Conjunctions/Connectives

The cohesive element referred to as conjunction (or connectives) is that aspect in grammar which emphasise the relationship existing within and or between sentences

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through the processes of adding, comparing, sequencing, and or explaining them. Unlike substitution and other referential cohesive devices, conjunctions create a dissimilar variety of semantic relation in the clauses by specifying the direction in which what is to follow is systematically linked to what has gone before. This implies, therefore, that conjunctive devices relate linguistic elements that occur in succession but are, however, not related by any other structural means (Halliday and Hasan, 1976: 227). The concept of conjunction is also being referred to as ‘connectives’ by Martin and Rose (2004).

These conjunctive elements are regarded as cohesive in grammar not in themselves but indirectly by the virtue of their specific meanings which make them convey certain meanings which presuppose the presence of other components in the discourse. Apparently, conjunction refers to the logical meanings from instances in grammatical structures that link figures of expression in sequences. Furthermore, the cohesive device of conjunction is also considered as the lexical items ‘that join phrases, clauses or sections of a text in such a way that they express the logical semantic relationship between them’ (Paltridge, 2003: 139). Based on Halliday and Hasan’s (1976) postulation about conjunctions, and which was analysed by Martin and Rose (2003), Paltridge (2006: 140) has provided in summary of the basic options for conjunctions in the table below:

Table 2.2: Basic options for conjunctions

Logical relation Meaning Examples

Addition Addition

Alternation

and, besides, in addition, or, if-not-then, alternatively Comparing Similarity

Contrast

like, as if, similarly

but, whereas, on the other hand

Time Successive

Simultaneous

then, after, subsequently, before, previously

while, meanwhile, at the same time Consequence Cause

means purpose condition

so, because, since, therefore by, this, by this means

so as, in order to, lest, for fear of if, provided that, unless

The above tabular presentation demonstrates that the logical relations which include: addition, comparing, time and consequence are the basic options for conjunctive

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relations in discourses. These logical relations provide potentials for coherent texture of texts by relating individual propositions to each other and to other text, and therein holding the entire text together. It is also argued that, these logical relations have the capacities that might as well lead readers of a text to the preferred interpretations of the text (Hyland, 1998 and Paltridge, 2006).

In attempts to provide explanations about the functions of conjunctive elements in discourses, Martin and Rose (2004) classify the process of conjunction into ‘internal and external processes’, claiming that each has distinctive features and performs different roles in the text’s texture. They are of the opinion that, under logical relations; the additive element is concerned with external role of adding activities, and performing the internal function of adding and building arguments. Its comparative function, on the other hand, is concerned with comparing and contrasting of events, things and qualities. On the other hand, it performs the internal function of comparing and contrasting arguments and evidence. While time-logical relation, on the one hand, is concerned with ordering of events in time as its external function, its internal role is that of ordering arguments in the text. Consequence is concerned with explaining why and how events happen as its external functions, and drawing conclusions or countering arguments as its internal functions. The table 2.3 below is used by Martin and Rose (2003: 127) to analyse this argument in the table which shows the logical relations and the external and internal roles performed by conjunctions in textures of texts.

Table 2.3: Logical relations

Logical relation

External (role) Internal (role) Addition Adding activities Adding arguments Comparison Comparing and contrasting

events, things and qualities

Comparing and

contrasting argument and evidence

Time Ordering events in time Ordering arguments in

the text Consequence(causal) Explaining why and how

events happen

Drawing conclusions or countering arguments

However, in spite of the above well spelt classification of the distinctive features and roles played by connectives in text textures, there are suggestions that there still

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exists a ‘small set of linkers’ that are said to perform different cohesive roles in text textures which need to be accounted for. The main kind of logical relations expressed by these continuatives is basically to ‘add’ through the use of: ‘so [did he]’, ‘even’, ‘only’, and ‘just’, so that comparison may be realised. Similarly, continuative features like:

‘already’, ‘finally’, ‘at last’, ‘still’, ‘again’, facilitate the realisation of time.

Moreover, since continuatives are used as categories in the realisation of logical relations, they are normally placed at the beginning of the clause, typically next to finite verbs. Martin and Rose (2003) observe that, as a result of this placement, they might also serve as a means of managing our expectations in the discourse. With conjunctions, cohesive relations in discourses are negotiated into a different type of semantic relations;

one which is no longer a site for instruction, but a specification of the way in which what is to follow is systematically connected to what has gone before. The conjunctive relations are, therefore, not attached to any particular sequence in the expression.

Consequently, if two sentences cohere by virtue of some form of conjunction, this does not mean that the relation between them could subsist only in that particular order. This argument reiterates Halliday and Hasan’s (1976) submission that, conjunction is not really an element in the semantic relations that is realised in the grammar of the language, but it is rather the functions these conjunctive devices perform by relating linguistic elements that occur in succession but are not related by other structural means.

Cohesive ties realised through conjunction are embodied through the process of predication, minor predication, and time sequence or through two separate sentences. The most common and the simplest conjunctive element is said to be ‘and’, which is integrated into linguistic structures realised in the form of a particular structural relations, especially that of coordination. The lexical element ‘and’, according to Halliday and Hasan (1976: 234), is used as a cohesion means to link one sentence to another, and the coordination relation which is represented by ‘and’, may obtain between pairs of items functioning more or less anywhere in the structure of the language; these pairs may be nominal groups, verbs or verbal groups, adverbs or adverbial groups; or they may be clauses. These pairs, when joined by a conjunctive coordinator, ‘and’, function as a single complex structure.