  

how many sentences there are; count how 

many words there are and how many 

words are repeated; identify the word 

classes (noun, adjective, etc.); say how 

many countable nouns there are; say how 

many uncountable nouns there are; say 

how many adjectives, determiners, 

adverbs etc, there are; underline all the 

verbs; identify the tense, aspect and voice 

of each verb phrase; find any collocations, 

i.e. words that they think might co-occur 

frequently (learners can check their 

intuition against a good learner’s 

dictionary; find any figurative or idiomatic 

use of language, including phrasal verbs; 

identify any cohesive devices; and find any 

pronouns and identify their referents (ie the 

words they refer to). 

 

Unlocking text 

Here’s an example of a text from Disney 

Junior channel. 

 

Sofia the First 

Sofia is a little girl with a commoner’s background until her mom marries the King and 

suddenly she is royalty. With the help of the three fairies in charge of the Royalty Training 

Academy, Sofia learns that looking like a princess isn’t all that hard, but behaving like one 

must have come from the heart.  

 

Examples of part of speech can be 

found in the text above including nouns 

such as Sofia, girl, commoner, 

background, mom, King, Royalty, fairies, 

heart, princess; verbs such as marry, learn 

and come; adjectives such as little, hard; 

adverb such as suddenly; determiners 

such as the, a, that; prepositions such as 

with, of, from; conjunction such as until, 

and, but; pronouns such as she, her. 

The grammar words can be found 

including is, with, must, of isn’t, in. The 

content words include Sofia, commoner, 

background, Royalty, mom, King, she, 

help, fairies, charge, learn, training. 

Additionally, there are a number of words 

repeated. They include is which is 

repeated three times to put emphasis on 

the tense and its contextual meaning and 

article the, a, and preposition with. 

The noun phrases in the text can be 

identified including A little girl with a 

commoner’s background the way of 

making of which is Indefinite Article + 

Adjective + Noun + Prepositional Phrase; 

The help of fairies in charge of the Royal 

Training Academy the way of making of 

which is Definite Article + Noun + 

Prepositional Phrase; and A little girl the 

way of making of which is Indefinite Article 

+ Adjective + Noun. The verb phrases 

include must, come the way of making 

which is Modal Auxiliary + Verb Infinitive; 

and learns that looking like the way of 

making of which is Verb + Relative 

Pronoun + Gerund. 



LANGUAGE CIRCLE Journal of Language and Literature Vol. IX/1 October 2014  27 

 

The personal pronoun in the text can 

be found including Sofia (the name of a 

little girl). One refers to a princess and she 

refers to Sofia. The possessive pronoun 

includes her mom which refers to Sofia’s 

mom. 

The use of article includes a such as in 

A little girl as indefinite article which refers 

to a particular introduced entity; and the 

found in The King as definite article which 

refers to Sofia’s father; The help of the 

three fairies which refers to the fact that 

Sofia grows up and is brought up by them; 

The Royal Training Academy which refers 

to the specific information on the place 

where the story goes. The prepositional 

phrases can be identified in the text 

including A little girl with a commoner’s 

background; with the help of three fairies; 

in charge of the Royal Training Academy; 

and from the heart. 

 

COHESION 

The text above is made cohesive by a 

combination of lexical and grammatical 

devices. The lexical connectors include 

repetition and the lexical chaining of words 

that share similar meaning. The 

grammatical connectors are pronouns (she 

and that) and linkers (then). Examples of 

lexical repetition include is (three times), 

the, a, and preposition with (once each). 

These words are prominent in order to put 

emphasis the tense and its contextual 

meaning. 

Grammatical cohesion is realized by 

pronouns, which refer to the reader back to 

their referents, as in her mom marries the 

King; she is Royalty and behaving like one 

must have come from the heart. Here, the 

pronoun she in the first sentence refers 

back to Sofia in the same sentence. She 

can also refer forward as in Sofia learns 

that looking like a princess isn’t all that 

hard. 

Behaving like one must have come 

from the heart also demonstrates how 

some pronouns do not have referent s in 

the text itself, but outside it. Thus the 

referent one is not retrievable from the text, 

either before or after, but refers to a kind of 

princess that is not described in the text. 

This is also a kind of cohesive device, 

since it binds the text to its larger context. 

The term cohesion suggests the 

presence in a text of explicit linking word, 

such as but, although, however, etc. There 

is only one explicit linking word in the text: 

the use of but in the second sentence (…, 

but behaving like one must have come 

from the heart). In the sentence beginning 

Sofia, is a little girl with a commoner’s 

background until her mom marries the King 

and suddenly she is royalty, and is an 

instance of conjunction. Other conjunctions 

are but, so, or and because. They connect 

clauses inside sentences. Connectors that 

link sentences are called conjuncts. They 

are also commonly called linkers. The 

absence of conjuncts suggests that 

perhaps the text is so cohesive already 

that it does not need them. 

Another grammatical feature of the text 

that serves to give it internal consistency 



28   LANGUAGE CIRCLE Journal of Language and Literature Vol. IX/1 October 2014 

  

and hence acts as a kind of cohesive 

device is the use of tense. All the main 

verbs in the text are in present and are 

unmarked for aspect (ie there are no 

continuous or perfect forms). 

 

REFERENCE 

Reference is such an important aspect of 

cohesion. Reference is commonly 

achieved through the use of pronouns (he, 

she, we, it, this, that, these and those) and 

articles. We have seen how pronouns refer 

back to previously mentioned referents. 

Here’s is another example, from Sofia the 

First. 

 

 

Sofia has the incredibly powerful magical Amulet of Avalor that grants her the ability to talk to 

and understand animals and summon her princess friends in case she needs help with 

something. But the amulet is coveted by the evil sorcerer Cedric who wants its great magical 

power so he can use it to take over the kingdom as King Cedric the Great. 

 

The pronoun she and the possessive 

determiner her have back-reference to 

Sofia. Back-reference is technically called 

anaphoric reference. The words she and 

her act like little index fingers, directing us 

back in the text to these first mentions. For 

certain stylistic effects, the referring 

pronoun can anticipate the referent. This 

kind of reference is called cataphoric. 

Apart from the in …the evil sorcerer 

Credic…the underlined words in the text 

above point backward, rather than forward. 

Pronouns can have referents outside 

the text, as well as inside it. The index 

finger can point beyond the text: we saw 

this with the pronoun one in previous 

example: behaving like one must come 

from the heart. Reference outside the text 

is called exophoric reference. The referent 

may be in the form of visual information as 

the story tells how Sofia is helpful, 

considerate and humble. 

Like pronouns, the definite article the 

can also make connections back, forward 

and outside the text. The second text 

above shows how each instance of the 

implies a previous mention of the noun that 

it determines. The function of the is to 

signal knowledge that is given, ie 

knowledge that is shared between writer 

and reader or between speaker and 

listener. Other ways of qualifying a noun so 

as to make it definite include the use of of 

relative clauses, as in the evil sorcerer 

Cedric who wants its great magical power. 

 

COHERENCE 

We have looked at the way a text hangs 

together – how it is made cohesive. A text, 

however, needs to do more than simply 

together. It also needs to make sense. The 



LANGUAGE CIRCLE Journal of Language and Literature Vol. IX/1 October 2014  29 

 

capacity of a text to make sense is called 

coherence. While cohesion is a surface 

feature of texts, independent of the reader, 

coherence, on the other hand, results from 

the interaction between the reader and the 

text. 

The issue of coherence is approached 

from two perspectives: the micro level and 

the macro level. At the micro level, readers 

have certain expectations of how the 

meaning of a sentence is likely to be 

developed in the sentence or sentences 

that follow it. When these expectations are 

met, the immediate text will seem 

coherent. At the macro level, coherence is 

enhanced if (a) the reader can easily 

discern what the text is about, (b) the text 

is organized in a way that answer the 

reader’s likely question and (c) the text is 

organized in a way that is familiar to the 

reader. 

There are implicit logical connections 

and it is the feeling that the texts make 

sense. There are no explicit conjuncts 

signaling the relation between the two 

sentences. We take the relation on trust. 

The relations include additive, adversative, 

causal and temporal. Additive means that 

the second sentence gives details about 

the statement in the first sentence. 

Adversative means that in claiming to 

solve the problem stated in the first, makes 

a contrast that could have been signaled 

with however or but. Causal means that 

the second sentence provides a reason for 

the situation or request mentioned in the 

first. Whereas temporal means that the 

chronological order of events (and then…) 

is implied, rather than explicitly stated. 

When two past tense sentences are placed 

together, we assume that the first 

happened before the second. 

                          

 TOPIC AND COMMENT  

             Topic and comment are also called theme 

and rheme. The topic is the launch pad of 

the message and is typically realized by a 

noun phrase (the grammatical subject of 

the sentence). The comment is what the 

writer or speaker considers to be 

‘newsworthy’ about the topic: what you as 

reader or listener need to pay attention to.        

The following outline summarizes the 

logical relations between the sentences of 

the text. 

 

(1) Sofia the First Statement of topic. 

(2) Sofia is a little girl with a commoner’s 

background until her mom marries the 

King and suddenly she is royalty. 

Having been announced in the title and takes 

theme position The topic (Sofia the First) is 

now given. The description that follows is the 

‘news’ and take the rheme slot. The 

embedded information (a little girl with a 

commoner’s background until her mom 



30   LANGUAGE CIRCLE Journal of Language and Literature Vol. IX/1 October 2014 

  

marries the King and suddenly she is royalty) 

predicts an answer to the question how Sofia 

is becoming royalty. The rest of the text in fact 

answers the question. 

(3) With the help of the three fairies in charge 

of the Royalty Training Academy, Sofia 

learns that looking like a princess isn’t all 

that hard, but behaving like one must 

have come from the heart. 

The topic (Sofia) echoes part of the comment 

in (2) (a girl with commoner’s background) – 

this suggests that (3) is the beginning of an 

answer to (2).  

(4) Sofia has the incredibly powerful magical 

Amulet of Avalor that grants her the ability 

to talk to and understand animals and 

summon her princess friends in case she 

needs help with something 

Again, the topic (Sofia) is a re-focusing of a 

little girl with a commoner’s background until 

her mom marries the King and suddenly she 

is royalty thread – same topic, new comment, 

with the words incredible power carried over. 

The dynamic verbs (talk and understand) 

suggest a verbal and mental process is being 

described, and since processes usually have 

stages, one can predict more sentences with 

more dynamic words. 

(5) But the amulet is coveted by the evil 

sorcerer Cedric who wants its great 

magical power so he can use it to take 

over the kingdom as King Cedric the 

Great. 

Amulet is carried over from (4). Dynamic verb 

(coveted) suggests that this is part of the way 

signaled in (4) and anticipates further 

sentences with dynamic verbs, since wants 

and use as well as take over, have stages. 

 

This analysis does not in any way exhaust 

the network of intertwining themes and 

arguments in this text. Some writers use 

the word texture to describe the combined 

effect of such structural features of a text. 

 

Literary texts 

The text above is a text that doesn’t 

directly refer to the real world, but re-

presents it. The characteristics of literary 

text above include the fact that the 

language is used expressively, ie to 

express feeling and emotions; it is used 

playfully, ironically, imaginatively, 

metaphorically. The point of view of the 

writer may be involved; The text’s meaning 

is partly inter-textual; it conform to and 

constrained by certain generic features; 

and it often highly valued by the culture. 

From a teaching point of view, such a 

text has advantages over non-literary 

ones. First, it provides exposure to other 

kinds of texts and language functions; 

second, it offers instances of real language 



LANGUAGE CIRCLE Journal of Language and Literature Vol. IX/1 October 2014  31 

 

use and therefore quality; third, it raises 

the level of challenge; fourth, it motivates 

learners to further reading outside the 

classroom; finally, it encode a lot of cultural 

knowledge about the society. 

 

CONCLUSION 

Individual sentence has been a concern of 

traditional language teaching. However, it 

its natural state, language is not isolated 

sentences. Rather, it is the text that is the 

significant unit o language. As teachers of 

foreign language users, our top priority is 

to help learners understand and produce 

texts for different purposes and a variety of 

genres. Issues such as what makes a text 

and what makes a text make sense are 

significant to address.  

 

REFERENCES 

Eggins, Suzanne. 1994. An Introduction to 

Systemic Functional Linguistics, 

London: Pinter Publishers. 

Fiske, John. 1990, Introduction to 

Communication Studies, New York: 

Routledge,. 

Gerot, Linda & Peter Wignell, 1994. 

Making Sense of Functional 

Grammar., NSW: Gerd  Stabler. 

Halliday, M.A.K., 1974, Interview with 

M.A.K. Halliday , in H. Parret (ed.),  

Discussing              Language (Janua 

Linguarum Series Maior 93), The 

Hague: Mouton, 81-120              

(extracts reprinted in Halliday 1978) 

Halliday, M.A.K., 1985a, Introduction to 

Functional Grammar, Edward Arnold: 

London.  

Halliday, M.A.K., 1985b, Spoken and 

written language, Geelong, Vic.: 

Deakin University Press (republished 

by OUP 1989). 

Thornburry, Scott, 2005. Beyond The 

Sentence; Introducing Discourse 

Analysis. London: Macmillan              

Publishers Limited.