4.1.5　Positive comparative CMs

The relation of comparison is classified as one type of manner(Halliday & Matthiessen,2004).Another type of manner is means,which takes up only a very small proportion in the chosen data and is not included in the study.In the relation of comparison,there are positive types and negative types.When expressing their attitudes or showing their opinions,the authors tend to compare two or more similar judgements or propositions,so as to fulfill the expectation which is implied by the meaning of positive comparative CMs.Section 4.2 will explain the negative comparative CMs,which are used to compare different propositions.In this part,12 positive comparative CMs are picked out and their frequencies are listed in Table 4.5.

Table 4.5　Occurrences and frequencies of typical positive comparative CMs

It is clearly seen from Table 4.5 that or takes the largest part in positive comparative CMs,with the frequency of 168.7,which is higher than any other comparative CMs.In fact,in informal or oral context,or can be interpreted as otherwise.Since this study only focus on the formal CMs,so the second meaning of or is ignored.Here is an example,

(55)Different institutions may dictate different forms of interaction and transaction or generate relations that are particularly compatible with guanxi cultivation and operation(Lin,2001a).(H,ANEs)

In Example(55),or connects two actions:dictate and generate.These two actions are compared,but they are not incompatible.