Literary Stylistics:
Lecture Notes no. 18(c)

Conjunctive Cohesion

From a non-technical perspective, the term cohesion is occasionally understood in terms of the conjunctive linkages that a writer makes between the clauses of the text. We thus come to the third way, according to Halliday, through which cohesive linkages can be established between clauses: through the use of conjunctive adjuncts, which consist of certain adverbial groups or prepositional phrases. The use of conjunctions to link clauses, or its lack, has a parallel in classical rhetoric with the concepts of polysyndeton and asyndeton. In polysyndeton, relatively many conjunctions are used to link clauses, but in asyndeton, conjunctions are avoided. Thus a link can be made between Halliday's approach to conjunctive cohesion and classical rhetoric, in the sense that polysyndeton depends quite a lot on conjunctive cohesion, but asyndeton avoids it.

Like the tactic linkages between clauses within the sentence in our study of clause complexing, the cohesive conjunctive linkages between clauses (which may extend beyond the sentence) can also be seen in terms of elaboration, extension, and enhancement. The conjunctive adjuncts which give rise to elaboration and extension are given in the first table below, whilst those which give rise to enhancement are given in the next table (adapted from section 9.4 of the earlier editions of Halliday's Introduction; see also the slightly different tabulation in the third edition [section 9.3; pp. 542—3]). Like the table of modal adjuncts given in lecture notes no. 8, the lists of conjunctive adjuncts are not complete, nor are students expected to have a photographic knowledge of them in order to do stylistic analysis. It must also be noted that some of these adjuncts can also function as modal or circumstantial adjuncts, depending on the context in which they appear; some of the lexical items given below, like ‘actually’, ‘still’, and ‘yet’, in fact appear in both the lists of modal and conjunctive adjuncts. In order to distinguish conjunctive adjuncts from the other types of adjuncts, you should keep the textual metafunction of conjunctive adjuncts uppermost in your minds: i.e., is the primary purpose the linkage between one part of the text and another?

DOMAIN	TYPE	MEANING	EXAMPLES
ELABORATION:
Apposition	expository	‘i.e.’	that is (to say), in other words, I mean (to say), put it another way;
	exemplifying	‘e.g.’	for instance, for example, thus, to illustrate;
Clarification	corrective	‘rather’	or rather, at least, to be (more) precise;
	distractive	‘by the way’	by the way, incidentally;
	dismissive	‘in any case’	in any case, anyway, leaving that aside;
	particularizing	‘in particular’	in particular, more especially;
	resumptive	‘to resume’	as I was saying, to resume, to get back to the point;
	summative	‘in short’	briefly, to sum up, in conclusion;
	verifactive	‘actually’	actually, in fact, as a matter of fact;
EXTENSION:
Addition	positive	‘and’	and, also, moreover, in addition, besides;
Addition	negative	‘nor’	nor;
Adversative	adversative	‘but’	but, on the other hand, yet, however, conversely;
Variation	replacive	‘instead’	instead, on the contrary
	subtractive	‘except’	apart from that, except for that;
	alternative	‘alternatively’	alternatively;

DOMAIN	TYPE	MEANING	EXAMPLES
ENHANCEMENT
Spatio-temporal	simple	1) following	then, next, afterwards, first...then;
		2) simultaneous	just then, at the same time
		3) preceding	before that, hitherto, previously
		4) conclusively	in the end, finally;
	complex	1) immediate	at once, thereupon, straightaway
		2) interrupted	soon, after a while;
		3) repetitive	next time, on another occasion
		4) specific	next day, an hour later, next morning;
		5) durative	meanwhile, all that time;
		6) terminal`	until then, up to that point
		7) punctiliar	at this moment;
	simple internal	1) following	next, secondly, ‘my next point is’, first...next;
		2) simultaneous	at this point, here, now;
		3) preceding	hitherto, up to now;
		4) conclusive	lastly, last of all, finally
Comparative	comparative	positive	likewise, similarly, in the same way;
		negative	in a different way;
	expression of means	‘in the same manner’	in the same manner;
Causal-conditional	causal: general	‘therefore’	so, then, therefore, consequently, hence, because of that, for;
	causal: specific	1) result	in consequence, as a result;
		2) reason	on account of this, for that/this reason;
		3) purpose	for that purpose, with this in mind/view
	conditional	1) positive	then, in that case, in that event, under the circumstances;
		2) negative	otherwise, if not;
		3) concessive	yet, still, though, despite this/that, even so, all the same, nevertheless, however;
Respective	positive	‘here’	here, there, as to that, in this/that respect; as far as that’s concerned;
Respective	negative	‘elsewhere’	in other respects, elsewhere;

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Literary Stylistics: Lecture Notes no. 18(c)

Conjunctive Cohesion

Literary Stylistics:
Lecture Notes no. 18(c)