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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).
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
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.
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