DISCOURSE FUNCTIONS OF CONJUNCTIONS,
CIRCUMSTANTIALS AND THEIR MEANINGS
Pragmatic conjunction
Conjunctions express the semantic relationships between the units they connect, reflecting the speaker’s view of the connection between states of affairs in the world. Pragmatic conjunction, on the other hand, has more to do with speech acts than with experiential organisation. Compare:
1 If all goes well, we’ll reach Dover by four. (experiential)
2 If you’re looking for Amy, she’s left. (pragmatic)
In 1 reaching Dover by four is conditional on all going well. In 2, this is not so. The fact that Amy has left is not conditioned by the possibility that you are looking for her. Rather, 2 specifies a situation in which the main clause she’s left would be relevant. Now compare the following:
3 Sam arrived late because he missed his train.
4 Is there a fire somewhere? ’Cos I can smell smoke.
In 3 the because-clause states the reason Sam arrived late – he missed his train. In 4 on the other hand, my smelling smoke is not the reason for the fire. Rather, the because clause, in its abbreviated form ’cos, gives the reason for the speech act of enquiring whether there is a fire.
Pragmatic clauses with ’cos as in 4 have something in common with sentential relative supplementive clauses: both are semantically and prosodically independent while syntactically marked as dependent (by a conjunction and by a wh-relative, respectively). These somewhat conflicting properties lead one to think that both pragmatic conjunction and the wh-non-restrictor are taking on functions in discourse different from the traditional functions ascribed to them.
Pragmatic conjunctions occur sentence-initially and paragraph-initially, often at the beginning of a speaker’s turn in conversation, typically (though not necessarily) in direct relation to what the previous speaker has just said.
And is the most difficult to characterize. One possibility is that pragmatic and makes an explicit point of departure for a new direction in spoken discourse, as in 5B. It is common at turn boundaries in conversation and also in radio and television presentations, 6.
5 A He stopped me and said ‘Where are you going, love?’
B And I said ‘What is it to you? And don’t call me ‘love’.
6 And now it’s time for the nine o’clock news.
So indicates that a conclusion has been drawn 7 while pragmatic or introduces a question, 8 Both so and or elicit a response.
7 So this is where you live.
8 Can you give me a hand with this? Or don’t you want to have it fixed?
