Coherence and Cohesion in English Discourse

part of the correlative pair 
if … then
, thus testifying a tendency by some authors 
to cumulate certain types of conjuncts.
(13) NNSC, Text 9
The third variable to consider with regard to frequency and choice of taboo 
language is gender. The usage of swear words has been closely associated 
with male behaviour and masculinity and seen as more acceptable, even 
appropriate when coming from a men. Women, on the other hand
, have 
always been exposed to more pressure when it comes to following the 
rules and living up to the expectations of society (e.g. Cameron 1997, 
Chambers & Trudgill 1998, Crawford 1995, Romaine 1999). … Latest 
research, 
however, shows that “the use of expletives as symbols of both 
power and solidarity is no longer the exclusive privilege of males alone” 
(Bayard & Krishnayya 2001: 1) and that “the frequency gap between 
men’s and women’s swearing is decreasing” (Jay 2000: 166).

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52
(14) NSC, Text 2
A basic assumption made by all parties to the debate is that the phenomena 
they discuss – instances of sex/gender-related variation in linguistic 
behavior/can in principle be explained in terms of inherited biological 
traits. Yet as Derek Bickerton (2006) points out in a response to Locke 
and Bogin, this entails conflating what are arguably two different things: 
language itself and the uses to which it may be put. Few linguists dispute 
that there is a biological basis for the mental faculty which enables all 
developmentally normal humans to produce grammatical speech, but
 
many would join Bickerton in questioning whether such applications 
of that faculty as gossiping or telling stories are themselves part of our 
genetic endowment. If they are not, though
, then
 it is surely a category 
mistake to propose an evolutionary explanation for them.
Another contrastive/concessive conjunct that is worth illustrating owing 
to its relatively high frequency rate in both corpora (i.e. 0.14 and 0.23 in the 
NNSC and NSC respectively) is 
nevertheless
; one token is given in the following 
example: 
(15) NSC, Text 5
The editorial letters we have looked at from these journals are very 
similar in their schematic structure to the ones to be analysed here. As 
far as we can determine, the options available to editors in the decisions 
they convey are fairly consistent with those used by English for Specific 
Purposes Journal, as described above. English for Specific Purposes 
Journal, however, differs from other journals insofar as it can ask writers 
to resubmit articles as a research note. 
Nevertheless, similar options are 
available to Applied Linguistics, which now has a Forum section (Claire 
Kramsch, personal communication), and TESOL Quarterly has various 
other sections for more minor articles; the editor of this journal may also 
refer articles to its sister publication, TESOL Journal
Two contrastive/concessive conjuncts, namely 
conversely
(cf. 2 tokens in 
Example (16) below) and 
still
(cf. Example (1) above) have the same frequency 
of occurrence in the NNSC (0.16); however, their frequency rates in the NSC 
differ a lot, since 
conversely
is used only in one case (0.01) while 
still
is relatively 
frequent (0.25).
Example (16) clearly exemplifies that some writers, such as the author below, 
who uses the conjunct 
conversely
repeatedly instead of resorting to a different one 
from the same semantic category, give preference to certain types of conjuncts 
only. The example also testifies the possibility of using 
appositive conjuncts such 
as 
e.g.
for the introduction of the author’s own previous voice (cf. 
e.g. Pípalová 

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53
2005, 2006
). As already stated, the writers of academic texts often compare their 
previous attitudes, approaches, results etc. with those that are drawn from their 
own current research.
(16) NSC, Text 2A
The research into the paragraph-length variation within the 
register 
corpora and subcorpora also suggests that a rather prominent role may 
be accorded to the eye-appeal or paragraphing rhythm, although their 
impact appears to be most perceptible in relatively closed registers. 
In the researched corpus, the comparably most pronounced rhythm in 
paragraphing, presumably governed by the eye-appeal awareness, seems 
to be characteristic of journalistic writing. 
Conversely, the greatest 
variation in paragraph length was characteristic of fiction.
Furthermore, a significant role may be attributed to the type of the 
selected paragraph build-up, together with the presence (or absence) 
of a subtle paragraph-internal hierarchy. As we have shown elsewhere 
(e.g. Pípalová 2005, 2006), higher consistency and stability in paragraph 
build-up, as a rule, reduce paragraph length. 
Conversely
, build-up 
instability, inconsistency, or else elaborated internal hierarchy tend to 
connote lengthier paragraphs. A more thorough scrutiny of this aspect, 
however, exceeds the focus of the present study.
It remains to be noted that Example (16) also comprises one token of the 
listing conjunct 
furthermore
, which is, as with the majority of listing conjuncts, 
more typical of non-native speakers’ academic writing.