Connectives
A word that
joins the words or sentences is called connective.
Malmkjӕr (478), is defined
as an indeclinable part of speech that links other parts of speech, in company
with which it has significance, by classifying their meaning or relations.
According to Leung (11), conjunctions have been studied under various labels
and have drawn much attention from various scholars in the field of
English/Linguistics over time: Halliday and Hasan (13) treat them as
“linguistic devices that create cohesion”, while Sanders and Maat describe them
as a “semantic relation that is explicitly marked” (1-2). According to Er, as
cited by Aidinlou and Reshadi (611), conjunctions are a “semantic connection
between two clauses”. Furthermore, Leung (11) cites four scholars in this
regard. These are: Schiffrin, who treats conjunctions as “discourse markers”,
Fraser considers them as a “pragmatic class of lexical expressions”, or simply,
“pragmatic markers”, while Rouchota states that conjunctions “encode different
meanings, andthat they can be a procedural device”, and lastly, Caron conceives
conjunctions simply as being used “to express various kinds of relations
between utterances”.
Basically there
are two types of connectives. They are coordinating and subordinating.
1.
Coordinating
connectives: A conjunction that is used to join the clauses of equal rank. . In
other words, they generally connect sentence elements of the same grammatical
class such as nouns with nouns, adverbs with adverbs, phrases with phrases and
clauses with clauses. They also link two sentences that do not depend on each
other for meaning. They are simply referred to as coordinators, and the art of
joining two words, phrases, clauses or sentences using coordinators is known as
coordination.
There
are four types of coordinating connectives. They are:
i.
Cumulative:
According to Murthy (215), These are used to join statements, or they add one
statement to another. They include: and, so, both … and, as well as, not only …
but also, no less than, etc.
ii.
Alternative:
These are used to express a choice between two alternatives. They include: or,
nor, either…or, neither…nor, else, whether…or, otherwise, etc.
iii.
Adversative:
According to Halliday and Hasan (250), the meaning of the adversative relation
is „contrary to expectation‟. The expectation may be derived from the content
of what is being said, or from the communication process, in a speaker hearer
situation. They include: but, still, only,.
iv.
Illative:
so,therefore
2.
Functions
of coordinating connectives:
i.
To
combine two independent clause of same type: He was a good boy and he stood
first in the class.
ii.
To
combine two independent clauses of the
opposite type: He was intelligent but he failed the exam,
iii.
To
combine two independent clauses denoting effect or inference: he did not study
therefore he failed.
iv.
To
combine two independent clauses to denote choice between two things: either
come or go away.
3.
Subordinating
connectives: Subordinating conjunctions are words which are used to link
subordinate clauses with the main clauses in a complex sentence. They are
conjunctions used to join clauses of unequal rank. In other words, they are
used to join an independent or main (principal) clause with a dependent
(subordinate) one that relies on the main clause for meaning and relevance.
This means that main clauses can stand alone and do not depend on subordinate
clauses while subordinate clauses cannot stand alone. As Aarts (46) notes,
“another way of putting this is to say that subordination is a type of hypotaxis,
a Greek term that means originally „syntactic underneath arrangement‟. This
means that a subordinating conjunction causes the clause it appears in to
become dependent, and that it will only be a sentence fragment unless it is
joined to an independent clause. Simply, subordinating conjunctions are called
subordinators and the art of using a subordinator to join two clauses together
is referred to as subordination. According to Quirk and Greenbaum (309),
subordination is a non-symmetrical relation, holding between two clauses in
such a way that one is a constituent or part of the other. Also according to
Huddleston (194), subordination in contrast with coordination, involves
inequality, that is, a relation between a dependent (the subordinate element) and
a head (the superordinate one). A subordinating conjunction can appear at the
beginning or in the middle of a sentence. According to Sahebkeir & Aidinlou
(125), subordinating conjunctions are also known as transitional conjunctions.
Subordinating conjunctions are words which are used to
link subordinate clauses with the main clauses in a complex sentence. They are
conjunctions used to join clauses of unequal rank. In other words, they are
used to join an independent or main (principal) clause with a dependent
(subordinate) one that relies on the main clause for meaning and relevance.
This means that main clauses can stand alone and do not depend on subordinate
clauses while subordinate clauses cannot stand alone. As Aarts (46) notes,
“another way of putting this is to say that subordination is a type of
hypotaxis, a Greek term that means originally „syntactic underneath
arrangement‟. This means that a subordinating conjunction causes the clause it
appears in to become dependent, and that it will only be a sentence fragment
unless it is joined to an independent clause. Simply, subordinating
conjunctions are called subordinators and the art of using a subordinator to
join two clauses together is referred to as subordination. According to Quirk
and Greenbaum (309), subordination is a non-symmetrical relation, holding
between two clauses in such a way that one is a constituent or part of the
other. Also according to Huddleston (194), subordination in contrast with
coordination, involves inequality, that is, a relation between a dependent (the
subordinate element) and a head (the superordinate one). A subordinating
conjunction can appear at the beginning or in the middle of a sentence.
According to Sahebkeir & Aidinlou (125), subordinating conjunctions are
also known as transitional conjunctions. They are divided into eight sub
groups: time, cause or reason, purpose, result or consequences, condition
circumstances, concession and comparison.
i.
Time
These are subordinators that express consequence in time or succession in time
between clauses. Examples include: before, after, till, since, when, while,
etc.
ii.
Cause
or Reason These are subordinators that express causal relations in the simplest
form that mean „as a result of this‟ or „because of this‟. Examples include:
because, since, as, and for.
iii.
Result
or Consequence Result/consequence and cause/reason are closely related but the
main subordinator here is so and that. These have the relation that is
expressed to mean „for this reason‟ which leads to something else.
iv.
Purpose
Purpose and cause/reason are closely related and the subordinators involved
have the sense of „for this reason‟ or „for this purpose‟. They include: that,
so that, in order that, lest, etc.
v.
Condition
According to Quirk and Greenbaum (323), conditional subordinators state the
dependence of one circumstance or set of circumstances on another. The main
subordinators in English are if and unless. The if-clause could either be a
positive or a negative condition while the unless-clause is a negative one.
vi.
Circumstance
These subordinators express a fulfilled condition, or to put differently, a
relation between a premise in the subordinate clause and the conclusion drawn
from it in the main clause. An example of this is a special circumstantial
compound conjunction: seeing that.
vii.
Concession
These are subordinators that express the sense of „reluctant yielding‟. They
are usually introduced by though and it’s more formal variant although, even if
and occasionally if. Others include however, whereas, etc.
viii.
Comparison
These are subordinators that express comparison between dependent and
independent clauses. They are introduced by than, as-as, as, etc. Sentential
examples: She respected me more than I thought.
4.
Functions
of subordinating conjunctions:
1.
To
join principal and main clause:
a.
To
denote time
b.
To
denote cause
c.
To
denote effect
d.
To
denote purpose
e.
To
denote manner
f.
To
denote degree
g.
To
denote condition
h.
To
denote contrast
i.
To
denote apposition
j.
To
denote concession
II. As relative pronoun relative adverb and
interrogative adverb
Exercise
Complete the following sentences
with however, although, or in spite of.
a. …
the fact that he is an octogenarian; he still
leads an active life.
b. I
still enjoyed the week… the weather was bad.
c. He
has passed MA… , he hasn’t got a job.
d. …
I had a headache, I enjoyed the movie.
e. Ramila
didn’t get the job… the fact that she had all
the necessary qualifications.
f. …the
fact that he had no money, he bought the car anyway.
g. We
can go to the park for lunch. …, the weather report says it’s going to rain.
h. …
I speak English well, my first language is actually Maithili.
Combine the following
sentences using the words given in brackets.
a.
He was annoyed. He didn’t say anything. (although)
b.
Playing the stock market is exciting. It can be risky. (however)
c.
He works slowly. He never makes a mistake. (even though)
d.
It was raining. We still went to the park. (in spite of)
e.
Hark bought the watch. It was expensive. (despite)
f.
He is very poor. He wears expensive clothes. (but)
Rewrite
the following sentences using (a) although and (b) in spite of.
a. He had very little time, but he
offered to help us.
b. She is very poor, but she still wears expensive
clothes.
c.
He's a millionaire, but he lives in a very small flat.
d. They have a lot of money, but they
are still not happy.
e. The traffic was heavy, but we got there in time.
