ABSTRACT
One of the most common methods of co-ordinating two or more phrases or sentences is simply to list them without using an overt co-ordinator. The conjoining function of discourse connectives, on the other hand, is minimally to join two sentences. A difference between the two classes is that while a conjunction always joins two linguistic items, this is not always the case with discourse connectives, which can sometimes be used on their own if the context presents a situation to which a cohesive link can be made. Some expressions can function both as conjunctions and as discourse connectives, and some fulfil more than one role even as discourse connectives. Quite a number of discourse connectives are adverbial in form. The discourse connectives introduce a statement that reinforces the previous statement, usually by making an even more convincing point.
