4.2　CMCEs in EAPs

From Table 3.5,it could be seen that there are six types of CMCEs:adversative CMs such as but,on the other hand,varying CMs such as on the contrary,instead,concessive CMs such as yet,however,despite,negative additive CMs such as nor,negative comparative CMs such as in a different way and negative conditional CMs such as unless,otherwise.They are used to frustrate the expectations which are set up in the previous proposition.These CMs signal the validity of alternative viewpoints and incompatible propositions.The authorial stance expressed by CMCEs is similar with the function of disclaim in appraisal theory.For example,

(61)Although Mann and Thompson(1988)and Marcu(2000)in particular assume that trees are adequate abstractions of text structures,the argument continues on whether the basic formal representation of discourse structure should be a tree or graph(e.g.Moore & Pollack,1992;Wolf &Gibson,2004).(S,L1)

In Example(61),the proposition that the argument about the linguistic trees is in a countering relationship with the proposition that

Mann,Thompson and Marcu made a particular emphasis on the the abstractness of the trees.The argument in this proposition is presented as defeating what would be the actual expectation arising from the agreement of these authorities,namely there could not be this argumentation.

When using the CMCEs,the authors invoke a contrary position which is then said not to hold.They often operate in conjunction with negative expressions such as uncertain,“with the denying proposition in direct contradictions with the expectation which is assumed to arise from an immediately prior or an immediately posterior proposition”(Martin &White,2006:120).For example,

(62)This approach has the advantage that the buffer is already provided,and it is known to perform well with other components of the kit.Its effectiveness as an elution buffer,however,is uncertain and should be evaluated against potential alternatives.(N,AEs)

In Example(62),the proposition about the doubt of the effectiveness of the approach as an elution buffer is countering the proposition that the buffer performs well.By using the CMCEs,the authors align rather than disalign the readers in that“they construe the writer as sharing this axiological paradigm with the reader”(Martin & White,2005:121).All in all,the authors,even though admit the proposition in the subordinate clause,arrive at the conflictive conclusion in the matrix clause,so as to negotiate their opinions about the state of the world.The following sub-sections will deal with the various types of CMCEs.