Cambridge Grammar of English Hardback with cd-rom a comprehensive Guide

Û

also 123–139 Grammar across turns and sentences and 335 Linking

Problems with linking adjuncts

153

✪

Certain linking adjuncts typical of academic style are often misused. 

On the contrary, by contrast, on the other hand

On the contrary

, by contrast and on the other hand are different. On the contrary rejects

a previous statement in favour of an opposite one:

Such complex impressions on the part of teachers by no means arise from ignorance

or prejudice: 

on the contrary, they are the result of powerful, historically informed,

shared perspectives on musical reality.

By contrast

and on the other hand hold two statements up for consideration and

comparison/contrast, but do not reject the first one:

Criminality in pre-industrialized Europe is thus characterized more by violence

against persons than by property crimes such as theft. Modern society, 

by contrast, is

thought to experience more theft than violence.

Athenian public buildings and spaces were magnificent. Private houses, 

on the other

hand, seem to have been small, and minimally furnished.

(both statements are true, but are presented for contrast with each other)