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Originally published in The Twentieth LACUS on: s in
Forum 1993, the
Lake Bluff, IL: Jupiter Press, 1994, pp. 315-332. se
Th notes
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W hile reading my students' essays, I ast
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occasionally discover structures that seem to be yo visi
"errors" built on analogy, as in sentences like u t:
(1a-c). rea We
d: d,
1. a. But, do parents really have control over their children's television viewing habits?null De
c
b. But, no matter what you say there is bound to be problems with people like that. 31
c. But, in reality people rarely say what they feel. at
18:
T he choice of a sentence-initial conjunction is interesting, given that many students have My
B 00:had
years of proscriptive language instruction forbidding that structure. However, the choice of aoocomma 00.
after the conjunction is especially interesting, punctuating the conjunctionbut as if it were an km C
adverb
like however. Is this only a case of confusion — extending the punctuation of conjunctive adverbs to ark urr
their corresponding coordinators? Or does a structure like that mean something more? I believe s O entit
means more. pen we
| Bo ek:
okm
I t seems to me that the coordinator but(with some other conjunctions and conjunctive adverbs) ark 4/3in
this to
sentence-initial position is undergoing a semantic reanalysis in contemporary written American pag 4/9
English. Imagining a gradient between the word classes COORDINATOR and ADVERB, Iehope |H to
show that coordinators and conjunctive adverbs are "moving" along that gradient. Sentence-initial elp .
(for C
coordinators like but, so, and or increasingly exhibit the distributional, syntactic, and semantic my urr
properties of adverbs, while sentence-initial conjunctive adverbs like therefore,however, Coll
and plus increasingly exhibit the properties of coordinators and subordinators. Similar gradients ege ent
of wo
exist between SUBORDINATOR and ADVERB as well as between COORDINATOR DuP rk: and
SUBORDINATOR. age
stud Uni

B efore examining this claim in greater detail, however, let's outline the uses of the word
ents t
only _sbut.
Modern English exhibits three distinct senses of but. )
pri
Prepositional but: but1 ng
D
Gr
T he but used as a preposition is close in semantic force to, and exists in a paradigmatic am
ays
set with,
re
the prepositionexcept, cf. sentences (2-4) below. ma
ma
r&
inin
2. Everyone has left but Tom. Us
g
ag
this
3. All but two are missing. e
ter
Tip
4. There but for the grace of God go I. m:
of
32
the
Focusing Adverbial but: but2 We
Gu
F urthermore, there is an adverbial use ofbut similar in function and meaning to the focusing
ek
est
adverb only, cf. sentences (5-6). Early Modern English also demonstrated a use of but as aSa 's
relative
No
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an
:
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sh Note
| Ad
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Sele
pronoun that focused emphatically on the information of the following clause, cf. sentences (7-8).
This use of but has all but disappeared in contemporary English.

5. A simple sentence contains but one clause.

6. It was but one step on the road to ruin.

7. There is not a university in the area but follows public opinion in fear and trembling.

8. Surely there isn't a mother but faces this problem.

Coordinator but: but3
Far more frequent, however, is the use of but as a coordinator, cf. sentences (9-11). The usual
syntactic hallmarks of the coordinator in English are its restriction to clause-initial position; its ability
to fix clauses sequentially; its ability to conjoin constituents of equal rank at different grammatical
levels — word, phrase, and clause — as in (9-11); its ability to link subordinate clauses; its ability to
link more than two clauses; and, in the case of but, its ability to imply a sense of contrast or
negation between the conjoined constituents, as in (9-11) again.

9. She is small but strong.

10. She is painfully strict but extremely fair.

11. She demands a lot, but she gives a lot in return.

The sense of negation is so strong with the coordinator but that it frequently collates with a
negative element, as in (12-14).

12. It is rare but not uncommon.

13. The request seems silly but is not unreasonable.

14. He finally left, but not before he spoke his mind.

Most of the literature on but has focused on the theoretical problems presented by the semantic
subtleties of this conjunction. Lakoff (1971) outlined the significant syntactic and semantic
differences between the 'denial of expectation' and the 'contrast' senses of but. Arguing that context
plays a role only in the interpretation of the 'denial of expectation' sense, Lakoff concluded that one
cannot maintain a distinction between semantics and pragmatics. In response to Lakoff, Dascal and
Katriel (1977) suggested that both interpretations of but must make reference to context,
formulating a single rule of interpretation from which the contrast and denial senses form special
cases. Wilson (1975) and Blakemore (1989) furthered that discussion by demonstrating that the
semantics of but cannot be captured adequately by truth-conditional semantics, opting instead for a
different theoretical stance — the principle of relevance.

Indeed, Blakemore (1989) employs the principle of relevance to collapse the denial and contrast
senses of but. Both senses, she reasons, are derived from a single implication conveyed by but, the
notion of denial: the different senses arise as a consequence of different constraints on the
interpretation of that implication. If the constraint is on the relevance of the
proposition but introduces, then the result is the 'denial of expectation' interpretation. If the
constraint is on the relevance of the conjunction of the two propositions it connects, then the result
is the 'contrastive' interpretation.
Coordinators as Adverbials: but4 and similar structures
It seems to me, however, that the coordinator but 3 no longer appears exclusively in sentence-

medial position, where all right-minded prescriptivists have confined it. Indeed, the
coordinator but3 occurs with ever increasing frequency in sentence-initial position, cf. Quirk et al.
(1985:1462-63). I suggest though that along with this distributional shift in the coordinator but3, there
are semantic shifts as well. And so but4emerges, the adverbial but.

The hallmarks of the adverbial but are syntactic and semantic in addition to the obvious
distributional difference. Syntactically, but4 does allow some minor reordering of clauses (as in 15-
16 where columnist Roger Simon is discussing his reactions to a television documentary about
drunken driving) and is mobile within the clause for a several English speakers, cf. (17-18). The
adverbial but4 no longer links subordinate clauses because of its distribution in sentence-initial
position. Further, but4 never conjoins constituents below the rank of clause, cf. (19-21). Finally, the
adverbial but4, unlike true coordinators, is not restricted to linking constituents of equal rank, cf. (19-
21) again, where the adverbial but4 demonstrates a link between its clause and the whole of the
preceding paragraph.

15. I did not react as Phil Donahue, the host, did when he came on at the end and said: "I was
enormously moved by this documentary, as I'm sure you were." ...
I was plenty moved for the people who were crippled, paralyzed, reduced to vegetables,
or killed. But the drunk drivers themselves did not move me. (Roger Simon, "No
Compassion for Drunk Drivers")

16. I did not react as Phil Donahue, the host, did when he came on at the end and said: "I was
enormously moved by this documentary, as I'm sure you were." ...
But the drunk drivers themselves did not move me. I was plenty moved for the people
who were crippled, paralyzed, reduced to vegetables, or killed.

17. The job's still not done: I'll finish her this avo, but. (informal Australian English, where
adverbial but means 'however', cf. Quirk et al. 1985:21)

18. I didn't do it, but. (informal Irish English, where adverbial but means 'all the same', cf. Quirk
et al. 1985:644)

19. Sometimes they go to jail and sometimes they lose their licenses and sometimes they lose
their jobs, we are told. But, in reality, they rarely do. Most drunk drivers get away with it.
(Roger Simon, "No Compassion for Drunk Drivers")

20. College teaches a person many things. Some of the lessons are seemingly unimportant,
such as using a verb in a sentence. Others are vital, such as how to tap a keg. But college
learning extends beyond the classroom and the bar.... (Pat Healy, "The Poor Slob")

21. Should the content of the research work ... be further specified? No. But there had better be
some content, a substance... (faculty memo)

Semantically, the coordinator but 3 strongly implies contrast or negation, whereas the hallmark of

the adverbial but4 is its implied concession. (See Martin (1983) for a systematic description of the
concessive sense of several of the coordinators, subordinators, and conjunctive adverbs discussed
here, including but.) Through its ability to imply concession, the adverbial but4 in contemporary
American English is moving in the direction of the adverbial but in Australian and Irish English
illustrated in (17-18). The easy possibility of paraphrase, substitution, by concessive adverbials
like however and all the same or by concessive conjunctions like yet, though, and although lends
support to this semantic analysis, cf. (22-26) where I have added the paraphrase for comparison.
Compare also (27-29), where the ungrammaticality of paraphrase with coordinator but3 further
suggests that concessive meaning belongs only in the domain of the adverbial but.
 22. He was sentenced to two years of unsupervised probation, fined $500 and ordered to
produce a documentary on the results of drinking and driving.
But{However/All the same/Though} having seen his documentary, I get the impression that
one of the big results of drinking and driving for Burke was getting exposure on national TV.
(Roger Simon, "No Compassion for Drunk Drivers")

23. ..."he didn't mean it; he didn't even remember it happening."

But{However/All the same} didn't he mean it? Don't all drunk drivers mean it? (Roger
Simon, "No Compassion for Drunk Drivers")

24. I admit my reaction to drunken driving is extreme. But{All the same/, although} Burke and I
do agree on one thing. (Roger Simon, "No Compassion for Drunk Drivers")

25. I'd like to claim that the paragraph that submits to this kind of structural analysis is thereby a
good paragraph and the only good paragraph. But{Yet/All the same/, although} I only claims
that the structural relations are real .... (Francis Christensen, "A Generative Rhetoric of the
Paragraph")

26. I used to think that we should mold 102 .... But{, though} I'm not so sure anymore. (faculty
memo)

27. She is small but{*although/*all the same} strong.

28. She is painfully strict but{?however/*all the same/?though} extremely fair. [The meaning of
this example changes from the implied contrast of but to one of implied concession
with though or however.]

29. She demands a lot, but{?however} she gives a lot in return. [Again, the meaning changes
from implied contrast to implied concession with however here.]

To reinforce the semantic analysis presented here still further, notice that many other sentence-
initial conjuncts take on concessive force, as in (30-32).

30. Whatever contributes to the student's developing an independent outlook [should be

accomplished in English 102]. Perhaps this cannot be done within an institution. So
perhaps the requirement is impossible. (faculty memo)

31. I envision a series of papers written on the way to the research paper — a series of
personal essays, anecdotes, events, observations from experience and readings — these
papers then can willy nilly be reassembled and rewritten to produce a final major research
paper. And that in turn should be subjected to a full global rewriting. (faculty memo)

32. As the world is constituted, the demands of a married state and the care of a posterity
require some little regard to what we call circumstances. Yet this provision is greatly
increased ... by folly and vanity.... (Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, I, xii)
Furthermore, punctuation, especially the use of a comma after the conjunction, provides the
another bit of evidence that these writers are responding to the adverbial, concessive force of the
conjunction in informal usage. Compare (1a-c) again and (33-36).

33. And, Stericycle conducts first part of its plant test on mechanical equipment. ("Stericycle
Timeline" in The Journal Times)

34. But, one type of student is almost always liked by the other dormmates. (Pat Healy, "The
Poor Slob")

35. Yet, to require such content would be difficult in light of our other efforts to incorporate
motivation and variety... (faculty memo)

36. We will continue to find reliable students aides to work during the week to make the
deliveries. Whereas, every attempt to made [sic] to deliver equipment to your class, we rely
on student aides. (faculty memo)

There is one final demonstration of the semantic differences between the conjunct but 3 and the

adverbial but4. Blakemore (1989) and others have noted that the conjunct, expressing a denial of
expectation, can be paraphrased by although X, Y if and only if Y expresses a conclusion
contradicting the inference based upon X. However, X although Y is not an adequate paraphrase.
Using this test, compare the contrast meaning of the conjunct but in (37a-c) to the concessive
meaning of the adverbial but in (38a-c).

37. a. She is rich but honest.

b. = Although she is rich, she is honest.
c. ≠ She is rich, although she is honest.

38. a. I don't know what the content should be. But there had better be some content.
b. = Although I don't know what the content should be, there had better be some content.
AND
c. = I don't know what the content should be, although there had better be some content.

The acceptability of both (38b and c) demonstrate that the implicational relations that hold true
between propositions linked by the coordinator but do not apply to the use of but in (38). This
seems to suggest that the but in (38) functions less as a coordinator and more as an sentence-initial
adverbial, conveying a sense of concession.

I realize at this point that one might object to the data presented so far: it is too biased, too filled
with the informal language of journalism and faculty memoranda. I use those sources for two
reasons: first, contemporary journalism is filled with examples of sentence-initial but and so it
became the path of least resistance. Secondly, there seems to be some statistical discrepancy
between the formal prose of faculty members and their informal prose.

So that I might counter those objections more fully, note the following tables. Table 1 presents the
frequency of the word but in a corpus of English 101 essays, prepared and revised by eighty-seven
College of DuPage students, with a median age of nineteen, fifty percent female, fifty percent male.

TABLE 1:

Frequency of but in Composition 101 essays

 Position Occurrences Percentages

sentence-initial but: 68 17.0% of all buts

other clause-initial but: 192 48.0% of all buts
total tokens of but: 398 0.3% of total words

total words in Composition 101 corpus: 114,000

Table 2 presents the frequency of the word but in a corpus of scholarly essays, a conference
paper written by a College of DuPage faculty member (Frances Fitch, "Bloom and a Vichican
Practice of Advertising," a paper presented at the International Joyce/Vico Conference, Venice,
Italy, June 1985), two articles that appeared recently in PMLA (Ellen McCracken, "Metaplagiarism
and the Critic's Role as Detective,"PMLA 106 (1991) 1071-1082 and Marie Borroff, "Sound
Symbolism as Drama in the Poetry of Robert Frost," PMLA 107 (1992): 131-144), and one article of
mine (Daniel Kies, "Fourteen Types of Passivity: The Suppression of Agency in Nineteen Eighty-
Four," The Revised Orwell. Ed. Jonathan Rose, East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Press,
1992, 47-60).

TABLE 2:

Frequency of but in scholarly essays

Position Occurrences Percentages

sentence-initial but: 10 7.8% of all buts

other clause-initial but: 58 45.0% of all buts
total tokens of but: 128 0.2% of total words

total words in scholarly corpus: 56,000

Table 3 illustrates the use of the word but in the Brown University corpus of written American
English (Francis and Kucera 1982). The Brown corpus of more than a million words selected
examples of prose from a variety of genres and registers. Notice that in terms of overall frequency
of use, the 101 student and the scholar are not significantly different from what might be considered
a norm for written American English; indeed, it seems that 'academic' writers of all kinds are a bit
more conservative in their frequency of usage.

TABLE 3:

Frequency of but in the Brown University corpus

total tokens of but: 4226 0.4% of the total words

 total words in Brown corpus 1,013,466

Table 4 presents some astonishing results. Journalists seem to prefer the sentence-initial but. The
pieces of newspaper journalism in the corpus were chosen randomly from a mixture of eight front
page stories, six editorials, and four columns collected between November 10 and December 13,
1990. The newsmagazine pieces were four randomly chosen Time and Newsweek cover stories
during the same period.

TABLE 4:

Frequency of but in journalism samples

Position Occurrences Percentages

sentence-initial but: 48 61.5% of all buts

other clause-initial but: 24 31.0% of all buts
total tokens of but: 78 0.4% of total words

total words in scholarly corpus: 17,600

The statistics in Table 4 would seem to suggest journalism as a source of the composition
students' relatively more frequent use of the adverbial but. The students may be analogously
generalizing the use of but, despite the practice and the prescriptivism of their teachers. But that
explanation, as simple and intuitively right as it seems, can not be the whole story. First, the
demographics of newspaper and magazine readerships weigh against that explanation: news
readers are largely an older group. Secondly, the statistics in Table 2 do not represent college
instructors' practice quite accurately.

So consider Table 5, where the statistics represent the (informal) prose of several faculty members
(mostly English department members) at the College of DuPage.

TABLE 5:

Frequency of but in faculty memos

Position Occurrences Percentages

sentence-initial but: 8 14.0% of all buts

other clause-initial but: 30 52.0% of all buts
total tokens of but: 58 0.4% of total words

total words in scholarly corpus: 16,150

The numbers in Table 5 are very close to the corresponding numbers of 101 students in Table 1.
This result suggests that faculty members exhibit a classic case of divided usage: formally they
write conservatively, prescriptively, but informally they accept — and use — sentence-initial
conjunctions.

To explore the range of this divided usage further, I prepared a fifty page booklet as part of an
acceptability study. Each page of the booklet contained a short discourse (two to four sentences)
that illustrated the use of coordinators, subordinators, and conjunctive adverbs in sentence-initial,
-medial, and -final position. The respondents were students and faculty at the College of DuPage,
and they were fully aware of the intent of the survey. Each page asked the respondents to evaluate
the short discourse twice, answering 'yes' or 'no' to the same two questions each time: "I have seen
this use of __________" and "I have used __________ this way myself." The blanks were filled with
the appropriate conjunction or adverb illustrated on the page.

Tables 6 and 7 present some of the result of the survey. Note in Table 6 that faculty both
recognize and use the sentence-initial butfrequently. This result, I suggest, more closely conforms
to the practice of faculty revealed in Table 5, and accounts for the similar numbers in the students'
prose (Table 1). Interestingly, Table 7 indicates that students claim to recognize and to use comma
punctuation after sentence-initial buts more frequently than faculty. Those numbers are not borne
out by the data in the corpus study of 101 prose. Of the sixty-eight sentence-initial buts in the 101
corpus, only two co-occurred with following comma punctuation. However, the students' claim itself,
I suggest, argues in favor of their perception of sentence-initial buts as adverbials and argues in
favor of a shift of but4 along a gradient away from CONJUNCTION and toward ADVERB.

TABLE 6:

Acceptability judgments of sentence-initial but

without comma punctuation
(e.g. But I am not so sure anymore.)

DuPage faculty: I have seen: 27 90%

I have used: 18 60%

Total faculty in survey: 30

Composition 101 students: I have seen: 59 56%

I have used: 17 16%

Total students in survey: 105

TABLE 7:

Acceptability judgments of sentence-initial but

with comma punctuation
(e.g. But, one type of student is almost
always liked by the other dormmates.)

DuPage faculty: I have seen: 11 37%

 I have used: 1 3%

Total faculty in survey: 30

Composition 101 students: I have seen: 28 27%

I have used: 9 9%

Total students in survey: 105

The data in Tables 8 and 9 represent another shift in contemporary written American English:
certain subordinators (such as when, which,although, though) and conjunctive adverbs (such
as however, therefore, plus, then) are also on the move along gradients.

TABLE 8:

Acceptability judgments of sentence-final although

without comma punctuation
(e.g. I don't like pizza although.)

DuPage faculty: I have seen: 9 30%

I have used: 0 0%

Total faculty in survey: 30

Composition 101 students: I have seen: 23 22%

I have used: 5 4%

Total students in survey: 105

TABLE 9:

Acceptability judgments of sentence-final although

with comma punctuation
(e.g. I felt he was being honest, although.)

DuPage faculty: I have seen: 9 30%

I have used: 0 0%

Total faculty in survey: 30

 Composition 101 students: I have seen: 38 36%
I have used: 12 11%

Total students in survey: 105

Although several faculty and students alike recognize 'sentence fragment' errors like those of
Tables 8 and 9, no faculty member reports using such a structure. However, the students report
using the structure, presumably finding the structure acceptable. Corpus studies do not support the
students' usage claims again; only four sentence-final althoughs exist in the corpus, three preceded
by comma punctuation. Nevertheless, their report of using it is suggestive about their attitudes
towards its adverbial function and its acceptability in that function.
Subordinators as coordinators

Subordinate clauses generally present backgrounded (i.e., presupposed, given, or old) information,
cf., Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, and Svartvik (1985); Dillon (1981); and van Dijk (1977). Participial
and verbless adverbial clauses, for example, possess no explicit marker of subordination, thereby
creating semantic indeterminacy, which is usually resolved through context; e.g., the participial
clause in (39a) is semantically equivalent to either (39b) with a relative clause or (39c) with
coordination.

39. a. Jason, told of his son's accident, immediately phoned the hospital.
b. Jason, who was told of his son's accident, immediately phoned the hospital.
c. Jason was told of his son's accident and immediately phoned the hospital.

Such indeterminacy is not uncommon in subordination: "In their indeterminacy, adverbial participle
and verbless clauses resemble the versatile relationships expressed by nonrestrictive relative
clauses and the connective function of the coordinator and" (Quirk et al. 1985:1123). The
indeterminacy of several conjunctions between coordinators and subordinators explains, I think, the
increasing use of restrictive relative clauses punctuated as full sentences, cf. (40-41).

40. There was no marker to their memory, no record of their graves' precise location.
Which is why Hermes thought at first that the tangle of bones sticking out from the recently
graded hillside were actually tree roots. (David Silverman, "Man's Walk with dog may be
stroll into history")

41. The composer who from 1969 to 1976 declared a worldwide moratorium on performances
of his music to protest what he called "all the rottenness in the world" has actually become
sort of benign.
Which is not to say he has greatly curbed his tongue or his penchant for recycling his best
anecdotes and one-liners. (John von Rhein, "Ralph Shapey turns mellow – even toward the
CSO")

Consider also these examples in (42-47) below as further evidence to support the semantic
indeterminacy of the apparently subordinate clauses in (40-41). Some adverbial clauses exhibit a
strong temporal restriction, similar to the temporal restriction on the coordinator and, suggesting a
gradient of taxis between coordination and subordination.

42. He was lecturing to his class when suddenly a door flew open.
 43. *When suddenly a door flew open, he was lecturing to his class.

44. He was lecturing to his class and suddenly a door flew open.

45. Suddenly a door flew open and he was lecturing to his class. [not the same meaning as
(42)]

46. The car stopped when it hit the pole.

47. When it hit the pole, the car stopped.

As (42) and (43) demonstrate, some clauses with when are restricted to natural time order just as
the clauses (44) and (45) with and are temporally restricted. But only the time sense of when in (42)
and (43) is restricted like and. (Let when1 represent the time sense of the word.) Consider the cause
sense of when in (46) and (47). (Let when2 represent the cause sense of the word.)

The examples in (40-47) suggest a gradient of clause connectors between coordination and
subordination: and appears to be the best coordinator; relative conjunctions like which seem
ambiguous between subordination and coordination (medial linkers); and the two whenconjunctions
are closer to subordination, although when1 is closer to coordination than when2 is, cf. Quirk et al.
(1985:1258-59) and Kies (1990:231-58).
and which when1 when2
| | | |
COORDINATION|-X--------------------X---------X--------X-|SUBORDINATION

Adverbials as conjunctions

Finally, it appears that conjunctive adverbs are on the move as well, along gradients between
ADVERB and SUBORDINATOR and between ADVERB and COORDINATOR. Consider the
examples in (48-56), which are given as informal, but acceptable, examples of conjunction in
Curme's grammar of English.

48. There is not only concision in these lines, there is also elegance. (Curme 1931,2:164)

49. I do not suggest that he is negligent, still less (or much less) that he is dishonest. (OED)
50. You never fought with any, lesse slew any. (Ben Jonson, Magnetic Lady, III, iii)
51. First think, then act. (Curme 2:165)

52. My interests are two fold: on the one hand my flowers claim me in the morning, on the other
(hand) I am absorbed in language studies the rest of the day. (Curme 2:165)

53. He is very poor, at least he has not the wherewithal to by proper clothes for his wife and
family. (Curme 2:166)

54. Seize the chance, else you will regret it. (Curme 2:166)

55. He wanted to take precedence of all the Lowland gentlemen then present, only my father
would not suffer it. (Scott, Waverly, Ch. XV)

56. He makes good resolutions, only he never keeps them. (Curme 2:167)

57. I saw the smoke behind them, then I realized it real fast.... (101 essay)
 58. You don't really have enough money to stay in a hotel, plus the car rental is draining your
wallet. (101 essay)

The examples of conjunctive adverbs as conjuncts testify further that word class categories like
SUBORDINATOR, COORDINATOR, and CONJUNCTIVE ADVERB do not have rigid boundaries.
Needless to say, one need not read many college compositions before discovering that those
categories do not have rigid boundaries in the language of 101 students either, as the many
'comma splice' faults readily testify, cf. (57-58).
Explanations and conclusions

I realize that the claims made here are large in scope while supported by only a small data set.
Nonetheless, I believe that the data presented above support the conclusion that we have a classic
example of divided usage in the case of COORDINATORS, SUBORDINATORS, and ADVERBS in
sentence-initial position. Moreover, I see enough consistency in the data to make the following
hypotheses, allowing us to test these claims about the existence of the adverbial but.

HYPOTHESIS 1: Thematic Distribution of Adverbial But

But4 occurs as a strongly thematic element in complex themes.

Based on the work of Halliday (1967 and 1985) and Fries (1983), the first hypothesis stipulates
that the adverbial but occurs in texts as a strongly thematic element in complex themes. Halliday
and Fries both define a thematic cline between clause-initial elements that are weakly thematic and
those that are strongly thematic. As Fries (1983) and Eiler (1986) point out, for any element to be
strongly thematic, the speaker or writer must have a choice, and the data I have seem to allow
adverbial but only as one choice of several. Further, Halliday and Fries both characterize theme in
English so as to allow for both simple and complex themes, and I suspect that the
adverbial but occurs in theme complexes, as is often the case with other sentence- and clause-
initial adverbials.

HYPOTHESIS 2: Clause Relation Type of Adverbial But

But4 occurs only in clause relations of the PROBLEM-SOLUTION type.

The research of Winter (1982), Jordan (1984), Hoey (1986), and Hoey and Winter (1986) into
clause relations, the way in which clauses and sentences cohere within the larger text, suggests
that well-formed texts maintain a metastructure, often consisting of four elements, Situation-
Problem-Solution-Evaluation. The second hypothesis stipulates that adverbial but, with its ability to
signal concession, is an overt marker of the transition from Problem to Solution. On the other hand,
the conjunct, contrary to expectation but, signals the transition from Situation to Problem.

HYPOTHESIS 3: Reanalysis of Conjuncts and Adverbs

But is not alone in undergoing semantic reanalysis.

The few examples presented here seem to suggest a large scale reanalysis of several groups of
word classes in modern English. The motivation for the usage problem seems to be the gradient
nature of the items in those word classes. The gradients based on form classes might look
something like (59) below.

Yet the gradients in (59) conceal a problem, indicated by the asterisks after the
words however and therefore. It is not certain that however is moving toward the COORDINATOR
pole or that therefore is moving toward the SUBORDINATOR pole. I place them there only because
of their semantic affinities to coordinators and subordinators respectively and because of a few
syntactic similarities. Further research is needed to explicate fully the dimensions of those
gradients.
One way to overcome the shortcoming of the gradient based on form classes is to look at the
same phenomena from a functional point of view, as in (60). If we define PARATAXIS as the
juxtaposition of clauses of equal information value and HYPOTAXIS as the juxtaposition of clauses
where one clause is foregrounded informationally while the other is informationally backgrounded,
then we can present the same data on a unified, function-oriented gradient.
59. Gradients based on form classes:

ADVERBS
(first, tomorrow, quickly)
/ \
/ \
then, however*, plus therefore*
/ \
/ \
but4 although, though
/ \
COORDINATORS ------|---|---|-----SUBORDINATORS
(and, or, but3) which | | (that, as, who)
when1 |
when2

60. A gradient based on function:

then, that as,

plus, (rel pro), who,
and but3 which when1 when2 that
| | | | | (conj)
| | | | | |
PARATAXIS|-X----X------X---X---X---X--------X-------X----X-|HYPOTAXIS
| | |
but4 | |
although, |
though therefore,
thus,
so,
however

This is an on-going change in the history of English. As Curme (1931,1:94) points out "Nothing in
English grammar has changed so much within the Modern English period as our conjunctions." And
historical hypotheses (like all hypotheses) need careful corpus research to justify any postulated
explanation. I admit that much of what has been said here is suggestive and programmatic;
however, earlier studies have neither adequately described nor explained these data. Blakemore,
for example, completely misanalyzes cases of adverbial but. In an effort to bolster her hypothesis,
Blakemore is forced to explain away counterexamples like A: My parents vote Labour B: But my
parents vote Toryby ignoring them simply because they are "odd" (1989:31). To his credit, however,
Martin (1983) does recognize the concessive interpretation conveyed by some sentence-initial buts.
Yet, despite the scope and the very thoughtful analysis of his study, Martin fails to recognize the
gradient nature of these items. Gradience is the central concept, I believe, for resolving two
problems Martin (1983:54-60) acknowledges in his study: explaining the process of
grammaticalization assumed to be at work in English conjunction system and explaining the
process of conjunction in English in addition to describing the system of English conjunctions.
Finally, I have tired to present the case for adverbial but in such a manner that the case
is testable through the collection of a larger corpus. After all, as Yngve (1986) has pointed out, if
linguistics is to be a science, that is the least I could do