The discourse connector list: a multi-genre cross-cultural corpus analysis

Appendix The discourse connector taxonomy

1. Additive DCs are used to add new information to what comes before indicating the information as parallel to the preceding information. There are two subcategories of additive DCs.

1. Equative DCs indicate that a sentence or information has a similar force to a preceding sentence or information.

   1. There are children who need to be protected from abusive parents. But, equally, parents have to be protected from abuse of power by social service agencies.

2. Reinforcing DCs usually assess an item as adding greater weight to preceding sentence or information (Quirk et al. 1985).

   1. One of the great advantages of ground-level planters is that they require a lot less material to build. Furthermore they will never wobble, sag, or collapse.

1. Apposition DCs signal information in form of examples or expansion or explanation of what is preceded. They fall into two subcategories.

   1. Exemplification DCs introduce an example of a previous idea.

      1. It’s extremely expensive to live in New York. For example, I pay $1250 for a one-bedroom apartment.

   2. Restatement DCs are used to express something again in a different way to be clearer.

      1. The tax only affects people on incomes of over $200,000 – in other words, the very rich.

2. Consequential DCs serve to inform the reader about cause and effect relationships. There are three subcategories.

   1. Causative DCs help and guide the reader to see logical connections and consequences of actions or events.

      1. People who cheat due to laziness, fear of failure or greed will never feel pride in their victories.

   2. Resultive DCs introduce information that is a result or consequence of preceding information.

      1. She’s in a bad mood because her father won’t let her go to the party tonight.

      2. Becauseof the increase in street crime, many old people are afraid to leave their homes.

   3. Conditional DCs identify the condition under which an action may be carried out.

      1. I don’t know whether they will agree on that subject.

3. Comparison DCs point out or imply resemblances between objects regarded as essentially of a different order and to point out differences between objects regarded as essentially of the same order.

   1. Likea virus in the human body, a computer virus can do a lot of damage.

4. Contrastive DCs introduce information that is to some extent surprising or unanticipated in light of previous information or linking information that presents more straightforward contrast. There are four types of contrastive DCs, adopted from Quirk et al. (1985).

   1. Antithetic DCs may contrast an item with a preceding one by introducing a direct antithesis; this is effected by means of Antithetic connectors.

      1. You promise to help me; then you let me down.

   2. Concessive DCs are used where one unit is seen as unexpected in the light of others.

      1. She did not get the award after all. Still, her results were very good.

   3. Reformulatory DCs are contrastive words that are frequently preceded by or and rather.

      1. He invited several friends, or better, several people that he thought were friends (i. e. ‘it would be better if I were to say’).

   4. Replacive DCs are used to withdraw an item, not to express it better but to replace it by a more important one. With replacive connectors, contrastive matter may again be prefaced by or.

      1. He was opposed by his mother or, rather, by BOTH his parents.

      2. Please suit yourself. You can move in at once; (or) again, you may prefer to do so next week.

5. Clarification DCs serve to clarify a point of view, attitude or statement.

   1. Corroborative DCs bear certain attitudinal disjuncts, which have clear cohesive links and seem to add a new point that strengthens the arguments or gives a new turn to the argument.

      1. The hypothesis that age limits the acquisition of a second language is now being questioned. Indeed, one new study seriously challenges this hypothesis.

   2. Emphasizing DCs are mainly used when the writer wants to put more emphasis on what is already mentioned.

      1. Drawing programs produce pictures drawn in PostScript, which supports sound, video and other formats. In fact, the only barrier is your imagination.

   3. Generalization DCs signal a statement which says that something is true in most situations or for most people.

      1. Generally,24-bit color boards include extra memory and processors to speed up the display performance.

6. Sequential DCs function to enumerate or list main points, signaling the sequence of the points that the writer intends to make and indicating a sequence of steps in a process. Three types of sequential DCs are as follows:

   1. Ordering DCs show how details are listed based on chronological order.

      1. First,I researched the topic. Then, I created the presentation.

   2. Timing DCs can help give more energy to sentences when describing things in a sequence.

      1. Aftercompelling our siblings to give us all of the chocolate they’d collected, my sisters and I ran into my room. Immediately, we dug our unabashed hands into our bag of scrumptious loot!

   3. Transitional DCs mark a move from one topic to another, which may only be peripherally connected to the topic described in the preceding sentences.

      1. I am going to College Park next week to give a short talk on our research. By the way, have you finished the analysis of the native speaker data yet? I could use that in my talk.

7. Summative DCs or summary connectors show that a unit of discourse is intended to conclude or sum up the information in the preceding discourse.

   1. Overall,ongoing research has identified a variety of specific procedures that, when implemented in the school setting, can greatly improve academic and social performance of children with autism.