Discourse markers and conjunctions
A third way of creating cohesion is through discourse markers and conjunctions. Discourse markers are linguistic elements used by the speaker/writer to ease the interpretation of the text, frequently by signalling a relationship between segments of the discourse, which is the specific function of conjunctions. They are not a way of simply joining sentences. Their role in the text is wider that that, because they provide the listener/reader with information for the interpretation of the utterance; that is why some linguists prefer to describe them as discourse markers.
Conjunction acts as a cohesive tie between clauses or sections of text in such a way as to demonstrate a meaningful pattern between them, though conjunctive relations are not tied to any
particular sequence in the expression. Therefore, amongst the cohesion forming
devices within text, conjunction is the least directly identifiable relation.
Conjunctions can be classified according to four main categories: additive, adversative, causal and temporal.
Additive conjunctions act to structurally coordinate or link by adding to the presupposed item and are signalled through “and, also, too, furthermore, additionally”, etc. Additive conjunctions may also act to negate the presupposed item and are signalled by “nor, and...not, either, neither”, etc.
Adversative conjunctions act to indicate “contrary to expectation” and are signalled by “yet, though, only, but, in fact, rather”, etc.
Causal conjunction expresses “result, reason and purpose” and is signalled by “so, then, for, because, for this reason, as a result, in this respect, etc.”.
The last most common conjunctive category is temporal and links by signalling sequence or time. Some sample temporal conjunctive signals are “then, next, after that, next day, until then, at the same time, at this point”, etc.
The use of a conjunction is not the only device for expressing a temporal or causal relation. For instance, in English a temporal relation may be expressed by means of a verb such as follow or precede, and a causal relation by verbs such as cause and lead. Moreover, temporal relations are not restricted to sequence in real time, they may also reflect stages in the text (expressed by first, second, third, etc.)