4.1.3 Spatio-temporal CMs
Spatial and temporal CMs are generally used as text-creating cohesive devices.According to Halliday & Matthiessen(2004:544-545),place reference is generally used conjunctively within a text,with spatial adverbs such as here,there,behind and nearby,and expressions containing a place noun or adverb plus reference item such as in the same place and anywhere else.However,most apparently spatial cohesion is found in metaphorical space;for example,here in here his proposition is wrong is metaphorically used.Many conjunctive expressions of the expanding kind such as in the first place and on the other hand are also originally spatial metaphors.Halliday & Matthiessen(2004:544)call this kind of spatiotemporal conjunctions as matter conjunctions.However,this dissertation still includes them in the category of spatio-temporal conjunctions.
Temporal CMs are also the main conjunctive resources in writing EAPs.They cover a great variety of different relations.Halliday & Matthiessen(2004)distinguish them between single(e.g.then,next,afterwards)and complex ones(e.g.,meanwhile,at this point).As Chapter 2 reviews,many CMs,especially temporal CMs have both internal and external interpretations.The time the CMs refer to is the temporal unfolding of the discourse itself,not the temporal sequence of the processes referred to.Hunston & Thompson(2005)conclude that in academic discourse,the conjunctives are nearly all internal and they are more interpersonal.In the chosen data,the spatio-temporal CMs are all internal in that they play a crucial part in argumentative and academic discourse.
Most spatio-temporal CMs are considered as frame markers(Hyland,2008:49-51),which provide framing information about elements of the discourse.They function to sequence,label,predict and shift arguments,making the discourse clear to readers or listeners.They explicitly label text stages,at the same time implicitly showing the intentions,expectations and purposes of the authors.The occurrences and frequencies of 32 spatio-temporal CMs are presented in Table 4.3.
Table 4.3 Occurrences and frequencies of typical spatio-temporal CMs
续表:
Table 4.3 shows the grammatical devices realizing spatio-temporal relations in the corpus.It is found that temporal CMs are obviously more various than spatial ones(27 vs.4).And the frequencies of temporal CMs(270 per 100,000 words)are much higher than those of spatial CMs(68.7 per 100,000 words).It is also noticeable that in both temporal and spatial CMs there are very great differences in the frequencies of individual CMs.In temporal CMs,the range is from 0 to 1036,and in spatial relations from 2.1 to 64.8.When(a frequency of 103.6)is the most frequently used temporal CM while where(a frequency of 64.8)is the most frequently used spatial CM.
Compared with other conjunctive devices indicating time,when is always used to express“a more abstract notion of recurrent or habitual contingency”(Quirk et al.,1985:1086),as shown in Example(57).Here when is like conditionals,which will be illustrated in Section 4.1.6.Dancygier(1998)argues that the inherent difference between if constructions and when constructions in indicating conditions lies in an implication of commitment.That is to say,if indicates non-commitment to the clause it marks,and when indicated commitment.Deng(2012:171)points out that the use of if conditionals is a strategy to distance the authors from the contents of the clauses.Comparatively,the selection of when construction indicates the author’s personal judgement of the reality of a given situation.Just as Example(51)shows,the proposition leading by when indicates a kind of commitment.
(51)The undeniable fact is that‘expert’opinion seems superfluous when an interested music lover or consumer can simply click on a website and hear a sample of the music herself.(S,AEs)
In the chosen corpora,where is always used in hypotactic elaborative clauses,by providing a further characterization of one element that is already exist,restating it or adding a descriptive attribute or comment.In this sense,where undoubtedly belongs to CMFEs.For example,
(52)Support for promotional programs is arguably a distinctive behavioral response in situations where the news about nuclear pollution has already been disseminated to the public,and in response people have rushed to buy potassium iodide pills to protect themselves.(H,ANEs)
In Example(52),where restates the situations mentioned in the minor clause and fulfill the expectations set in the whole proposition.
In conclusion,spatio-temporal CMs are of great importance in making the text cohesive and fulfilling the expectations set in the proposition.When and where are the typical spatio-temporal CMs in the chosen data.Furthermore,when sometimes embodies conditional meaning.