Citation: Okoye, Raphael IKECHUKWU, Inusa HUSSAINI &Halima Mohammed LAWAL (2021). Conjunctions as Grammatical Cohesion in Selected Academic Abstracts. Yobe Journal of Language, Literature and Culture (YOJOLLAC), Vol. 9, Issue 1. Department of African Languages and Linguistics, Yobe State University, Damaturu, Nigeria. ISSN 2449-0660
CONJUNCTIONS AS GRAMMATICAL COHESION IN SELECTED ACADEMIC
ABSTRACTS
And
Okoye, Raphael IKECHUKWU
Inusa HUSSAINI
Halima Mohammed LAWAL
Abstract
Writing academic abstracts requires the use of connectives that
link, add and connect clauses and sentences together. Conjunctions as
grammatical cohesion play the most useful role in achieving coherence in text
because they help to add new statements (additive), contradict ideas where
necessary (adversative), give reasons or purpose for a particular occurrence
(causal) and some others are used to show the relationship in the time an event
takes place (temporal). This is according to the classifications of Halliday
and Hasan (1976). This work studies the use of conjunctions as a source of
grammatical cohesion in abstracts. Fifteen abstracts gathered from ‘THE
INTUITION’, an international journal of multidiscipline published by the
National Association for Research Development were used for analysis. The
findings indicate that additive conjunctions were the most frequent
conjunctions used in the (15) abstracts, followed by adversative conjunction,
then temporal conjunction and finally, the least occurrence, causal
conjunction. It is the conclusion of this paper that the additive conjunction
‘and’ is the most used connective, (97) times and the causal conjunctions,
‘because’ and ‘so that’ have the least frequencies, (2) times each.
1.0 Introduction
Halliday & Hasan (1976) identify five (5) general categories
of cohesive devices that create coherence in texts: reference, ellipsis,
substitution, lexical cohesion and conjunction. It is upon this work that
all other works on cohesion are built. Conjunction, one of these
cohesive devices is applied to texts to inhere. The major function of
conjunctions and connectives is to link up different parts of a text or
discourse to form a complete whole. It is in this perspective that Salkie
(1995) claims that connectives are phrases and words used to connect different
parts of a text. These different parts of a text in question may be phrases,
clauses or sentences too. Conjunctions and connectives are cohesive
devices that work to improve the flow of the writing, a text or discourse.
Conjunctions operate within sentences and connectives relate to meaning between
sentences. Conjunction is a grammatical device which is used to achieve
cohesion in a text, it ties the meaning of utterances together, making the
meaning of one co-ordinate with or subordinate to the meaning of another.
Johnstone (2008) further notes that in conversation or discourse, making
cohesive ties between one’s interlocutor’s contributions can have interactional
as well as semantic effects. She adds that the inter-speaker deployment of
cohesive ties is one of the ways in which meanings are jointly constructed in
talk.
Conjunctive elements are cohesive not in
themselves but indirectly, by virtue of their specific meanings; they are not
primarily devices for reaching out into the preceding (or following) text, but
they express certain meaning which presuppose the presence of other components
in the discourse (Halliday and Hasan, 1976, p. 226). Conjunction differs from other cohesive devices
in that it brings meaningful groups in a text together rather than raising
issues that relate to lexical meanings and state of affairs of the discourse.
It is not what linguists can call an anaphoric relation. It is a cohesive
device because it signals relationships that can be fully understood through
reference and bond created throughout the text.
Carter et al. (2005) define conjunction as joining. Furthermore,
all aspects of both lexical and grammatical cohesive devices are to link text
items together. Conjunctions are also called discourse connectives and many
authors have given then different names. Van Dijk (1980) and Stubbs (1983)
describe them as pragmatic connectives; Halliday & Hasan (1985) speak about
sentence connectives; Quirk et al. (1985) perceive them as semantic conjuncts;
Redeker (1990) identifies them as discourse operators; while Schiffrin (1987)
and Fraser (1999) understand them as pragmatic markers. Haliday and Hasan
(1976) identifies four types of devices of conjunction to include additive,
adversative, causal and temporal conjunctions.
2.1 Additive Conjunction
This type of conjunction adds to or reinforces what has already
been said.
Example:
And in sum, he has achieved the aim
2.2 Adversative Conjunction
An adversative conjunction shows contrast or something contrary to
the expectations engendered by a previous sentence. It makes use of the
following words: but, yet, rather etc
Examples:
He is a first class graduate and a professor, yet his
children are empty vessels.
2.3 Causal Conjunction
Conjunctions here show the relationship holding between sentences
in terms of reason, purpose and consequence.
Example:
The minister advised the president to increase the fees; for
this reason, sixty percent of the students dropped out.
2.4 Temporal Conjunction
It shows the relationship in time an event takes place.
Example:
I got to the park in time and was the first to arrive Lagos.
3.1 Literature Review
Many studies have appeared over the years on cohesion and cohesive
devices. However, that of Halliday and Hasan (1976) marked the emergence of
researches on cohesion. Conjunction as a grammatical cohesion has also
attracted some attention in this area owing to its relevance in unifying the
different parts of the text together.
Shoghosho (1996) analyzes conjunctions as a cohesive device in two
levels. One is Persian stories at children level and the other level is adults.
The analysis was done so as to see the differences in the usage of conjunction
in such texts. She found that the four kinds of conjunctions occurred in both
levels. Also, statistics showed that additive conjunction is the most common
type of conjunctions at the two different levels.
In the media, Ahangar et al (2012) investigate the use of
conjunctions as cohesive devices in Iranian sport live radio and TV talks. They
conclude that, associative conjunctions are the most productive type of
conjunctions, with no any significant differences. However, the application of
adversatives, additives and developmental markers shows a meaningful relation
in the radio and TV corpus. In addition, the TV corpus exceeded the radio data
in the use of these three sub-types. Also, associative conjunctions are the
most frequent conjunctions, followed by additive conjunctions.
Archibald and Nartey (2014) have looked at students abstracts
too. Their own title is ‘Cohesion in the Abstracts of Undergraduate
Dissertations: An Intra-Disciplinary Study in a Ghanaian University’. The focus
is on grammatical cohesion in both language and literature abstracts using
students from the University of Cape Coast (UCC) in Ghana. The theoretical
framework is Halliday and Hasan’s (1976) influential theory of cohesion
and this is what informs grammatical cohesion as an item of analysis. The
different abstracts were coded for the avoidance of confusion. For the
findings, Archibald and Nartey (2014) suggests that there are relative
frequency differences in the deployment of the various cohesive devices due to
the frequency of occurrence of the various grammatical cohesive devices in the
present data set. Due to this, Archibald and Nartey (2014) establish that the
devices have deferring uses and also varying level of importance to the group
of students in question. The researchers have also discovered that students do
use cohesive ties in their writing, but they lack some sophistication in their
application. They conclude that similarities in the use of the devices are more
noticeable in the language and literature works than the difference.
Hananta and Sukiyaki (2015) analyze the use of cohesion in
students’ argumentative writings, and found that the conjunction occurrences
was (23.47%) one of the highest contributors in grammatical coherence after
reference. The most frequency was for additive conjunction 198 times, followed
by temporal frequency 82 times, causal and adversative 60, 59 times
respectively.
Mohammed (2015) studied conjunctions as cohesive devices in the
writings of English as second language learners. He came out with the following
findings; out of 120 times of conjunctions the students utilize higher rates of
extensive elements with 79 which form 66% in all the texts. Also, he added in
spite of their number of occurrences, there are numerous instances of wrong
usages.
Al-Khalidy (2018) also investigates the Use of Conjunctions
as Grammatical Cohesion in the Speeches of Her Majesty Queen Rania of Jordan
using Halliday and Hasan (1976). About four different speeches which
were delivered by Queen Rania in Jordan and USA in the years 2007, 2009, 2011
and 2013 were selected and analysed for the study. Based on data analysis, it
is worth mentioning that additive conjunctions were noted as the most
frequently used by Queen Rania, followed by adversatives and then causal,
whereas temporal conjunctions were the least occurred ones. The Queen used the
additive conjunctions 290 times as 87.2% for and with 12.8% for or. The results
show that there are some differences in the frequency of additive, causal,
adversative and temporal conjunctions. However, the study concludes that
additive conjunctions were the most frequent conjunctions followed by
adversative conjunctions and then causal conjunctions and finally the least
occurrences were for temporal conjunctions.
4.1 Methodology
For academic writings, an abstract summarizes, usually in one
paragraph of 300 words or less, the major aspects of the entire paper in a
prescribed sequence that includes: 1) the overall purpose of the study and the
research problem(s) you investigated; 2) the basic design of the study; 3)
major findings or trends found as a result of your analysis; and, 4) a brief
summary of your interpretations and conclusions. These various parts of the
academic abstracts are linked together using different types of conjunctions
serving as grammatical cohesion. For data collection, a total of twenty
abstracts have been gathered from the journal, THE INTUITION, vol 4 No.1 March
2013, published by National Association for Research Development (NARD).
Through the application of descriptive and quantitative methods, these
abstracts were used especially for the purpose of numerical analysis of the
different conjunction types such as additives, adversatives, causal and
temporal.
4.2 The Selected Abstracts
As a multidisciplinary journal, the topics capture different areas
of studies with different themes and contents. The following are the titles of
the selected abstracts:
· The Imperative of Poverty Alleviation for Socio-Economic
Development in Nigeria.
· Managing the teacher as a Human Resource for Effective
Implementation of Educational Standards.
· The Ethical Effects of Environmental Development on Irrigation:
The African Experience.
· Quality Education, Good Governance and Human Resource Development
in Nigeria.
· Effective Funding of the Educational System for Sustainable
Development: A Psychological Inquiry.
· Technical Competency Required by Graduates of Electrical
Technology in Manufacturing Industries in Kano and Kaduna States.
· Human Resource Development, Emotional Intelligence and Social
Capital for Senior Managers in the Hospitality Industry in Zimbabwe.
· Food Insecurity: A Threat to Human Resource Development in the 21st Century.
· Nigerian University Education and Human Resources for Sustainable
Development in Nigeria.
· Vulnerability to Food Insecurity among Smallholder Farmers in
Kande Local Government Area: Implication for Human Resource Development.
· The Contribution of Educated Women to the Development of Nigerian
Society.
· Effect of School Housing Facilities in Enhancing Psychometric
Potentials of Science Biased Students for Technological Innovativeness.
· Language: An Indispensable Tool for Education and Human Resource
Development in Africa.
· University Education and Human Resource Development in Africa.
· Government Contributions towards the Alleviation of Some Problems
in Nigeria.
5.0 Results and Discussion
The following section
illustrates the results of the main four types of conjunctions namely,
additive, adversative, causal and temporal:
Table 1.1 The Frequency of additive conjunctions
______________________________________________
__And_____________Or__________________Total___
___97_______________9___________________106____
Table 1.2 The frequency of adversative conjunction
___But________However_______While______Total_
____5_____________4___________4___________13_
Table 1.3 the frequency of causal conjunction_____
__Because In order So that_________ Total__
_____2_________3___________2_____________7____
Table 1.4 the frequency of temporal conjunction__
__As__________ Finally_________________Total
___9__________________3____________________12__
5.1 Analysis of Additive Conjunctions (Used to Connect by Adding
to the Presupposed Item)
This section analyses the additive conjunctions that are found in
the in the selected academic abstracts selected from THE INTUITION, an
international multidisciplinary journal. The additive conjunctions include
‘and’, ‘or’.
Figure 1.1 shows that the writers of these journal articles
used more additive conjunctions than other forms such as temporal, adversative
and causal. Statistics indicates that the following additive conjunctions: and,
or, appeared (106) times in the selected abstracts; (97) times for the
conjunction ‘and’ while ‘or’ appeared only but (9) times. From all indications,
the former is used in all the abstracts. It is therefore considered very
indispensable in academic writings such as abstracts. By the constant and
consistent use of this particular conjunction, different article writers have
obviously demonstrated the imperativeness of ‘and’ in linking and binding
clauses and sentences together. In addition to this, the additive conjunctions
‘and’ and ‘or’ as used in our data helps to expand and extend the meaning,
content and the entire lexicon of the abstracts. This is so because additive
conjunctions, just as the name implies merely adds one statement or another to
the already existing text. Here are examples from the data:
1) The major question was on whether manager’s
human resource development orientation, emotional intelligence and social
capital help organization develop and redevelop themselves for
competitive advantage (Abstract 7).
2) Education is a prerequisite for economic
growth, and economic growth is indispensable for the creation
of the minimal condition necessary for any meaningful political development
(Abstract 9).
3) Hence, women are described as the heart-beat of
the society because little or nothing can be achieved without
their influence either directly or indirectly in the affairs
of men (Abstract 11).
4) There becomes the need to communicate either by
signs or adopting a common language (Abstract 13).
5.2 Analysis of
Adversative Conjunctions (Refer to Contrary to Expectation)
The purpose here is to see the adversative conjunctions that are
found in the selected academic abstracts of the journal studied for this
research. (‘But’, ‘while’ and ‘however’).
The figures on table 1.2 show that adversative conjunctions do not
appear in texts as often as additive conjunctions do. In essence, this form of
conjunctions are so tagged because they are used to contradict a statement
already made in a text. They are essentially applied for emphasis or to show a
deviation from a rule or from what is regarded as normal. In all the fifteen
abstracts selected for this study, the adversative conjunction ‘but’ was used 5
times, this implies that most of the sentences used in the abstracts are
straight and without contradiction. The other conjunctions ‘however’ and
‘while’ appeared 4 times each. Statistics confirms that writers use the
conjunction ‘but’ to contradict statements more than the use of ‘however’ and
‘while’. Instances are found in the following sentences culled from the
abstracts selected for this study.
5) …nothing can be achieved without their influence
directly or indirectly in the affairs of men, but in spite of
these laudable contributions, the male dominated society has conspired to
retard the development of women by not educating them (Abstract 11).
6) This is because it provides not only the higher
level skills necessary for every labour market but also
supplies the training essentials for teachers, doctors, nurses, civil servants,
engineers, humanists, entrepreneurs, scientists and myriad personnel (Abstract
15).
7) Findings revealed that indeed, there was a link
between managers who were well developed, management’s emotional intelligence
and organizational social capital and organizational productivity. However,
most frontline officers in the hotel explained that they could not only depend
on management decision… (Abstract 7)
8) This has been identified as being caused by the
problems facing this sector of the economy, however, with the
government intervention in this area, it is hoped that there will be a
turnaround in the performance of SMEs (Abstract 14).
9) Societies with liberal educational policies
towards women are fast developing while those with non-liberal
educational policies towards women have continued to be underdeveloped
(Abstract 11).
10) …there is need to adopt a language, while the
African languages should be developed to carter for low and medium manpower
development, with the hope that ultimately, one of them will replace English or
French (Abstract 13).
5.3 Analysis of causal conjunctions (explain about purpose, reason
and result)
The aim of this part is to present and discuss causal conjunctions
that are used by writer in the selected abstracts (‘because’, ‘so that’ and ‘in
order’). The statistical analysis shows that the conjunction ‘because’ is used
two times in all abstracts considered for this study. ‘In order’ is used three
times while ‘so that’ is used two times. The number of the usage of causal
conjunction is not compared to other types which have higher figures because
they are not generative in nature, that is, they are not used to add other
sentences to text, rather, they help to explain the reasons why a statement or
a situation has occurred. The following are examples from the selected
abstracts:
11) Hence, women are described as the heart-beat of
the society because little or nothing can be achieved without
their influence either directly or indirectly in the affairs of men (Abstract
11).
12) University education is a critical pillar for
human development worldwide. This is because it provides not only the higher
level skills necessary for every labour market… (Abstract 15).
13) The crops man plants on his farm need
water in order to grow well (Abstract 3)
14) It is concluded that human resources deserve
proper treatment in all ramifications in order to perform
better than ever to enhance sustainable development (Abstract 9).
15) However, with the government intervention in
this area, it is hoped that there will be a turnaround in the performance of
SMEs so that they will contribute more to the development of
the economy of Nigeria, (Abstract 14).
16) …staff relations should be given adequate
attention in the nation so that education can produce
functional citizens, (Abstract 9).
5.5 Analysis of Temporal Conjunctions (Connect by Signaling
Sequence or Time)
The analysis here in this part is to focus on the temporal
conjunctions that are used by writers of the selected abstracts (as and
finally). From table 1.4, it is shown that temporal conjunctions ‘as’ and
‘finally’ have been used for 12 times by the writers. The conjunction ‘as’ is
used (9) times while ‘finally’ is used (3) times. The following are examples
from the data.
17) The authors emphasized on food security as a
veritable tool to human resource development with emphasis on early life
nutrition being necessary to establish good foundation for development
(Abstract 8).
18) … the rigidities and weaknesses that prevent
university education in Nigeria and Africa as a whole from
maximizing their potentials to build local capacity (Abstract 15).
19) Finally, the authors agreed that when there is enough food to eat, people
can grow and develop in their areas of specialization and become a source of
development to the nation, (Abstract 8).
20) The plants begin to wither, some look stunted in
growth and finally die off (Abstract 3).
6.0 Conclusion
This study has looked at and compared the different types of
conjunctions used as grammatical cohesion in selected academic papers. It
should be noted that this study emphasizes the imperativeness of conjunctions
as an element of grammatical cohesion. The findings show that additive
conjunctions are the most used in the abstracts considered for the study, that
is (106) times. Particularly, the word ‘and’ is the most used conjunction
because it is a means of inclusion. This means that it is used to add sentences
or statements to an already existing body of text. Adversative conjunctions
which are used to contradict a statement were used (13) times followed by
temporal conjunction (12 times) and finally the causal conjunction appearing
(7) times. From the statistics shown, academic writing utilizes some types of
conjunction more than others. Additive and adversative are the most common ones
found in abstract writing due to the nature of the text.
While ‘and’ appears to be the most common conjunction, ‘because’
and ‘so that’ (causal conjunction) have the least occurrence with (2) times
each. Temporal conjunction appeared (12) times for the two connectives, ‘as’
and ‘finally’ having (9 and 3) respectively.
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