Connecting past, present, and future: A corpus-based study of Grammatical Cohesion in Budget Discourse

Abstract

Cohesion in politico-financial registers, such as budget statements, remains terra incognita, although it is crucial in shaping the rhetorical structure of these documents. Cohesive devices are key indicators in strengthening financial arguments and shaping people’s understanding of fiscal policies. Despite their significance, studies on cohesion in budget statements remain limited. This corpus-assisted study thus examines the discourse functions of grammatical cohesion in politico-financial budget statements using Ghana’s 2024 Budget Statement as data. The analysis was guided by Halliday and Hasan’s (1976) cohesion framework. The findings revealed that references were used to establish the Finance Minister’s authority and maintain thematic continuity, while substitution was used to enhance textual variation and avoid monotonous sentences. Additionally, conjunctions were used to structure economic narratives by establishing additive relations, signalling causality, contrasting financial outcomes, and indicating temporal sequences between economic events. The findings offer a deeper understanding of the functions of grammatical cohesion in a politico-financial register, such as budget statements.