Coherence and Cohesion in English Discourse

The most typical conjuncts found in the native speakers’ corpus 
(NSC) 
include the following 
nine types of conjuncts
and their semantic classes:
3 contrastive/concessive conjuncts:
however 
(1.43)
, still 
(0.25)
, nevertheless 
(0.23) and 
yet 
(0.18);
2-3 appositive conjuncts:
e.g. 
(1.03)
, for example
(0.75), 
for instance
(0.15) and 
namely 
(0.13);
2-3
 
resultive/inferential conjuncts:
therefore 
(0.76)
, then 
(0.50) and 
thus 
(0.46);
1 listing conjunct:
then
(0.34); 
1 or no transitional conjunct: 
now
(0.17); 
No summative conjunct
.
Note: Similarly to the survey of conjuncts applied in the NNSC, the transitional conjunct 
now
is listed above because its normalized frequency of occurrence is slightly higher than 
that of the appositive conjuncts 
for instance 
and
 namely
, and consequently these three 
conjuncts can sometimes alternate.
Here follows one typical example from the native speakers’ corpus. It includes 
in order of mention one appositive conjunct 
for example
, one resultive/inferential 

---

38
conjunct 
and so
, one listing conjunct 
in addition
, and one contrastive/concessive 
conjunct 
nevertheless
;
the first- and last-mentioned conjuncts are also listed in 
the above survey of the conjuncts most characteristic of the NSC:
(2) NSC, Text 1
Despite the similarities in themes, each interview is a record of a specific 
social interaction, and each interviewee interprets this in his or her own 
way. Interviewees inevitably make judgements about the interviewer and 
her expectations, including about how far she shares their knowledge about 
the things they reference. 
For example
, interviewees who are much older 
than their interlocutor, or who have lived in places beyond Birmingham, 
tend to assume that some of their experiences will be unfamiliar to the 
interviewer, and so they explain them in greater detail. In addition
, these 
interviews cannot be neutral descriptions, or representations, of each 
‘self’ and its history, as they are interactional tellings, produced in a 
context of interpretation and negotiation (Wortham 2000; Pavlenko 2007). 
Nevertheless
, there is sufficient homogeneity about the interviews for them 
to have certain features in common, including linguistic features.