4.2.1 Adversative and negative additive CMs
According to Halliday & Matthiessen(2004),both adversative and negative additive CMs belong to additive relation,so in this section the two types of CMCEs are explained together.
Table 4.9 Occurrences and frequencies of typical adversative and negative additive CMs
Seen from Table 4.9,the use of but is the most frequent in the chosen adversative and negative additive CMs.Actually,but is considered as“the hardest conjunction”(Martin et al.,1997:186).Deng(2012:107)mentions that but differs from and in that it is typically used to signal contrast.Thompson(2005)interprets but as to deny the expectancy,just as what the dissertation categorize it.
Table 4.10 Categories of expectancy(Thompson,2005:779)
Table 4.10 shows that in positive clauses but displays the semantic meaning of“unfortunately”for denied expectancy,in negative clauses it displays the sense of“fortunately”for denied expectancy.According to the the theoretical foundation of SFL,comment adjuncts such as fortunately and unfortunately could“express the speaker’s attitude to the proposition as a whole”(Halliday,1994/2000:83),so the interpretation of but is primarily interpersonal.The function of but is essentially to explain the clause-relation of conflict with what is expected,or the expression of disagreement(Huddleston et al.,1968:593;Pomerantz,1984).Similarly,on the other hand,neither,whereas,and nor all emphasize that what is said in the primary clauses is opposite to what is said in the secondary clauses.Considering the following two examples,
(63)In spite of this,economic growth was impressive in the 1950s and 1960s-from a low level-but in the long run the structural problems in the Italian economy can be connected to problems emanating from the political instability.(H,AEs)
(64)An effect of single gene ablation upon inducible chill resistance phenotypes provides the most direct and compelling evidence of the associated mechanisms,but this approach has rarely been utilised in studies of chill resistance mechanisms to date.(N,AEs)
But in Example(63)expresses positive stance while in Example(64)combined with the adverbial rarely,but expresses the negative stance.