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The Frequency and Use of Communicative Verbs Show, Speak, Talk & Argue Within Adverbial Clauses in Written and Spoken Discourse

The Frequency and Use of Communicative Verbs Show, Speak, Talk & Argue Within Adverbial Clauses... The focus of this paper is on usage of communicative verbs show, speak, talk and argue within adverbial clauses. Since adverbial clauses are used to realize time, place, manner and contingency semantic categories, the main goal of this paper is to illustrate the use of adverbial clauses that have communicative verbs show, speak, talk, and argue as verbals. The aim is to analyze the frequency and distribution of the verbs show, speak, talk and argue in all types of adverbial clauses. We will also present similarities and dissimilarities of their use in the specific adverbial clauses, and show the specific features of their use within each type of adverbial clause. We will also determine the most frequent type of adverbial clause in each register. The goal is also to present certain features of the selected verbs along with their practical use in spoken and written language. Except that, we will also determine the most frequently used subordinators that introduce all types of adverbial clauses, their use and distribution across analyzed corpus. Keywords: communicative verbs, adverbial clauses, distribution, frequency, subordinators 1. Introduction Carter (2005) states that adverbial clauses act as modifiers in or of the main clause (p. 560). They specify circumstances such as manner, time, frequency, place, degree, reason, cause, and condition. In Longman’s terms (1999), adverbial clauses, both finite and non-finite, are used to realize time, place, manner, and contingency semantic categories (p. 818). European Journal of ISSN 2411-9598 (Print) July - December 2022 ISSN 2411-4103 (Online) Volume 8, Issue 2 Language and Literature Studies Quirk (1985) states that adverbial clauses function mainly as adjuncts and disjuncts (p. 1068). Furthermore, he says that in their potentiality for greater explicitness, they are more often like prepositional phrases (Quirk, 1985, p.1048). Đorđević (2007) divides adverbial clauses into clauses of manner, clauses of place, clauses of time, clauses of contingency, clauses of degree, clauses of condition, clauses of concession, reason clauses, clauses of purpose, clauses of result, clauses of comparison and similarity, clauses of exception, clauses of proportion, clauses of contrast, clauses of preference and comment clauses (p. 730). Given that semantic analysis of adverbial clauses is complicated by the fact that many subordinators introduce clauses with different meanings, we will analyze each type of adverbial clause in context, and present results according to the primary meaning of their subordinator in context. As we already stated, communicative verbs show, speak, talk and argue within adverbial clauses are the subject of this research, the analysis itself is related to the frequency, use and distribution of these verbs within each type of adverbial clauses. 2. Methodology The corpus used for this research consists of 800 000 000 words and is made of three registers. The analyzed corpus is made of newspaper columns of The Guardian (politics, economy, culture, technology, sports and COVID-19) analyzed during the period 2017-2021, as well as the selections of texts from American and British novels, and, transcriptions of speech of various celebrities from the film industry, political scene and sports (2015-2019) taken from the official BBC website. Each one of the above-mentioned corpuses contains 1 million words. During the analysis, we combined qualitative, quantitative, and comparative methods. Qualitative and quantitative methods provide results regarding the frequency of the use of adverbial clauses and their subordinators, while the qualitative method enables us to emphasize the characteristics of each verb used in a specific type of adverbial clause, as well as all the differences and similarities between analyzed register, and their syntactic features. 3. Results and Discussion Adverbial clauses are not frequently used in the analyzed written and spoken discourse. More precisely, 888 examples of adverbial clauses are registered in our material, which takes up only 0,01 of the total word count (8 million words). Table 1 presents the total frequency of each subclass of adverbial clauses in written and spoken discourse. Based on the Table 1, time clauses are most frequently used with 449 examples found. Reason clauses (98) and conditional clauses (86) are almost equally used in our material. Concessive (66), clauses of place (56), and manner clauses (32) are less frequent. European Journal of ISSN 2411-9598 (Print) July - December 2022 ISSN 2411-4103 (Online) Volume 8, Issue 2 Language and Literature Studies Frequency of adverbial clauses Clauses of Manner 32 Clauses of Place 56 Clauses of Time 449 Clauses of Contingency - Clauses of Degree 1 Clauses of Condition 86 Clauses of Concession 66 Reason Clauses 98 Clauses of Purpose 13 Clauses of Result 25 Clauses of Comparison & Similarity 13 Clauses of Exception 2 Clauses of Proportion 4 Clauses of Contrast 20 Clauses of Preference 7 Comment Clauses 16 Table 1: Frequency of adverbial clauses in written and spoken discourse Clauses of contrast (20), comment (16), clauses of purpose (13) and clauses of similarity & comparison occur almost equally, while clauses of preference (7), proportion (4), exception (2) and degree clauses (1) are rare. Clauses of contingency are not found in our corpus. When it comes to different registers, the use of adverbial clauses varies, as shown below. Adverbial clauses across corpus Economy Culture Politics Sport Technology Short stories Speech COVID-19 Clauses of Manner 3 8 3 4 4 5 1 4 Clauses of Place 3 18 7 4 14 5 5 - Clauses of Time 43 63 50 52 58 75 57 51 Clauses of Contingency - - - - - - - - Clauses of Degree - - - - - - 1 - Clauses of Condition 11 7 10 8 11 7 12 20 Clauses of Concession 11 9 9 10 8 10 - 9 Reason Clauses 14 9 12 6 13 4 28 12 Clauses of Purpose - 1 - - 3 4 - 5 Clauses of Result 1 1 1 4 4 5 6 3 Clauses of Comparison & 1 1 1 4 4 2 - - Similarity Clauses of Exception - - - - - 1 1 - Clauses of Proportion - 2 - 1 - - 1 - Clauses of Contrast 7 2 3 1 3 1 - 3 Clauses of Preference 1 - 3 - 2 - 1 - Comment Clauses - 4 3 - - - 1 8 TOTAL 95 125 102 94 124 119 114 115 Table 2: Frequency of adverbial clauses across corpus Adverbial clauses are almost equally used in the texts on culture and technology, followed by short stories, speech and COVID-19. They are less frequent in politics, European Journal of ISSN 2411-9598 (Print) July - December 2022 ISSN 2411-4103 (Online) Volume 8, Issue 2 Language and Literature Studies economy, and sport. The use of time clauses is the most dominant in short stories (75), while they are almost equally used in other corpora. Reason clauses are dominant in speech (28), almost equally represented in economy, technology, COVID- 19 and politics, while they are rare in other corpora. Conditional clauses are the most frequent in COVID-19, and they are almost equally used in other corpora. Clauses of place are most frequently used in culture, followed by technology; they are less frequent in other corpora while they are not used in COVID-19. The rest of adverbial clauses occur almost equally in all registers. What is common for all analyzed verbs is that neither of them is used within clauses of contingency. As for individual communicative verbs that are the subject of our analysis, most frequently used verb is the verb show with 307 examples, followed by the verbs talk (284) and speak (237), while the verb argue (60) is less frequent. Based on the results presented in Table 4, the verb show is most frequently used in time clauses (127), and the greatest number of examples is registered in COVID-19 (27) and economy (24), less is other corpora, while it is rare in speech (6). Conditional clauses are less frequent (48), and occur most frequently is COVID-19 (16). Reason clauses (37) are the most dominant in economy, rare in other corpora, and they are not used in short stories. Concessive (26) and manner clauses (26) are equally represented. While concessive clauses are the most frequent in economy, manner clauses are dominant in culture. It is common for both of these clauses that they are not used in speech. Show Economy Culture Politics Sport Technology Short stories Speech COVID-19 Clauses of Manner 2 8 3 4 4 1 - 4 Clauses of Place - 6 - - 5 1 1 - Clauses of Time 24 16 13 10 18 13 6 27 Clauses of Contingency - - - - - - - - Clauses of Degree - - - - - - - - Clauses of Condition 6 1 6 5 7 4 3 16 Clauses of Concession 7 4 3 5 2 1 - 4 Reason Clauses 12 5 3 2 6 - 2 7 Clauses of Purpose - 1 - - - 3 - - Clauses of Result 1 - 1 2 1 2 3 1 Clauses of Comparison & - 1 1 1 - 1 - - Similarity Clauses of Exception - - - - - - - - Clauses of Proportion - - - - - - - - Clauses of Contrast 1 2 1 1 1 1 - 1 Clauses of Preference 1 - - - 1 - 1 - Comment Clauses - - - - - - - - Table 4: Frequency of the verb show within adverbial clauses across corpus Other clauses are rare. The verb show does not occur in clauses of contingency, degree, exception, proportion and comment clauses. European Journal of ISSN 2411-9598 (Print) July - December 2022 ISSN 2411-4103 (Online) Volume 8, Issue 2 Language and Literature Studies The verb talk is less used within adverbial clauses in the analyzed corpus. As seen from Table 5, this verb is most frequently used within time clauses (162), and they are most dominant in speech, followed by short stories. Time clauses occur almost equally in culture and politics, while they are not frequent in other corpora. Reason clauses are less frequent with 40 examples found, and most of them are registered in speech, while they are not used in economy. Clauses of place (23) are the most frequent in culture and technology, while they don’t occur in the texts on COVID-19. Talk Economy Culture Politics Sport Technology Short stories Speech COVID-19 Clauses of Manner 1 - - - - 1 1 - Clauses of Place 2 6 2 2 6 1 4 - Clauses of Time 4 28 24 7 14 31 44 10 Clauses of Contingency - - - - - - - - Clauses of Degree - - - - - - - - Clauses of Condition 3 1 1 1 2 3 5 2 Clauses of Concession 1 3 1 3 - 3 - 1 Reason Clauses - 3 5 1 3 2 21 5 Clauses of Purpose - - - - 2 1 - 2 Clauses of Result - 1 - 1 1 1 2 2 Clauses of Comparison & - - - 2 1 - - - Similarity Clauses of Exception - - - - - - 1 - Clauses of Proportion - 1 - 1 - - 1 - Clauses of Contrast 1 - 1 - - - - - Clauses of Preference - - 3 - - - - - Comment Clauses - - - - - - 1 - Table 5: Frequency of the verb talk within adverbial clauses across corpus Conditional (18) and concessive clauses (12) don’t occur frequently, and while conditional clauses are almost equally used in all registers, concessive clauses don’t occur in technology and speech. The rest of adverbial clauses are not frequent, while clauses of contingency and degree clauses don’t combine with the verb talk. Based on the results in Table 6, the verb speak is also dominant within time clauses (137), and the greatest number of examples is found in sport, less in short stories and technology, while they are not frequently used in other corpora. Reason clauses are less frequent (19), and while they are not dominant in other corpora, not even one example of reason clauses is found in COVID-19. European Journal of ISSN 2411-9598 (Print) July - December 2022 ISSN 2411-4103 (Online) Volume 8, Issue 2 Language and Literature Studies Speak Economy Culture Politics Sport Technology Short stories Speech COVID-19 Clauses of Manner - - - - - 3 - - Clauses of Place 1 4 5 2 2 3 - - Clauses of Time 9 19 9 34 23 28 7 8 Clauses of Contingency - - - - - - - - Clauses of Degree - - - - - - 1 - Clauses of Condition 2 5 1 2 2 - 2 2 Clauses of Concession - 1 4 1 4 6 - 1 Reason Clauses 2 1 3 3 3 2 5 - Clauses of Purpose - - - - 1 - - 3 Clauses of Result - - - 1 2 1 - - Clauses of Comparison & 1 - - 1 2 1 - - Similarity Clauses of Exception - - - - - 1 - - Clauses of Proportion - 1 - - - - - - Clauses of Contrast 4 - - - 2 - - - Clauses of Preference - - - - 1 - - - Comment Clauses - 4 - - - - - 1 Table 6: Frequency of the verb speak within adverbial clauses across corpus Clauses of place and concessive clauses are equally used with 17 examples respectively, and while clauses of place are not used in speech and COVID-19, concessive don't occur in speech and economy. Conditional clauses (16) are dominant in culture, while they are not used in technology. Other adverbial clauses are not frequent. Comparing to the first 3 verbs, the verb argue is rarely used with only 60 examples found. As shown in Table 7, this verb is most frequently used within time clauses (23). Time clauses are equally used in economy and COVID-19, while the verb argue doesn’t occur within time clauses in culture and speech. Argue Economy Culture Politics Sport Technology Short stories Speech COVID-19 Clauses of Manner - - - - - - - - Clauses of Place - 2 - - 1 - - - Clauses of Time 6 - 4 1 3 3 - 6 Clauses of Contingency - - - - - - - - Clauses of Degree - - - - - - - - Clauses of Condition - 2 - - - 2 - Clauses of Concession 3 1 1 1 2 - - 3 Reason Clauses - - 1 - 1 - - - Clauses of Purpose - - - - - - - - Clauses of Result - - - - - 1 1 - Clauses of Comparison & - - - - 1 - - - Similarity Clauses of Exception - - - - - - - - Clauses of Proportion - - - - - - - - Clauses of Contrast 1 - 1 - - - - 2 Clauses of Preference - - - - - - - - Comment Clauses - - 3 - - - - 7 Table 7: Frequency of the verb argue within adverbial clauses across corpus European Journal of ISSN 2411-9598 (Print) July - December 2022 ISSN 2411-4103 (Online) Volume 8, Issue 2 Language and Literature Studies Concessive clauses are dominant in economy, while they don’t occur in short stories and speech. Out of 10 examples of comment clauses found, 7 occur in COVID-19 and 3 in politics. The rest of adverbial clauses are not frequent. The verb argue doesn’t occur within manner, clauses of contingency, degree clauses, purpose, exception, proportion and clauses of preference. As we already mention, Time clauses are widely used in our corpus. These clauses combine with our verbs in 449 examples, and as it can be seen from Table 8, they most frequently occur with the verb talk (162), followed by verbs speak (137) and show (127), while they are not frequent with the verb argue (23). Time Clauses talk speak show argue 4 9 24 6 Economy 28 19 16 - Culture 24 9 13 4 Politics Sport 7 34 10 1 Technology 14 23 18 3 Short Stories 31 28 13 3 44 7 6 - Speech 10 8 27 6 COVID-19 TOTAL 162 137 127 23 Table 8: Frequency of communicative verbs talk, speak, show & argue within time clauses across corpus The clauses are the most frequent in speech with the verb talk, followed by the corpus of sport with the verb speak; while they are not used in culture and speech with the verb argue. The commonest subordinator that introduces time clauses is the subordinator when (see the Table 9 below) with all verbs and 258 examples found. This subordinator is most frequently combined with the verb talk (115) in speech (38), followed by culture (19), short stories (19), and politics (17). European Journal of ISSN 2411-9598 (Print) July - December 2022 ISSN 2411-4103 (Online) Volume 8, Issue 2 Language and Literature Studies Time Subordinators show talk speak argue 50 115 80 13 when after 46 6 18 6 as 5 13 18 1 while 3 9 9 3 before 12 7 6 - whenever - 1 3 - since 3 3 1 - once 1 2 - - as soon as - 3 2 - as long as 2 1 - - until 4 2 - - till 1 - - - Table 9: Frequency of time subordinators In the corpus with the verb speak; this subordinator is most frequent in sport (23) and short stories (20), while it is less used in other corpora. With the verb show, this subordinator is most frequent in culture (19), while with the verb argue it is mostly used in economy (5), and it doesn’t occur in speech, sport and culture. The subordinator after occurs 76 times, and it is most frequent with the verb show (46), almost equally presented as the subordinator when. The greatest number of examples with the verb show is found in COVID-19 (19) and economy (12). This subordinator combines 18 times with the verb speak (mostly in sport and culture), while it is equally used with verbs talk and argue (6 times respectively). The subordinator as occurs frequently with the verb speak (18), followed by the verb talk (13). This subordinator rarely combines with verbs show and argue. The subordinator while is not frequently used and occurs 9 times with the verbs talk and speak, respectively, 3 times with the verbs show and argue, respectively. The conjunction before combines only with the verbs show (12), talk (7) and speak (6) and the subordinator since occurs with the same verbs: show (3), talk (3) and speak (1). Subordinators until, once and as long as combine only with the verbs show and talk, while, on the other hand, subordinators as soon as and whenever occur only with verbs speak and talk. The subordinator till occurs only with the verb show. As already stated, the verb talk is used in time clauses mainly in speech. The most numerous subordinator that introduces time clauses with this verb is the subordinator when. Interestingly, in the corpus of speech, in almost all examples found, the verb talk occurs twice in complex sentences, although we found that the verb talk also occurs twice within the same time clause: European Journal of ISSN 2411-9598 (Print) July - December 2022 ISSN 2411-4103 (Online) Volume 8, Issue 2 Language and Literature Studies Does your desire to fictionalize those stories you registered in your new novel, The Merry-Co-Round, have any bearing on a notion of Betty's in Davies: "She had often thought that when he was talking about himself he was talking about her too"? When used with the subordinator when, the verb talk occurs with pseudo-intransitive complementation and the preposition about, which functions as a verb complement in the language of speech and culture As for other prepositions performing the same function, only a few examples of the preposition to are found in both corpora: “But when there’s something else to talk about, and there’s something that’s connecting people right in front of him, then that really really helps.” On the other hand, in short stories the preposition to performs the function of prepositional complement in almost all examples found, while the preposition about is rare: ‘She gave it to me.’ Ellie never called Magda by her name when talking to Robert; she didn’t have to. Unlike the verb talk, the verb speak occurs with more diverse prepositional complements in the clauses introduced by subordinator when. A variety of prepositions such as to, of, with, on and about are registered in the corpus of short stories: And when you spoke of Seaford in that lingering way, how happy you had been there with that dippy potter woman, I thought that would be clean at least. In speech, the verb speak occurs with the compelmentation speak + to + NP + about + NP (a), while in culture this verb is used with the complementation speak + NP + to + NP (b): a) When I speak to her about it, she so, so wants it to happen. b) It starts in 1963 with the March on Washington when King spoke immortal words to more that 200,000 people from the steps of the Lincoln Monument. In the languge of sport, within time clauses introduced by the subordinator when the verb speak often occurs in the form of gerund: Yet, when speaking to the 39-year-old Englishman about an Open appearance in his home country, his excitement is palpable. The verb show less frequently combines with the subordinator when. In the language of short stories, technology and COVID-19, the verb show occurs in non-finite forms. While in short stories and technology, this verb is used in the form of to-infinitive (a), in the corpus of COVID-19, it occurs in the form of gerund (b): a) It seemed she was as aware of him as I was: she put her arm around my shoulders and talked in the loud and lively way people do when they want to show others that they are having a good time. European Journal of ISSN 2411-9598 (Print) July - December 2022 ISSN 2411-4103 (Online) Volume 8, Issue 2 Language and Literature Studies b) Yet still key workers can’t get tested – even when they start showing symptoms – to confirm whether they pose a risk, either to those they help or to their own families. Although, the verb argue is not frequently used, it is still possible to emphasize certain characteristics of its use within time clauses with the subordinator when. In almost all examples in economy, adverbial clauses of time with the subordinator when are combined with nominal that-clauses (a), except in one example where instead of subordinate that-clause, it occurs the combination with non-personal subject (Quirk, 1985, p. 214) (b): a) Chadha says the Bank is manufacturing its own vicious circle when it argues that weak growth must lead to low interest rates for longer. b) Soriot was on firmer ground when he argued there’s more to AstraZeneca’s pipeline and new products than just Mystic. Also, in the corpus of economy, when imply repetitiveness, and it is synonymous with whenever (Quirk, 1985, p. 1083): It can also be seen when wealthy pensioners argue that the government should maintain the state pension as a universal benefit and even continue paying the winter fuel allowance. Although the subordinator after is less frequent, this subordinator in the corpora with the verb show is almost equally represented as the subordinator when, and the greatest number of examples is registered in COVID-19 (19) and economy (12). In the majority of examples in the corpus of COVID 19, the verb show occurs in non-finite form, i.e. the form of gerund (a), while in all examples in economy, it is used in finite form, usually in the past simple tense (b): a) About a week after the cat’s owner started showing symptoms, the cat also developed breathing difficulties, diarrhoea and vomiting, and subsequent tests by vets at the University of Liège showed the animal was infected with coronavirus. b) Oil prices gyrated earlier in the day after US government data showed a surprise drop in domestic crude stockpiles for a fourth week in a row. In politics and sport, the verb show combines with the catenative construction with appear to: a) Labour has demanded answers from the government after leaked letters appeared to show ministers were repeatedly warned that fire regulations were not keeping people safe in high rise blocks like Grenfell Tower. This subordinator is less frequently used with the verb speak (18), and it is found in sport (4) and culture (4). In sport, the verb speak occurs within multi-word construction, i.e. in the form of the phrasal verb speak out, and in the same corpus, this phrasal verb is combined with the preposition against: Varnish claimed she was dismissed after speaking out against coaching decisions but the report stops short of this conclusion. European Journal of ISSN 2411-9598 (Print) July - December 2022 ISSN 2411-4103 (Online) Volume 8, Issue 2 Language and Literature Studies The verb talk, in almost all examples found, occurs in non-finite form, more precisely, in the form of gerund, while in this combination, the preposition to usually performs the function of the prepositional complement: “After talking to the Arts Council and lawyers,” says Biscuit, “it turned out that we wouldn’t legally be allowed to use a funding grant in that way. Time clauses introduced by the subordinator after and with the verb argue, in the texts on COVID-19 and sport usually occurs in non-finite form. Thus, in the corpus of COVID-19, this verb is used in the form of to-infinitive (a) and gerund (b), while in sport it only occurs in the form of gerund (c): a) And some commentators are already lining up to argue that after this, the climate crisis will be pushed aside and business will have a clearer case against government regulation. b) Julian Assange was denied bail after arguing he is at risk of contracting the virus in the British prison where he is being held. c) Docked a point after arguing with Alves, he called for the supervisor. The rest of the subordinators found is less frequent, while subordinators directly, immediately, now (that), so long as, whilst are not registered in the analyzed material. Reason clauses are less frequent (98 examples), and most of the examples are found with the verb talk, followed by the verb show. Table 10 presents that these clauses are not frequently used with the verb speak, and that they occur in only two examples with the verb argue. Reason Clauses talk show speak argue - 12 2 - Economy 3 5 1 - Culture Politics 5 3 3 1 Sport 1 2 3 - 3 6 3 1 Technology 2 - 2 - Short Stories 21 2 5 - Speech COVID-19 5 7 - - TOTAL 40 37 19 2 Table 10: Frequency of communicative verbs talk, speak, show & argue within reason clauses across corpus The most frequent use of these clauses is found in speech with the verb talk, less in all other corpora, while they are not used in economy with the verbs talk and argue, short stories with the verbs show and argue, COVID-19 with the verbs speak and argue, and culture with the verb argue. European Journal of ISSN 2411-9598 (Print) July - December 2022 ISSN 2411-4103 (Online) Volume 8, Issue 2 Language and Literature Studies As for subordinators introducing reason clauses, the most frequent one is the subordinator because (68), less used is the subordinator as (28), and there are only one examples of subordinators now (that) and since found, respectively. As seen from Table 11, there is a difference in the most frequent subordinators used with different verbs. Thus, the subordinator because is more frequently used with the verbs talk and speak, while it is not used with the verb argue, and the subordinator as is more frequent with the verb show. Reason Clauses Subordinators talk show speak argue because 36 15 17 - as 2 22 2 2 since 1 - - - now (that) 1 - - - Table 11: Frequency of reason clauses subordinators In speech, the verb talk (20) is chiefly found in the clauses introduced by the subordinator because. In other texts it is less used with the same verb, for example it is not used in short stories. In speech, the verb talk almost always occurs with the preposition about, that performs the function of the prepositional complement, while the preposition to, performing the same function, is found in only 2 examples: JEFFREY BROWN: I’m curious now, because you were talking about short stories, and one thing I didn’t know about you — I know your novels, but I didn’t, until I was just reading about this prize, you wrote crime fiction under a pseudonym? In addition, in the same corpus, the verb talk occuring with the complementation talk + about + NP is premodified with the adjunct of universal frequency always, adjunct of high frequency often, adjunct of low frequency never, and exclusive subjunct just: I now know something I never knew because it was never talked about, that on the eve of my third birthday, she was in a psychiatric institution having electroshock treatment. In the corpus with the verb speak, this subordinator mostly occurs in speech (5), while in COVID-19 is not used at all. Like the verb talk, the verb speak is mainly used with the complementation speak + to + NP, where the verb speak is premodified with the time-relationship subjunct still: Most classics are classics for a reason, because they contain stories that still speak to us, stories that endure. European Journal of ISSN 2411-9598 (Print) July - December 2022 ISSN 2411-4103 (Online) Volume 8, Issue 2 Language and Literature Studies In the corpus with the verb show, this subordinator is mostly used in technology, and it usually occurs in the complementation with the that-clause, that performs the function of a direct object: Testing without drivers is also critical because studies have shown that in partial automation, where a human is still behind the wheel, it can be difficult for a driver to stay engaged. The subordinator as is most frequent in the corpus with the verb show, and it is mostly used in economy (12), less in COVID-19 (5), while it is not used in speech, sport and short stories. In economy, this verb often occurs with the complementation show + that-clause (a). The complementation show + NP is less frequent (b): The ratings agency said there were signs of “renewed tremors” from the result of the UK’s EU referendum on 23 June while the election of Trump as US president showed that political risk remained significant. The government’s spending deficit is on course to worsen this year as official figures show the economic slowdown is beginning to take a toll on the UK’s public finances. Within these clauses introduced by the subordinator as, the verb show occurs with the complementation show + wh-clause in the COVID-19: “I was expecting to hear back but I heard that the government has been inundated with volunteers which is great news as it shows what we can do as a country when we come together.” Subordinators since and now (that) are respresented with only one example respectively, and occur in economy (since) and politics (now (that), while subordinators in view of the fact that and seeing (that) don't occur with our verbs. There are 86 examples of Clauses of condition in our corpus, and the verb show is mostly used within them (48). Verbs talk and speak are less used within these clauses, while only a few examples of verb argue are found within these clauses. As resprented in Table 12, the most frequent use of these clauses is found with the verb show in COVID-19, while it is less used with other verbs. Conditional Clauses are not found in short stories with the verb speak, and in most of the corpus with the verb argue. As the analysis has shown, the function of conditional clauses perform conditionals. The most frequent type of conditional is open condition (53), hypothetical condition is less frequent (21), while the indirect conditional is only found in technology with the verb show. One example of mixed conditional is also found in economy with the verb speak. European Journal of ISSN 2411-9598 (Print) July - December 2022 ISSN 2411-4103 (Online) Volume 8, Issue 2 Language and Literature Studies Conditional Clauses show talk speak argue Economy 6 3 2 / Culture 1 1 5 / Politics 6 1 1 2 Sport 5 1 2 / Technology 7 2 2 / Short Stories 4 3 / / Speech 3 5 2 2 COVID-19 16 2 2 / TOTAL 48 18 16 4 Table 12: Frequency of communicative verbs talk, speak, show & argue within conditional clauses across corpus The verb show appears in open conditional 28 times, with the greatest number of examples in in the texts on COVID-19 (5), and none in culture. Less frequently, talk occurs with this conditional (12), and it is almost equally used in all corpora. The same number of examples is found with the verb speak (12), where it is not used in sport and short stories. In the corpus with the verb argue, the open conditional is only found in speech and politics. Hypothetical condition is less frequent and it occurs rarely in all corpora with the verb show except in speech, culture and politics with the verb talk. In the coprus with the verb speak, this conditional occurs only in sport and speech, while it is found only in speech and politics with the verb argue. The only subrodinators introducing conditional clauses are subordinators unless and given. The subordinator unless occurs in all corpora with the verb show except in short stories, and only one example of this subordinator is found in speech with the verb talk. In the conditional clause with the subordinator unless in technology, the verb show combines with the central modal verb could: When Pistorius first applied to run in the Olympics, IAAF rules said that runners using prosthetics would be allowed to compete against able-bodied athletes unless the IAAF could show that the athlete received an unfair advantage over other athletes not using prosthetics. The subordinator given is registered in only 2 examples in economy with the verb show: That was a hypothetical example, obviously, given that data from Money facts shows a third of savings accounts now earn less than the 0.25% base rate. Even so, Haldane should keep banging on about numeracy. Subordinators as long as, assuming (that), if only, in case, in the event (that), just so (that), on condition (that), providing/provided (that), so long as and suppose/supposing (that) are not found in the analyzed material. European Journal of ISSN 2411-9598 (Print) July - December 2022 ISSN 2411-4103 (Online) Volume 8, Issue 2 Language and Literature Studies Clauses of concession, with 66 examples found, are also not frequent in the analyzed corpus. As it can be seen from Table 13, verb show usually occurs within this type of clauses 26), and the other verbs less. Clauses of Concession show talk speak argue Economy 7 1 / 3 Culture 4 3 1 1 Politics 3 1 4 1 Sport 5 3 1 1 Technology 2 / 4 2 Short Stories 1 3 6 / Speech / / / / COVID-19 4 1 1 3 TOTAL 26 12 17 11 Table 13: Frequency of communicative verbs talk, speak, show & argue within conditional clauses across corpus The most dominant use of these clauses is registered in economy with the verb show as their verbal, less in other corpora, while it is not used in speech with neither of our verbs. The list of subordinators introducing clauses of concession is given below. Concessive Subordinators show talk speak argue although 14 3 9 3 while 6 3 4 7 even if 3 2 2 / even though 3 3 2 / whereas / 1 / 1 Table 14: Frequency of concessive subordinators The most frequent subordinator is although (29), followed by the subordinator while, and subordinators even though (8), even if (7) and whereas (2) are less frequent. The verb show occurs in clauses introduced by subordinator although usually in sport (5), where the verb show is combined with the catenative construction appear to: After their attack, Dumoulin called the Colombian and the Italian out for what he viewed as underhand conduct, although television images appeared to show Quintana and Nibali waiting initially as the race leader chased, fruitlessly. In short stories, the verb speak is premodified with the adjunct of low frequency never and manner adjunct directly. As for other adverbials, in the same corpus, we registered manner adjunct proudly and time-relationship subjunct yet: European Journal of ISSN 2411-9598 (Print) July - December 2022 ISSN 2411-4103 (Online) Volume 8, Issue 2 Language and Literature Studies And although they never spoke directly to each other, Charlie kept joining in the conversation in an odd, once-removed manner. When these clauses are introduced by the subordinator while, then the verb in the clause is argue, usually in technology (3) and COVID-19 (3). Within concessive clauses, the verb argue is often combined with central modals. In politics, this verb is combined with the central modal might, while in technology, it occurs with the central modal could, and in technology, it is used with the modal can: a) While some might argue that it’s what a person says that counts, they might change their minds when MPs start rocking up for government votes in beach shorts, with a skateboard tucked under their arm, to go down to the park later. Other subordinators are not frequent, while subordinators if and whilst are not registered in our corpus. Clauses of place are not frequent in our corpus (56). As a verbal, the verb talk occurs in 23 examples of these clauses, verb speak in 17, verb show in 13, and verb argue only in 3 (Table 15). Clauses of Place talk speak show argue Economy 2 1 / / Culture 6 4 6 2 Politics 2 5 / / Sport 2 2 / / Technology 6 2 5 1 Short Stories 1 3 1 / Speech 4 / 1 / COVID-19 / / / / TOTAL 23 17 13 3 Table 15: Frequency of communicative verbs talk, speak, show & argue within clauses of place across corpus The most frequent use of these clauses is registered in culture and technology with the verb talk and culture with the verb show (6 examples in each). Interestingly, like concessive clauses, clauses of place are not used in speech with any of the analyzed verbs. The only subordinator introducing clauses of place is the subordinator where. In all examples, the verb talk occur with pseudo-intransitive complementation talk + PP. The most frequent preposition that has the function of prepositional complement is the preposition about (13). The preposition to is less frequent (7). Prepositions that also perform the function of prepositional complement in the corpus with the verb talk are with & into (economy), off & of (technology): European Journal of ISSN 2411-9598 (Print) July - December 2022 ISSN 2411-4103 (Online) Volume 8, Issue 2 Language and Literature Studies The fear stems from a passage in the Bible’s book of Revelation, where it talks of the mark of the beast on the forehead or right hand. The subordinator wherever is not registered in our corpus. Verb show occurs in Manner clauses 26 times, while verbs speak and talk occur 3 times each. The verb argue does not occur within these clauses. With the verbs show, these clauses are most frequent in culture (8), while they are not used in speech. With the verb talk, manner clauses occur with one example in short stories, speech and economy, while with the verb speak are used only in short stories (3). The most frequent subordinator is the subordinator as (23), and all examples found are used with the verb show. These clauses are most frequently used in culture (6), and less in other corpora. In culture, the verb show occurs with the complementation show + NP + wh-clause: “Do you know what we used to do?” is the motif, as Bishop shows us how he first chatted up his wife, or (good routine, this one) how hard it used to be to start a car. The subordinator as if occurs in culture (2) and short stories (1) with the verb show, short stories (1) and economy (1) with the verb talk, and in short stories with the verb speak (3). The subordinator as though occurs only in speech with the verb talk as verbal. Clauses of result are not used frequently, and out of 25 examples registered, 11 is found in the corpus with the verb show, 8 with the verb talk, 4 with the verb speak, and only 2 examples with the verb argue. In the corpora with the verb show, 3 examples are found in speech, 2 in short stories and sport, respectively, and one example in the corpus economy, politics, technology and COVID-19, while they are not used in culture. In the corpus of speech, the verb show occurs in the form of to- infinitve, and has the function of adjective complementation: Sometimes you have different challenges, so it's nice to show different sides and show different parts of your game. In the corpus with the verb talk, clauses of result are used in speech (2), COVID-19 (2), and only one example in short stories, sport, technology and culture respectively, while it is not used in economy and politics. In the corpus with the verb speak, these clauses are used only in technology (2), sport (1), and short stories (1). The most frequent subordinator is the subordinator so (23), the subordinator so (that) is found only in technology (1) and short stories (1) with the verb speak, while the subordinator such (that) is not found in the analyzed material. Clauses of contrast are also not frequent. Out of 20 examples found, 8 is registered with the verb show, 6 with the verb speak, 4 with the verb argue, and 2 with the verb talk. In the corpus with the verb show, these clauses occur in culture (2), and all the European Journal of ISSN 2411-9598 (Print) July - December 2022 ISSN 2411-4103 (Online) Volume 8, Issue 2 Language and Literature Studies other corpora with one example respectively, except in speech where clauses of contrast are not used. In the corpus with the verb speak, these clauses are found in economy (2), and technology (2). With the verb argue, clauses of contrast are used in COVID-19 (2), economy (1), and politics (1), while with the verb talk, we found in politics (1) and economy (1). In our corpus, these clauses are mainly introduced by the subordinator while (19), while the subordnator whilst is found only in shorts stories (1) with the verb show. In culture, the verb show occurs with the complementation show + NP as direct object, where the NP consists of coordinated complex noun phrases: One stand interprets “digital traces” in the city, like text messages and phone calls, in the form of abstract sounds, while another shows footage of flashmobs and protests in the Arab spring, both apparently the product of the internet and public space. The subordinator whereas doesn't occur in our corpus. Comment clauses are found with the verb argue (10), speak (4), and the verb talk (1). In the corpus with the verb argue, these clauses are found in COVID-19 (7) and politics (3), with the verb speak in culture (4) and COVID-19 (1), and with the verb talk in the corpus of speech. Interestingly, almost all examples found with the verb argue occur in the final position, except 2 examples that are used in the medial position. All examples of these clauses with the verb speak occur within the phrases so to speak, while the only one example in the speech with the verb talk is used in the medial position: She said, ‘I completely respect the mandate Jeremy has for the membership,’ as you’ve been talking about, ‘but in 7 Andrew Marr Show, 10th July, 2016 – JEREMY CORBYN I/V order to lead Labour in Westminster he has to have a parliamentary mandate too,’ and you don’t. Clauses of purpose are found in the corpus with the verb talk (technology-2, COVID- 19-2, short stories-1), the verbs speak (COVID-19-3, technology-1) and show (short stories-3, culture-1). The most dominant subordinator introducing these clauses is the subordinator so that (7), while subordinators so (3 in COVID-19 with the verb speak and 2 in technology and COVID-19 with the verb talk) are less frequent, and the subordinator in order so occurs only in technology (1) with the verb talk: Launched way back in 2000, a naive age when people bought mobile phones in order to talk to each other, the handset is still famed for its lengthy battery life, structural solidity and Snake II. Clauses of Comparison and Similarity occur with the verb speak (technolohy-2, sport-1, short stories-1, economy-1), the verb show (culture-1, politics-1, short stories-1, sport-1), the verb talk (sport-2, technology-1), and the verb argue (technology-1). The most frequent subordinator is subordinator as well as (technology with the verb argue, technology with the verb talk, technology with the European Journal of ISSN 2411-9598 (Print) July - December 2022 ISSN 2411-4103 (Online) Volume 8, Issue 2 Language and Literature Studies verb speak, culture, politics and short stories with the verb show). In culture with this subordinator, the verb show follows the compelmentation pattern show + NP + wh- clause: As well as showing you how to make the tonkotsu ramen that made him famous, it tells you his life story and explains in detail what it’s like to open a restaurant, which I’d love to do myself at some point. Subordinators more than (4), as far as (1), less than (1), as qualified as (1) are rare, while subordinators as many as, as much as, fewer than, as good/fit/heavy/ large/better/heavier/larger/longer/more fit than, as far as, as long/soon/sooner/further than are not used in our corpus. Clauses of preference are found in the corpus with the verb talk (politics-3), the verb show (economy-1, speech-1, technology-1) and only one example is registered in technology with the verb speak. The only subordinator that marks clauses of preference is the subordinator rather than, while the subordinator sooner than is not found. Interestingly, in all 3 examples found in politics, the verb talk occurs in the form of gerund: Rather than talking about the government’s plans for the economy, he chose to spend his time at the dispatch box telling the Commons why no one should believe a word that was in the Labour manifesto. Clauses of proportion are found only with the verbs talk and speak. The verbs talk combines with these clauses in the corpus of culture, sport and speech-one example per each corpora. Two examples of clauses of proportion are introduced by the structure the more...the more (culture and sport), while one example occurs with the structure the more...the better (speech). The verb speak occurs once within clauses of proportion in the corpus of culture and this example is introduced by the structure the more...the more: We are backstage at the Barbican, the London Symphony Orchestra’s home venue, and the more Rattle talks the more it seems clear that he sees “making things better” as not only a possibility but a responsibility. Clauses of exception are very rare and we found only two examples combining with the verbs speak and talk respectively. In the corpus of short stories with the verb speak, this clause is introduced by the subordinator except that and the verb speak is in negative form, while in the corpus of speech with the verb talk, this clause is marked by the subordinator but that. Except that this voice was not speaking in Paul’s broken Sahib-Hindi: it was colloquial, racy, freely mixed with Punjabi curse words. Clauses of contigency are not combined with communicative verbs show, speak, talk and argue in the analyzed material. European Journal of ISSN 2411-9598 (Print) July - December 2022 ISSN 2411-4103 (Online) Volume 8, Issue 2 Language and Literature Studies Conclusion Communication verbs show, speak, talk and argue are not frequently used within adverbial clauses. In our corpus, we registered 888 examples of adverbial clauses, which takes up only 0,01 of the total word count (8 million words). As for individual verbs, most frequently used verb is the verb show with 307 examples, followed by the verbs talk (284) and speak (237), while the verb argue (60) has the lowest frequency in the analyzed corpus. Clauses of time represent the most frequent subclass of adverbial clauses, which are frequently used with all four verbs of communication, but they are most dominant with the verb talk. The most dominant subordinator introducing these clauses is the subordinator when. Reason clauses also combined with all verbs, but they are most numerous in corpus with the verb talk. The most frequent subordinator that is made of these clauses is the subordinator because. Clauses of Condition occur with all verbs, but they are most frequently used with the verb show. The most dominant type of conditional is open conditional while hypothetical and indirect conditionals are not frequent. Clauses of concession are not frequent, and are mostly used with the verb show, and less with other verbs. The most dominant subordinator in our corpus is the subordinator although. Analyzed verbs are not frequently used within clauses of place. The greatest number of examples occur with the verb talk, and the only subordinator introducing these clauses in our corpus is the subordinator where. Manner clauses are used only with the verbs show, speak and talk. The most dominant conjunction marking manner clauses is the subordinator as. Although not frequent, all analyzed verbs are registered within clauses of result, while the most frequent subordinator is the subordinator so. Clauses of contrast are also not frequently used with our verbs. In our corpus, these clauses are mainly introduced by the subordinator while. Comment clauses only combine with the verbs argue, speak and talk, while clauses of purpose only occur with the verbs talk, speak and show. Our verbs are not frequently combined with clauses of comparison & similarity, and the most frequent subordinator used is the subordinator as well as. Clauses of preference are found with the verbs talk, show and speak, while clauses of proportion occur only with the verbs talk and speak. Similarly, only verbs speak and talk are registered within clauses of exception. European Journal of ISSN 2411-9598 (Print) July - December 2022 ISSN 2411-4103 (Online) Volume 8, Issue 2 Language and Literature Studies Clauses of Contigency are not combined with communicative verbs show, speak, talk and argue in the analyzed material. Taking into consideration that communicative verbs within adverbial clauses are not extensively examined, we consider that this paper will give a significant contribution to research of other verb classes within adverbial clauses in the English language. Literature [1] Biber, D., Johansson, S., Leech G., Conrad S., & Finegan E. (1999). Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English. London: Longman. [2] Biber, D. (1988). Variation Across Speech and Writing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [3] Carter, R., & McCarthy, M. (2006). Cambridge Grammar of English: A Comprehensive Guide to Spoken and Written Grammar and Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [4] Cinque. G. (1999). Adverbs and Functional Heads A Cross-Linguistic Perspective. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. [5] Đorđević, R. (2007). Gramatika engleskog jezika. Beograd: Čigoja štampa. [6] Ford, E., & C. (2009). Adverbial Clauses in American English Conversations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [7] Gruyter, W. (1996). Adverbial Subordination: A Typology and History of Adverbial Subordinators Based on European Languages. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. [8] Haegeman, L. (2012). Adverbial Clauses, Main Clause Phenomena, and Composition of the Left Periphery. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. [9] Haumann, D. (1997). The Syntax of Subordination. Niemeyer: Tubingen. [10] Hetterle, K. (2015). Adverbial Clauses in Cross-Linguistic Perspective. De Gruyter Mouton ed. [11] Kortmann, B. (2012). Adverbial Subordination (Empirical Approaches to Language Typology, 18). De Gruyter Mouton, Reprint 2012 ed. edition (November 14, 1996). [12] Lewis, M. (1986). The English Verb: An Exploration of Structure and Meaning. Heinle ELT. [13] Quirk et al. Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., & Svartvik, J. (1985). A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. Longman. [14] Radford , A. (2012). English Syntax: An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [15] Radford, A. (2009). Analysing English Sentences: A Minimalist Approach (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics) 1st Edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [16] Tortora, C. (2018). Understanding Sentence Structure: An Introduction to English Syntax (Linguistics in the World). Wiley-Blackwell. European Journal of ISSN 2411-9598 (Print) July - December 2022 ISSN 2411-4103 (Online) Volume 8, Issue 2 Language and Literature Studies [17] Greenbaum, S., & Quirk, R. (1990). A Student’s Grammar of the English Language, Harlow: Longman. [18] Corpus resources [19] Allan, N. (2010). Flying in the Face of God and Higher Up. Interzone 227. Ely, Cambs: TTA Press. [20] Barnes, J. (2004). The Lemon Table. London: Johnatan Cape. [21] Barnes, J. (2011). Pulse. London: Johnatan Cape. [22] Constantine, D. (2015). In Another Country: Selected Stories. Manchester: Comma Press. [23] Gaiman, N. (2006). Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders. London: HarperCollins. [24] Hall, S. (2010). Butcher’s Perfume. London: BBC Worldwide Limited. [25] Hall, S. (2017). Madame Zero. London: Faber & Faber Ltd. [26] Ishiguro, K. (2001). A Village After Dark. New York: The New Yorker. [27] Ishiguro, K. (2009). Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall. New York: Afred A. Knopf. [28] Lessing, D. (2003). The Grandmothers: Four Short Novels. London: HarperPress. [29] Marek, A. (2012). The Stone Thrower. Manchester: Comma Press. [30] McGregor, J. (2012). This Isn't the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. [31] Oyeyemi, H. (2010). My Daughter the Racist. Bath: AudioGO Ltd, BBC Worldwide. [32] Prawer Jhabvala, R. (2004). My Nine Lives: Chapters of a Possible Past. Washington, [33] DC: Shoemaker & Hoard. [34] Prawer Jhabvala, R. (2011). Aphrodisiac. New York: The New Yorker. [35] Prawer Jhabvala, R. (2011). A Lovesong for India: Tales from East and West. Berkley: Counterpoint. [36] Royle, N. (2017). Best British Short Stories 2017. London: Salt Publishing Ltd. [37] https://www.theguardian.com/ [38] https://www.bbc.com/news/live/uk-42116319 [39] http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3hshxFhHM4dKd3px6Q3NzR F/transcripts [40] http://www.asapsports.com/show_interview.php?id=136570 [41] https://www.rollingstone.com/ [42] https://storgy.com/ [43] https://www.npr.org/sections/music-interviews/ [44] http://www.businessinsider.com/ [45] http://www.bookslut.com/ [46] https://charlierose.com/ [47] https://pando.com/ http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png European Journal of Language and Literature Studies de Gruyter

The Frequency and Use of Communicative Verbs Show, Speak, Talk & Argue Within Adverbial Clauses in Written and Spoken Discourse

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© 2022 Božana Tomić, published by Sciendo
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Abstract

The focus of this paper is on usage of communicative verbs show, speak, talk and argue within adverbial clauses. Since adverbial clauses are used to realize time, place, manner and contingency semantic categories, the main goal of this paper is to illustrate the use of adverbial clauses that have communicative verbs show, speak, talk, and argue as verbals. The aim is to analyze the frequency and distribution of the verbs show, speak, talk and argue in all types of adverbial clauses. We will also present similarities and dissimilarities of their use in the specific adverbial clauses, and show the specific features of their use within each type of adverbial clause. We will also determine the most frequent type of adverbial clause in each register. The goal is also to present certain features of the selected verbs along with their practical use in spoken and written language. Except that, we will also determine the most frequently used subordinators that introduce all types of adverbial clauses, their use and distribution across analyzed corpus. Keywords: communicative verbs, adverbial clauses, distribution, frequency, subordinators 1. Introduction Carter (2005) states that adverbial clauses act as modifiers in or of the main clause (p. 560). They specify circumstances such as manner, time, frequency, place, degree, reason, cause, and condition. In Longman’s terms (1999), adverbial clauses, both finite and non-finite, are used to realize time, place, manner, and contingency semantic categories (p. 818). European Journal of ISSN 2411-9598 (Print) July - December 2022 ISSN 2411-4103 (Online) Volume 8, Issue 2 Language and Literature Studies Quirk (1985) states that adverbial clauses function mainly as adjuncts and disjuncts (p. 1068). Furthermore, he says that in their potentiality for greater explicitness, they are more often like prepositional phrases (Quirk, 1985, p.1048). Đorđević (2007) divides adverbial clauses into clauses of manner, clauses of place, clauses of time, clauses of contingency, clauses of degree, clauses of condition, clauses of concession, reason clauses, clauses of purpose, clauses of result, clauses of comparison and similarity, clauses of exception, clauses of proportion, clauses of contrast, clauses of preference and comment clauses (p. 730). Given that semantic analysis of adverbial clauses is complicated by the fact that many subordinators introduce clauses with different meanings, we will analyze each type of adverbial clause in context, and present results according to the primary meaning of their subordinator in context. As we already stated, communicative verbs show, speak, talk and argue within adverbial clauses are the subject of this research, the analysis itself is related to the frequency, use and distribution of these verbs within each type of adverbial clauses. 2. Methodology The corpus used for this research consists of 800 000 000 words and is made of three registers. The analyzed corpus is made of newspaper columns of The Guardian (politics, economy, culture, technology, sports and COVID-19) analyzed during the period 2017-2021, as well as the selections of texts from American and British novels, and, transcriptions of speech of various celebrities from the film industry, political scene and sports (2015-2019) taken from the official BBC website. Each one of the above-mentioned corpuses contains 1 million words. During the analysis, we combined qualitative, quantitative, and comparative methods. Qualitative and quantitative methods provide results regarding the frequency of the use of adverbial clauses and their subordinators, while the qualitative method enables us to emphasize the characteristics of each verb used in a specific type of adverbial clause, as well as all the differences and similarities between analyzed register, and their syntactic features. 3. Results and Discussion Adverbial clauses are not frequently used in the analyzed written and spoken discourse. More precisely, 888 examples of adverbial clauses are registered in our material, which takes up only 0,01 of the total word count (8 million words). Table 1 presents the total frequency of each subclass of adverbial clauses in written and spoken discourse. Based on the Table 1, time clauses are most frequently used with 449 examples found. Reason clauses (98) and conditional clauses (86) are almost equally used in our material. Concessive (66), clauses of place (56), and manner clauses (32) are less frequent. European Journal of ISSN 2411-9598 (Print) July - December 2022 ISSN 2411-4103 (Online) Volume 8, Issue 2 Language and Literature Studies Frequency of adverbial clauses Clauses of Manner 32 Clauses of Place 56 Clauses of Time 449 Clauses of Contingency - Clauses of Degree 1 Clauses of Condition 86 Clauses of Concession 66 Reason Clauses 98 Clauses of Purpose 13 Clauses of Result 25 Clauses of Comparison & Similarity 13 Clauses of Exception 2 Clauses of Proportion 4 Clauses of Contrast 20 Clauses of Preference 7 Comment Clauses 16 Table 1: Frequency of adverbial clauses in written and spoken discourse Clauses of contrast (20), comment (16), clauses of purpose (13) and clauses of similarity & comparison occur almost equally, while clauses of preference (7), proportion (4), exception (2) and degree clauses (1) are rare. Clauses of contingency are not found in our corpus. When it comes to different registers, the use of adverbial clauses varies, as shown below. Adverbial clauses across corpus Economy Culture Politics Sport Technology Short stories Speech COVID-19 Clauses of Manner 3 8 3 4 4 5 1 4 Clauses of Place 3 18 7 4 14 5 5 - Clauses of Time 43 63 50 52 58 75 57 51 Clauses of Contingency - - - - - - - - Clauses of Degree - - - - - - 1 - Clauses of Condition 11 7 10 8 11 7 12 20 Clauses of Concession 11 9 9 10 8 10 - 9 Reason Clauses 14 9 12 6 13 4 28 12 Clauses of Purpose - 1 - - 3 4 - 5 Clauses of Result 1 1 1 4 4 5 6 3 Clauses of Comparison & 1 1 1 4 4 2 - - Similarity Clauses of Exception - - - - - 1 1 - Clauses of Proportion - 2 - 1 - - 1 - Clauses of Contrast 7 2 3 1 3 1 - 3 Clauses of Preference 1 - 3 - 2 - 1 - Comment Clauses - 4 3 - - - 1 8 TOTAL 95 125 102 94 124 119 114 115 Table 2: Frequency of adverbial clauses across corpus Adverbial clauses are almost equally used in the texts on culture and technology, followed by short stories, speech and COVID-19. They are less frequent in politics, European Journal of ISSN 2411-9598 (Print) July - December 2022 ISSN 2411-4103 (Online) Volume 8, Issue 2 Language and Literature Studies economy, and sport. The use of time clauses is the most dominant in short stories (75), while they are almost equally used in other corpora. Reason clauses are dominant in speech (28), almost equally represented in economy, technology, COVID- 19 and politics, while they are rare in other corpora. Conditional clauses are the most frequent in COVID-19, and they are almost equally used in other corpora. Clauses of place are most frequently used in culture, followed by technology; they are less frequent in other corpora while they are not used in COVID-19. The rest of adverbial clauses occur almost equally in all registers. What is common for all analyzed verbs is that neither of them is used within clauses of contingency. As for individual communicative verbs that are the subject of our analysis, most frequently used verb is the verb show with 307 examples, followed by the verbs talk (284) and speak (237), while the verb argue (60) is less frequent. Based on the results presented in Table 4, the verb show is most frequently used in time clauses (127), and the greatest number of examples is registered in COVID-19 (27) and economy (24), less is other corpora, while it is rare in speech (6). Conditional clauses are less frequent (48), and occur most frequently is COVID-19 (16). Reason clauses (37) are the most dominant in economy, rare in other corpora, and they are not used in short stories. Concessive (26) and manner clauses (26) are equally represented. While concessive clauses are the most frequent in economy, manner clauses are dominant in culture. It is common for both of these clauses that they are not used in speech. Show Economy Culture Politics Sport Technology Short stories Speech COVID-19 Clauses of Manner 2 8 3 4 4 1 - 4 Clauses of Place - 6 - - 5 1 1 - Clauses of Time 24 16 13 10 18 13 6 27 Clauses of Contingency - - - - - - - - Clauses of Degree - - - - - - - - Clauses of Condition 6 1 6 5 7 4 3 16 Clauses of Concession 7 4 3 5 2 1 - 4 Reason Clauses 12 5 3 2 6 - 2 7 Clauses of Purpose - 1 - - - 3 - - Clauses of Result 1 - 1 2 1 2 3 1 Clauses of Comparison & - 1 1 1 - 1 - - Similarity Clauses of Exception - - - - - - - - Clauses of Proportion - - - - - - - - Clauses of Contrast 1 2 1 1 1 1 - 1 Clauses of Preference 1 - - - 1 - 1 - Comment Clauses - - - - - - - - Table 4: Frequency of the verb show within adverbial clauses across corpus Other clauses are rare. The verb show does not occur in clauses of contingency, degree, exception, proportion and comment clauses. European Journal of ISSN 2411-9598 (Print) July - December 2022 ISSN 2411-4103 (Online) Volume 8, Issue 2 Language and Literature Studies The verb talk is less used within adverbial clauses in the analyzed corpus. As seen from Table 5, this verb is most frequently used within time clauses (162), and they are most dominant in speech, followed by short stories. Time clauses occur almost equally in culture and politics, while they are not frequent in other corpora. Reason clauses are less frequent with 40 examples found, and most of them are registered in speech, while they are not used in economy. Clauses of place (23) are the most frequent in culture and technology, while they don’t occur in the texts on COVID-19. Talk Economy Culture Politics Sport Technology Short stories Speech COVID-19 Clauses of Manner 1 - - - - 1 1 - Clauses of Place 2 6 2 2 6 1 4 - Clauses of Time 4 28 24 7 14 31 44 10 Clauses of Contingency - - - - - - - - Clauses of Degree - - - - - - - - Clauses of Condition 3 1 1 1 2 3 5 2 Clauses of Concession 1 3 1 3 - 3 - 1 Reason Clauses - 3 5 1 3 2 21 5 Clauses of Purpose - - - - 2 1 - 2 Clauses of Result - 1 - 1 1 1 2 2 Clauses of Comparison & - - - 2 1 - - - Similarity Clauses of Exception - - - - - - 1 - Clauses of Proportion - 1 - 1 - - 1 - Clauses of Contrast 1 - 1 - - - - - Clauses of Preference - - 3 - - - - - Comment Clauses - - - - - - 1 - Table 5: Frequency of the verb talk within adverbial clauses across corpus Conditional (18) and concessive clauses (12) don’t occur frequently, and while conditional clauses are almost equally used in all registers, concessive clauses don’t occur in technology and speech. The rest of adverbial clauses are not frequent, while clauses of contingency and degree clauses don’t combine with the verb talk. Based on the results in Table 6, the verb speak is also dominant within time clauses (137), and the greatest number of examples is found in sport, less in short stories and technology, while they are not frequently used in other corpora. Reason clauses are less frequent (19), and while they are not dominant in other corpora, not even one example of reason clauses is found in COVID-19. European Journal of ISSN 2411-9598 (Print) July - December 2022 ISSN 2411-4103 (Online) Volume 8, Issue 2 Language and Literature Studies Speak Economy Culture Politics Sport Technology Short stories Speech COVID-19 Clauses of Manner - - - - - 3 - - Clauses of Place 1 4 5 2 2 3 - - Clauses of Time 9 19 9 34 23 28 7 8 Clauses of Contingency - - - - - - - - Clauses of Degree - - - - - - 1 - Clauses of Condition 2 5 1 2 2 - 2 2 Clauses of Concession - 1 4 1 4 6 - 1 Reason Clauses 2 1 3 3 3 2 5 - Clauses of Purpose - - - - 1 - - 3 Clauses of Result - - - 1 2 1 - - Clauses of Comparison & 1 - - 1 2 1 - - Similarity Clauses of Exception - - - - - 1 - - Clauses of Proportion - 1 - - - - - - Clauses of Contrast 4 - - - 2 - - - Clauses of Preference - - - - 1 - - - Comment Clauses - 4 - - - - - 1 Table 6: Frequency of the verb speak within adverbial clauses across corpus Clauses of place and concessive clauses are equally used with 17 examples respectively, and while clauses of place are not used in speech and COVID-19, concessive don't occur in speech and economy. Conditional clauses (16) are dominant in culture, while they are not used in technology. Other adverbial clauses are not frequent. Comparing to the first 3 verbs, the verb argue is rarely used with only 60 examples found. As shown in Table 7, this verb is most frequently used within time clauses (23). Time clauses are equally used in economy and COVID-19, while the verb argue doesn’t occur within time clauses in culture and speech. Argue Economy Culture Politics Sport Technology Short stories Speech COVID-19 Clauses of Manner - - - - - - - - Clauses of Place - 2 - - 1 - - - Clauses of Time 6 - 4 1 3 3 - 6 Clauses of Contingency - - - - - - - - Clauses of Degree - - - - - - - - Clauses of Condition - 2 - - - 2 - Clauses of Concession 3 1 1 1 2 - - 3 Reason Clauses - - 1 - 1 - - - Clauses of Purpose - - - - - - - - Clauses of Result - - - - - 1 1 - Clauses of Comparison & - - - - 1 - - - Similarity Clauses of Exception - - - - - - - - Clauses of Proportion - - - - - - - - Clauses of Contrast 1 - 1 - - - - 2 Clauses of Preference - - - - - - - - Comment Clauses - - 3 - - - - 7 Table 7: Frequency of the verb argue within adverbial clauses across corpus European Journal of ISSN 2411-9598 (Print) July - December 2022 ISSN 2411-4103 (Online) Volume 8, Issue 2 Language and Literature Studies Concessive clauses are dominant in economy, while they don’t occur in short stories and speech. Out of 10 examples of comment clauses found, 7 occur in COVID-19 and 3 in politics. The rest of adverbial clauses are not frequent. The verb argue doesn’t occur within manner, clauses of contingency, degree clauses, purpose, exception, proportion and clauses of preference. As we already mention, Time clauses are widely used in our corpus. These clauses combine with our verbs in 449 examples, and as it can be seen from Table 8, they most frequently occur with the verb talk (162), followed by verbs speak (137) and show (127), while they are not frequent with the verb argue (23). Time Clauses talk speak show argue 4 9 24 6 Economy 28 19 16 - Culture 24 9 13 4 Politics Sport 7 34 10 1 Technology 14 23 18 3 Short Stories 31 28 13 3 44 7 6 - Speech 10 8 27 6 COVID-19 TOTAL 162 137 127 23 Table 8: Frequency of communicative verbs talk, speak, show & argue within time clauses across corpus The clauses are the most frequent in speech with the verb talk, followed by the corpus of sport with the verb speak; while they are not used in culture and speech with the verb argue. The commonest subordinator that introduces time clauses is the subordinator when (see the Table 9 below) with all verbs and 258 examples found. This subordinator is most frequently combined with the verb talk (115) in speech (38), followed by culture (19), short stories (19), and politics (17). European Journal of ISSN 2411-9598 (Print) July - December 2022 ISSN 2411-4103 (Online) Volume 8, Issue 2 Language and Literature Studies Time Subordinators show talk speak argue 50 115 80 13 when after 46 6 18 6 as 5 13 18 1 while 3 9 9 3 before 12 7 6 - whenever - 1 3 - since 3 3 1 - once 1 2 - - as soon as - 3 2 - as long as 2 1 - - until 4 2 - - till 1 - - - Table 9: Frequency of time subordinators In the corpus with the verb speak; this subordinator is most frequent in sport (23) and short stories (20), while it is less used in other corpora. With the verb show, this subordinator is most frequent in culture (19), while with the verb argue it is mostly used in economy (5), and it doesn’t occur in speech, sport and culture. The subordinator after occurs 76 times, and it is most frequent with the verb show (46), almost equally presented as the subordinator when. The greatest number of examples with the verb show is found in COVID-19 (19) and economy (12). This subordinator combines 18 times with the verb speak (mostly in sport and culture), while it is equally used with verbs talk and argue (6 times respectively). The subordinator as occurs frequently with the verb speak (18), followed by the verb talk (13). This subordinator rarely combines with verbs show and argue. The subordinator while is not frequently used and occurs 9 times with the verbs talk and speak, respectively, 3 times with the verbs show and argue, respectively. The conjunction before combines only with the verbs show (12), talk (7) and speak (6) and the subordinator since occurs with the same verbs: show (3), talk (3) and speak (1). Subordinators until, once and as long as combine only with the verbs show and talk, while, on the other hand, subordinators as soon as and whenever occur only with verbs speak and talk. The subordinator till occurs only with the verb show. As already stated, the verb talk is used in time clauses mainly in speech. The most numerous subordinator that introduces time clauses with this verb is the subordinator when. Interestingly, in the corpus of speech, in almost all examples found, the verb talk occurs twice in complex sentences, although we found that the verb talk also occurs twice within the same time clause: European Journal of ISSN 2411-9598 (Print) July - December 2022 ISSN 2411-4103 (Online) Volume 8, Issue 2 Language and Literature Studies Does your desire to fictionalize those stories you registered in your new novel, The Merry-Co-Round, have any bearing on a notion of Betty's in Davies: "She had often thought that when he was talking about himself he was talking about her too"? When used with the subordinator when, the verb talk occurs with pseudo-intransitive complementation and the preposition about, which functions as a verb complement in the language of speech and culture As for other prepositions performing the same function, only a few examples of the preposition to are found in both corpora: “But when there’s something else to talk about, and there’s something that’s connecting people right in front of him, then that really really helps.” On the other hand, in short stories the preposition to performs the function of prepositional complement in almost all examples found, while the preposition about is rare: ‘She gave it to me.’ Ellie never called Magda by her name when talking to Robert; she didn’t have to. Unlike the verb talk, the verb speak occurs with more diverse prepositional complements in the clauses introduced by subordinator when. A variety of prepositions such as to, of, with, on and about are registered in the corpus of short stories: And when you spoke of Seaford in that lingering way, how happy you had been there with that dippy potter woman, I thought that would be clean at least. In speech, the verb speak occurs with the compelmentation speak + to + NP + about + NP (a), while in culture this verb is used with the complementation speak + NP + to + NP (b): a) When I speak to her about it, she so, so wants it to happen. b) It starts in 1963 with the March on Washington when King spoke immortal words to more that 200,000 people from the steps of the Lincoln Monument. In the languge of sport, within time clauses introduced by the subordinator when the verb speak often occurs in the form of gerund: Yet, when speaking to the 39-year-old Englishman about an Open appearance in his home country, his excitement is palpable. The verb show less frequently combines with the subordinator when. In the language of short stories, technology and COVID-19, the verb show occurs in non-finite forms. While in short stories and technology, this verb is used in the form of to-infinitive (a), in the corpus of COVID-19, it occurs in the form of gerund (b): a) It seemed she was as aware of him as I was: she put her arm around my shoulders and talked in the loud and lively way people do when they want to show others that they are having a good time. European Journal of ISSN 2411-9598 (Print) July - December 2022 ISSN 2411-4103 (Online) Volume 8, Issue 2 Language and Literature Studies b) Yet still key workers can’t get tested – even when they start showing symptoms – to confirm whether they pose a risk, either to those they help or to their own families. Although, the verb argue is not frequently used, it is still possible to emphasize certain characteristics of its use within time clauses with the subordinator when. In almost all examples in economy, adverbial clauses of time with the subordinator when are combined with nominal that-clauses (a), except in one example where instead of subordinate that-clause, it occurs the combination with non-personal subject (Quirk, 1985, p. 214) (b): a) Chadha says the Bank is manufacturing its own vicious circle when it argues that weak growth must lead to low interest rates for longer. b) Soriot was on firmer ground when he argued there’s more to AstraZeneca’s pipeline and new products than just Mystic. Also, in the corpus of economy, when imply repetitiveness, and it is synonymous with whenever (Quirk, 1985, p. 1083): It can also be seen when wealthy pensioners argue that the government should maintain the state pension as a universal benefit and even continue paying the winter fuel allowance. Although the subordinator after is less frequent, this subordinator in the corpora with the verb show is almost equally represented as the subordinator when, and the greatest number of examples is registered in COVID-19 (19) and economy (12). In the majority of examples in the corpus of COVID 19, the verb show occurs in non-finite form, i.e. the form of gerund (a), while in all examples in economy, it is used in finite form, usually in the past simple tense (b): a) About a week after the cat’s owner started showing symptoms, the cat also developed breathing difficulties, diarrhoea and vomiting, and subsequent tests by vets at the University of Liège showed the animal was infected with coronavirus. b) Oil prices gyrated earlier in the day after US government data showed a surprise drop in domestic crude stockpiles for a fourth week in a row. In politics and sport, the verb show combines with the catenative construction with appear to: a) Labour has demanded answers from the government after leaked letters appeared to show ministers were repeatedly warned that fire regulations were not keeping people safe in high rise blocks like Grenfell Tower. This subordinator is less frequently used with the verb speak (18), and it is found in sport (4) and culture (4). In sport, the verb speak occurs within multi-word construction, i.e. in the form of the phrasal verb speak out, and in the same corpus, this phrasal verb is combined with the preposition against: Varnish claimed she was dismissed after speaking out against coaching decisions but the report stops short of this conclusion. European Journal of ISSN 2411-9598 (Print) July - December 2022 ISSN 2411-4103 (Online) Volume 8, Issue 2 Language and Literature Studies The verb talk, in almost all examples found, occurs in non-finite form, more precisely, in the form of gerund, while in this combination, the preposition to usually performs the function of the prepositional complement: “After talking to the Arts Council and lawyers,” says Biscuit, “it turned out that we wouldn’t legally be allowed to use a funding grant in that way. Time clauses introduced by the subordinator after and with the verb argue, in the texts on COVID-19 and sport usually occurs in non-finite form. Thus, in the corpus of COVID-19, this verb is used in the form of to-infinitive (a) and gerund (b), while in sport it only occurs in the form of gerund (c): a) And some commentators are already lining up to argue that after this, the climate crisis will be pushed aside and business will have a clearer case against government regulation. b) Julian Assange was denied bail after arguing he is at risk of contracting the virus in the British prison where he is being held. c) Docked a point after arguing with Alves, he called for the supervisor. The rest of the subordinators found is less frequent, while subordinators directly, immediately, now (that), so long as, whilst are not registered in the analyzed material. Reason clauses are less frequent (98 examples), and most of the examples are found with the verb talk, followed by the verb show. Table 10 presents that these clauses are not frequently used with the verb speak, and that they occur in only two examples with the verb argue. Reason Clauses talk show speak argue - 12 2 - Economy 3 5 1 - Culture Politics 5 3 3 1 Sport 1 2 3 - 3 6 3 1 Technology 2 - 2 - Short Stories 21 2 5 - Speech COVID-19 5 7 - - TOTAL 40 37 19 2 Table 10: Frequency of communicative verbs talk, speak, show & argue within reason clauses across corpus The most frequent use of these clauses is found in speech with the verb talk, less in all other corpora, while they are not used in economy with the verbs talk and argue, short stories with the verbs show and argue, COVID-19 with the verbs speak and argue, and culture with the verb argue. European Journal of ISSN 2411-9598 (Print) July - December 2022 ISSN 2411-4103 (Online) Volume 8, Issue 2 Language and Literature Studies As for subordinators introducing reason clauses, the most frequent one is the subordinator because (68), less used is the subordinator as (28), and there are only one examples of subordinators now (that) and since found, respectively. As seen from Table 11, there is a difference in the most frequent subordinators used with different verbs. Thus, the subordinator because is more frequently used with the verbs talk and speak, while it is not used with the verb argue, and the subordinator as is more frequent with the verb show. Reason Clauses Subordinators talk show speak argue because 36 15 17 - as 2 22 2 2 since 1 - - - now (that) 1 - - - Table 11: Frequency of reason clauses subordinators In speech, the verb talk (20) is chiefly found in the clauses introduced by the subordinator because. In other texts it is less used with the same verb, for example it is not used in short stories. In speech, the verb talk almost always occurs with the preposition about, that performs the function of the prepositional complement, while the preposition to, performing the same function, is found in only 2 examples: JEFFREY BROWN: I’m curious now, because you were talking about short stories, and one thing I didn’t know about you — I know your novels, but I didn’t, until I was just reading about this prize, you wrote crime fiction under a pseudonym? In addition, in the same corpus, the verb talk occuring with the complementation talk + about + NP is premodified with the adjunct of universal frequency always, adjunct of high frequency often, adjunct of low frequency never, and exclusive subjunct just: I now know something I never knew because it was never talked about, that on the eve of my third birthday, she was in a psychiatric institution having electroshock treatment. In the corpus with the verb speak, this subordinator mostly occurs in speech (5), while in COVID-19 is not used at all. Like the verb talk, the verb speak is mainly used with the complementation speak + to + NP, where the verb speak is premodified with the time-relationship subjunct still: Most classics are classics for a reason, because they contain stories that still speak to us, stories that endure. European Journal of ISSN 2411-9598 (Print) July - December 2022 ISSN 2411-4103 (Online) Volume 8, Issue 2 Language and Literature Studies In the corpus with the verb show, this subordinator is mostly used in technology, and it usually occurs in the complementation with the that-clause, that performs the function of a direct object: Testing without drivers is also critical because studies have shown that in partial automation, where a human is still behind the wheel, it can be difficult for a driver to stay engaged. The subordinator as is most frequent in the corpus with the verb show, and it is mostly used in economy (12), less in COVID-19 (5), while it is not used in speech, sport and short stories. In economy, this verb often occurs with the complementation show + that-clause (a). The complementation show + NP is less frequent (b): The ratings agency said there were signs of “renewed tremors” from the result of the UK’s EU referendum on 23 June while the election of Trump as US president showed that political risk remained significant. The government’s spending deficit is on course to worsen this year as official figures show the economic slowdown is beginning to take a toll on the UK’s public finances. Within these clauses introduced by the subordinator as, the verb show occurs with the complementation show + wh-clause in the COVID-19: “I was expecting to hear back but I heard that the government has been inundated with volunteers which is great news as it shows what we can do as a country when we come together.” Subordinators since and now (that) are respresented with only one example respectively, and occur in economy (since) and politics (now (that), while subordinators in view of the fact that and seeing (that) don't occur with our verbs. There are 86 examples of Clauses of condition in our corpus, and the verb show is mostly used within them (48). Verbs talk and speak are less used within these clauses, while only a few examples of verb argue are found within these clauses. As resprented in Table 12, the most frequent use of these clauses is found with the verb show in COVID-19, while it is less used with other verbs. Conditional Clauses are not found in short stories with the verb speak, and in most of the corpus with the verb argue. As the analysis has shown, the function of conditional clauses perform conditionals. The most frequent type of conditional is open condition (53), hypothetical condition is less frequent (21), while the indirect conditional is only found in technology with the verb show. One example of mixed conditional is also found in economy with the verb speak. European Journal of ISSN 2411-9598 (Print) July - December 2022 ISSN 2411-4103 (Online) Volume 8, Issue 2 Language and Literature Studies Conditional Clauses show talk speak argue Economy 6 3 2 / Culture 1 1 5 / Politics 6 1 1 2 Sport 5 1 2 / Technology 7 2 2 / Short Stories 4 3 / / Speech 3 5 2 2 COVID-19 16 2 2 / TOTAL 48 18 16 4 Table 12: Frequency of communicative verbs talk, speak, show & argue within conditional clauses across corpus The verb show appears in open conditional 28 times, with the greatest number of examples in in the texts on COVID-19 (5), and none in culture. Less frequently, talk occurs with this conditional (12), and it is almost equally used in all corpora. The same number of examples is found with the verb speak (12), where it is not used in sport and short stories. In the corpus with the verb argue, the open conditional is only found in speech and politics. Hypothetical condition is less frequent and it occurs rarely in all corpora with the verb show except in speech, culture and politics with the verb talk. In the coprus with the verb speak, this conditional occurs only in sport and speech, while it is found only in speech and politics with the verb argue. The only subrodinators introducing conditional clauses are subordinators unless and given. The subordinator unless occurs in all corpora with the verb show except in short stories, and only one example of this subordinator is found in speech with the verb talk. In the conditional clause with the subordinator unless in technology, the verb show combines with the central modal verb could: When Pistorius first applied to run in the Olympics, IAAF rules said that runners using prosthetics would be allowed to compete against able-bodied athletes unless the IAAF could show that the athlete received an unfair advantage over other athletes not using prosthetics. The subordinator given is registered in only 2 examples in economy with the verb show: That was a hypothetical example, obviously, given that data from Money facts shows a third of savings accounts now earn less than the 0.25% base rate. Even so, Haldane should keep banging on about numeracy. Subordinators as long as, assuming (that), if only, in case, in the event (that), just so (that), on condition (that), providing/provided (that), so long as and suppose/supposing (that) are not found in the analyzed material. European Journal of ISSN 2411-9598 (Print) July - December 2022 ISSN 2411-4103 (Online) Volume 8, Issue 2 Language and Literature Studies Clauses of concession, with 66 examples found, are also not frequent in the analyzed corpus. As it can be seen from Table 13, verb show usually occurs within this type of clauses 26), and the other verbs less. Clauses of Concession show talk speak argue Economy 7 1 / 3 Culture 4 3 1 1 Politics 3 1 4 1 Sport 5 3 1 1 Technology 2 / 4 2 Short Stories 1 3 6 / Speech / / / / COVID-19 4 1 1 3 TOTAL 26 12 17 11 Table 13: Frequency of communicative verbs talk, speak, show & argue within conditional clauses across corpus The most dominant use of these clauses is registered in economy with the verb show as their verbal, less in other corpora, while it is not used in speech with neither of our verbs. The list of subordinators introducing clauses of concession is given below. Concessive Subordinators show talk speak argue although 14 3 9 3 while 6 3 4 7 even if 3 2 2 / even though 3 3 2 / whereas / 1 / 1 Table 14: Frequency of concessive subordinators The most frequent subordinator is although (29), followed by the subordinator while, and subordinators even though (8), even if (7) and whereas (2) are less frequent. The verb show occurs in clauses introduced by subordinator although usually in sport (5), where the verb show is combined with the catenative construction appear to: After their attack, Dumoulin called the Colombian and the Italian out for what he viewed as underhand conduct, although television images appeared to show Quintana and Nibali waiting initially as the race leader chased, fruitlessly. In short stories, the verb speak is premodified with the adjunct of low frequency never and manner adjunct directly. As for other adverbials, in the same corpus, we registered manner adjunct proudly and time-relationship subjunct yet: European Journal of ISSN 2411-9598 (Print) July - December 2022 ISSN 2411-4103 (Online) Volume 8, Issue 2 Language and Literature Studies And although they never spoke directly to each other, Charlie kept joining in the conversation in an odd, once-removed manner. When these clauses are introduced by the subordinator while, then the verb in the clause is argue, usually in technology (3) and COVID-19 (3). Within concessive clauses, the verb argue is often combined with central modals. In politics, this verb is combined with the central modal might, while in technology, it occurs with the central modal could, and in technology, it is used with the modal can: a) While some might argue that it’s what a person says that counts, they might change their minds when MPs start rocking up for government votes in beach shorts, with a skateboard tucked under their arm, to go down to the park later. Other subordinators are not frequent, while subordinators if and whilst are not registered in our corpus. Clauses of place are not frequent in our corpus (56). As a verbal, the verb talk occurs in 23 examples of these clauses, verb speak in 17, verb show in 13, and verb argue only in 3 (Table 15). Clauses of Place talk speak show argue Economy 2 1 / / Culture 6 4 6 2 Politics 2 5 / / Sport 2 2 / / Technology 6 2 5 1 Short Stories 1 3 1 / Speech 4 / 1 / COVID-19 / / / / TOTAL 23 17 13 3 Table 15: Frequency of communicative verbs talk, speak, show & argue within clauses of place across corpus The most frequent use of these clauses is registered in culture and technology with the verb talk and culture with the verb show (6 examples in each). Interestingly, like concessive clauses, clauses of place are not used in speech with any of the analyzed verbs. The only subordinator introducing clauses of place is the subordinator where. In all examples, the verb talk occur with pseudo-intransitive complementation talk + PP. The most frequent preposition that has the function of prepositional complement is the preposition about (13). The preposition to is less frequent (7). Prepositions that also perform the function of prepositional complement in the corpus with the verb talk are with & into (economy), off & of (technology): European Journal of ISSN 2411-9598 (Print) July - December 2022 ISSN 2411-4103 (Online) Volume 8, Issue 2 Language and Literature Studies The fear stems from a passage in the Bible’s book of Revelation, where it talks of the mark of the beast on the forehead or right hand. The subordinator wherever is not registered in our corpus. Verb show occurs in Manner clauses 26 times, while verbs speak and talk occur 3 times each. The verb argue does not occur within these clauses. With the verbs show, these clauses are most frequent in culture (8), while they are not used in speech. With the verb talk, manner clauses occur with one example in short stories, speech and economy, while with the verb speak are used only in short stories (3). The most frequent subordinator is the subordinator as (23), and all examples found are used with the verb show. These clauses are most frequently used in culture (6), and less in other corpora. In culture, the verb show occurs with the complementation show + NP + wh-clause: “Do you know what we used to do?” is the motif, as Bishop shows us how he first chatted up his wife, or (good routine, this one) how hard it used to be to start a car. The subordinator as if occurs in culture (2) and short stories (1) with the verb show, short stories (1) and economy (1) with the verb talk, and in short stories with the verb speak (3). The subordinator as though occurs only in speech with the verb talk as verbal. Clauses of result are not used frequently, and out of 25 examples registered, 11 is found in the corpus with the verb show, 8 with the verb talk, 4 with the verb speak, and only 2 examples with the verb argue. In the corpora with the verb show, 3 examples are found in speech, 2 in short stories and sport, respectively, and one example in the corpus economy, politics, technology and COVID-19, while they are not used in culture. In the corpus of speech, the verb show occurs in the form of to- infinitve, and has the function of adjective complementation: Sometimes you have different challenges, so it's nice to show different sides and show different parts of your game. In the corpus with the verb talk, clauses of result are used in speech (2), COVID-19 (2), and only one example in short stories, sport, technology and culture respectively, while it is not used in economy and politics. In the corpus with the verb speak, these clauses are used only in technology (2), sport (1), and short stories (1). The most frequent subordinator is the subordinator so (23), the subordinator so (that) is found only in technology (1) and short stories (1) with the verb speak, while the subordinator such (that) is not found in the analyzed material. Clauses of contrast are also not frequent. Out of 20 examples found, 8 is registered with the verb show, 6 with the verb speak, 4 with the verb argue, and 2 with the verb talk. In the corpus with the verb show, these clauses occur in culture (2), and all the European Journal of ISSN 2411-9598 (Print) July - December 2022 ISSN 2411-4103 (Online) Volume 8, Issue 2 Language and Literature Studies other corpora with one example respectively, except in speech where clauses of contrast are not used. In the corpus with the verb speak, these clauses are found in economy (2), and technology (2). With the verb argue, clauses of contrast are used in COVID-19 (2), economy (1), and politics (1), while with the verb talk, we found in politics (1) and economy (1). In our corpus, these clauses are mainly introduced by the subordinator while (19), while the subordnator whilst is found only in shorts stories (1) with the verb show. In culture, the verb show occurs with the complementation show + NP as direct object, where the NP consists of coordinated complex noun phrases: One stand interprets “digital traces” in the city, like text messages and phone calls, in the form of abstract sounds, while another shows footage of flashmobs and protests in the Arab spring, both apparently the product of the internet and public space. The subordinator whereas doesn't occur in our corpus. Comment clauses are found with the verb argue (10), speak (4), and the verb talk (1). In the corpus with the verb argue, these clauses are found in COVID-19 (7) and politics (3), with the verb speak in culture (4) and COVID-19 (1), and with the verb talk in the corpus of speech. Interestingly, almost all examples found with the verb argue occur in the final position, except 2 examples that are used in the medial position. All examples of these clauses with the verb speak occur within the phrases so to speak, while the only one example in the speech with the verb talk is used in the medial position: She said, ‘I completely respect the mandate Jeremy has for the membership,’ as you’ve been talking about, ‘but in 7 Andrew Marr Show, 10th July, 2016 – JEREMY CORBYN I/V order to lead Labour in Westminster he has to have a parliamentary mandate too,’ and you don’t. Clauses of purpose are found in the corpus with the verb talk (technology-2, COVID- 19-2, short stories-1), the verbs speak (COVID-19-3, technology-1) and show (short stories-3, culture-1). The most dominant subordinator introducing these clauses is the subordinator so that (7), while subordinators so (3 in COVID-19 with the verb speak and 2 in technology and COVID-19 with the verb talk) are less frequent, and the subordinator in order so occurs only in technology (1) with the verb talk: Launched way back in 2000, a naive age when people bought mobile phones in order to talk to each other, the handset is still famed for its lengthy battery life, structural solidity and Snake II. Clauses of Comparison and Similarity occur with the verb speak (technolohy-2, sport-1, short stories-1, economy-1), the verb show (culture-1, politics-1, short stories-1, sport-1), the verb talk (sport-2, technology-1), and the verb argue (technology-1). The most frequent subordinator is subordinator as well as (technology with the verb argue, technology with the verb talk, technology with the European Journal of ISSN 2411-9598 (Print) July - December 2022 ISSN 2411-4103 (Online) Volume 8, Issue 2 Language and Literature Studies verb speak, culture, politics and short stories with the verb show). In culture with this subordinator, the verb show follows the compelmentation pattern show + NP + wh- clause: As well as showing you how to make the tonkotsu ramen that made him famous, it tells you his life story and explains in detail what it’s like to open a restaurant, which I’d love to do myself at some point. Subordinators more than (4), as far as (1), less than (1), as qualified as (1) are rare, while subordinators as many as, as much as, fewer than, as good/fit/heavy/ large/better/heavier/larger/longer/more fit than, as far as, as long/soon/sooner/further than are not used in our corpus. Clauses of preference are found in the corpus with the verb talk (politics-3), the verb show (economy-1, speech-1, technology-1) and only one example is registered in technology with the verb speak. The only subordinator that marks clauses of preference is the subordinator rather than, while the subordinator sooner than is not found. Interestingly, in all 3 examples found in politics, the verb talk occurs in the form of gerund: Rather than talking about the government’s plans for the economy, he chose to spend his time at the dispatch box telling the Commons why no one should believe a word that was in the Labour manifesto. Clauses of proportion are found only with the verbs talk and speak. The verbs talk combines with these clauses in the corpus of culture, sport and speech-one example per each corpora. Two examples of clauses of proportion are introduced by the structure the more...the more (culture and sport), while one example occurs with the structure the more...the better (speech). The verb speak occurs once within clauses of proportion in the corpus of culture and this example is introduced by the structure the more...the more: We are backstage at the Barbican, the London Symphony Orchestra’s home venue, and the more Rattle talks the more it seems clear that he sees “making things better” as not only a possibility but a responsibility. Clauses of exception are very rare and we found only two examples combining with the verbs speak and talk respectively. In the corpus of short stories with the verb speak, this clause is introduced by the subordinator except that and the verb speak is in negative form, while in the corpus of speech with the verb talk, this clause is marked by the subordinator but that. Except that this voice was not speaking in Paul’s broken Sahib-Hindi: it was colloquial, racy, freely mixed with Punjabi curse words. Clauses of contigency are not combined with communicative verbs show, speak, talk and argue in the analyzed material. European Journal of ISSN 2411-9598 (Print) July - December 2022 ISSN 2411-4103 (Online) Volume 8, Issue 2 Language and Literature Studies Conclusion Communication verbs show, speak, talk and argue are not frequently used within adverbial clauses. In our corpus, we registered 888 examples of adverbial clauses, which takes up only 0,01 of the total word count (8 million words). As for individual verbs, most frequently used verb is the verb show with 307 examples, followed by the verbs talk (284) and speak (237), while the verb argue (60) has the lowest frequency in the analyzed corpus. Clauses of time represent the most frequent subclass of adverbial clauses, which are frequently used with all four verbs of communication, but they are most dominant with the verb talk. The most dominant subordinator introducing these clauses is the subordinator when. Reason clauses also combined with all verbs, but they are most numerous in corpus with the verb talk. The most frequent subordinator that is made of these clauses is the subordinator because. Clauses of Condition occur with all verbs, but they are most frequently used with the verb show. The most dominant type of conditional is open conditional while hypothetical and indirect conditionals are not frequent. Clauses of concession are not frequent, and are mostly used with the verb show, and less with other verbs. The most dominant subordinator in our corpus is the subordinator although. Analyzed verbs are not frequently used within clauses of place. The greatest number of examples occur with the verb talk, and the only subordinator introducing these clauses in our corpus is the subordinator where. Manner clauses are used only with the verbs show, speak and talk. The most dominant conjunction marking manner clauses is the subordinator as. Although not frequent, all analyzed verbs are registered within clauses of result, while the most frequent subordinator is the subordinator so. Clauses of contrast are also not frequently used with our verbs. In our corpus, these clauses are mainly introduced by the subordinator while. Comment clauses only combine with the verbs argue, speak and talk, while clauses of purpose only occur with the verbs talk, speak and show. Our verbs are not frequently combined with clauses of comparison & similarity, and the most frequent subordinator used is the subordinator as well as. Clauses of preference are found with the verbs talk, show and speak, while clauses of proportion occur only with the verbs talk and speak. Similarly, only verbs speak and talk are registered within clauses of exception. European Journal of ISSN 2411-9598 (Print) July - December 2022 ISSN 2411-4103 (Online) Volume 8, Issue 2 Language and Literature Studies Clauses of Contigency are not combined with communicative verbs show, speak, talk and argue in the analyzed material. Taking into consideration that communicative verbs within adverbial clauses are not extensively examined, we consider that this paper will give a significant contribution to research of other verb classes within adverbial clauses in the English language. Literature [1] Biber, D., Johansson, S., Leech G., Conrad S., & Finegan E. (1999). Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English. London: Longman. [2] Biber, D. (1988). Variation Across Speech and Writing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [3] Carter, R., & McCarthy, M. (2006). Cambridge Grammar of English: A Comprehensive Guide to Spoken and Written Grammar and Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [4] Cinque. G. (1999). Adverbs and Functional Heads A Cross-Linguistic Perspective. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. [5] Đorđević, R. (2007). Gramatika engleskog jezika. Beograd: Čigoja štampa. [6] Ford, E., & C. (2009). Adverbial Clauses in American English Conversations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [7] Gruyter, W. (1996). Adverbial Subordination: A Typology and History of Adverbial Subordinators Based on European Languages. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. [8] Haegeman, L. (2012). Adverbial Clauses, Main Clause Phenomena, and Composition of the Left Periphery. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. [9] Haumann, D. (1997). The Syntax of Subordination. Niemeyer: Tubingen. [10] Hetterle, K. (2015). Adverbial Clauses in Cross-Linguistic Perspective. De Gruyter Mouton ed. [11] Kortmann, B. (2012). Adverbial Subordination (Empirical Approaches to Language Typology, 18). De Gruyter Mouton, Reprint 2012 ed. edition (November 14, 1996). [12] Lewis, M. (1986). The English Verb: An Exploration of Structure and Meaning. Heinle ELT. [13] Quirk et al. Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., & Svartvik, J. (1985). A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. Longman. [14] Radford , A. (2012). English Syntax: An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [15] Radford, A. (2009). Analysing English Sentences: A Minimalist Approach (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics) 1st Edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [16] Tortora, C. (2018). Understanding Sentence Structure: An Introduction to English Syntax (Linguistics in the World). Wiley-Blackwell. European Journal of ISSN 2411-9598 (Print) July - December 2022 ISSN 2411-4103 (Online) Volume 8, Issue 2 Language and Literature Studies [17] Greenbaum, S., & Quirk, R. (1990). A Student’s Grammar of the English Language, Harlow: Longman. [18] Corpus resources [19] Allan, N. (2010). Flying in the Face of God and Higher Up. Interzone 227. Ely, Cambs: TTA Press. [20] Barnes, J. (2004). The Lemon Table. London: Johnatan Cape. [21] Barnes, J. (2011). Pulse. London: Johnatan Cape. [22] Constantine, D. (2015). In Another Country: Selected Stories. Manchester: Comma Press. [23] Gaiman, N. (2006). Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders. London: HarperCollins. [24] Hall, S. (2010). Butcher’s Perfume. London: BBC Worldwide Limited. [25] Hall, S. (2017). Madame Zero. London: Faber & Faber Ltd. [26] Ishiguro, K. (2001). A Village After Dark. New York: The New Yorker. [27] Ishiguro, K. (2009). Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall. New York: Afred A. Knopf. [28] Lessing, D. (2003). The Grandmothers: Four Short Novels. London: HarperPress. [29] Marek, A. (2012). The Stone Thrower. Manchester: Comma Press. [30] McGregor, J. (2012). This Isn't the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. [31] Oyeyemi, H. (2010). My Daughter the Racist. Bath: AudioGO Ltd, BBC Worldwide. [32] Prawer Jhabvala, R. (2004). My Nine Lives: Chapters of a Possible Past. Washington, [33] DC: Shoemaker & Hoard. [34] Prawer Jhabvala, R. (2011). Aphrodisiac. New York: The New Yorker. [35] Prawer Jhabvala, R. (2011). A Lovesong for India: Tales from East and West. Berkley: Counterpoint. [36] Royle, N. (2017). Best British Short Stories 2017. London: Salt Publishing Ltd. [37] https://www.theguardian.com/ [38] https://www.bbc.com/news/live/uk-42116319 [39] http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3hshxFhHM4dKd3px6Q3NzR F/transcripts [40] http://www.asapsports.com/show_interview.php?id=136570 [41] https://www.rollingstone.com/ [42] https://storgy.com/ [43] https://www.npr.org/sections/music-interviews/ [44] http://www.businessinsider.com/ [45] http://www.bookslut.com/ [46] https://charlierose.com/ [47] https://pando.com/

Journal

European Journal of Language and Literature Studies – de Gruyter

Published: Oct 1, 2022

Keywords: communicative verbs; adverbial clauses; distribution; frequency; subordinators

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