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We have just done a full-dress review of the primary
logical connectives in English, namely the coordinating
conjunctions, the subordinating conjunctions, and the conjunctive
adverbs. Now we come to an important question: when there’s a
choice, which of them do we use to link particular ideas?
Our choice of connectives will,
of course, primarily depend on two things: the logical relationship
we want to establish, and the structure of the clauses that we want
to connect. These two will then determine the grammar of the
sentence that combines the two clauses.
As discussed at the outset, all
writing or speech deals with only six basic logical relationships
between ideas (1) the additive relationship, (2) the comparative
relationship, (3) the temporal or time relationship, (4) the
reason-result relationship, (5) the conditional relationship, and
(6) the example relationship. Language is, in fact, essentially an
interplay of these logical relationships, and in English, the
primary logical operators for establishing them are the coordinating
conjunctions, the subordinating conjunctions, and the conjunctive
adverbs.
We already know that coordinating
conjunctions and conjunctive adverbs perform essentially the same
function: to logically connect two independent, grammatically
co-equal clauses. In the following sentence, for instance, the
coordinating conjunction “but” serves as the logical
connective—a contrasting one—between the two independent
clauses: “We achieved our sales targets, but we fell short of our
profit expectations.” Similarly, the conjunctive adverb
“however” can establish that logical relationship: “We
achieved our sales targets; however, we fell short of our profit
expectations.”
Although the logic of the two
resulting compound sentences above is essentially the same, we can
see that the conjunctive adverb “however” provides a more
emphatic transition than the coordinating conjunction “that.”
This more explicit and forceful transition is, in fact, what
typically differentiates the conjunctive adverbs from the
coordinating conjunctions. We can very well say that the
coordinating conjunctions provide a soft transition between two
independent ideas, while the conjunctive adverbs provide a strong
transition between them.
On the other hand, when we need
to connect a subordinate clause to an independent clause, only a
subordinating conjunction can properly do the linking job. This type
of connective not only provides grammatical linkage but also enables
the subordinate clause to draw meaning from the independent clause.
Structurally, when a subordinating conjunction links a dependent
clause to an independent clause, the result is a complex sentence:
“We achieved our sales targets although we fell short of our
profit expectations.” Typically, such sentences can also be
constructed with the subordinate clause positioned ahead of the
independent clause: “Although we fell short of our profit
expectations, we achieved our sales targets.”
Since coordinating conjunctions
and conjunctive adverbs function in much the same way, we can freely
choose between them to establish the logical relationship we want.
The choice, however, will strongly determine the language register
or tone of our writing or speech. For informal, everyday language,
the coordinating conjunctions will usually suffice; for formal
language, however, we may need the conjunctive adverbs every now and
then to create particular nuances of the logical relationship we
need to establish.
Let’s now survey the
alternatives available to us for establishing the various logical
relationships between ideas:
For the additive relationship: We
can routinely use the coordinating conjunction “and”—the only
one of its kind—or, for much stronger emphasis, the following
conjunctive adverbs: “moreover,” “additionally,”
“furthermore,” “in addition,” and “besides.”
For contrast or opposition: To
connect two independent, co-equal clauses, we can use the
coordinating conjunctions “but” or “yet” or, for more
forceful contrast, the following conjunctive adverbs: “however,”
“nevertheless,” “nonetheless,” “conversely,” “in
contrast,” “still,” and “otherwise.”
To establish contrast or
opposition between subordinate clauses and independent clauses,
however, we need the following subordinating conjunctions:
“though,” “although,” “as though,” “even if,”
“even though,” “than,” “rather than,” “where,” and
“whereas.”
We will continue this survey in
the next column.
(Next: Choosing the right
connectives—II)
j8carillo@yahoo.com
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