Adverbial Relations in Women’s Writing: Insights from The Corpus of Women’s Instructive Writing in English, 1800-1899

Abstract

Adverbial relations can be realised by an array of linguistic means such as adverbials, particles, coordinating and subordinating conjunctions, among others. In particular, cause, condition and concession entail three meaningful adverbial relations of circumstance. While these three relations have been extensively studied in linguistics, there is still much to be understood about their usage, meaning, and function, especially in specific contexts such as specialised texts written by women in the nineteenth century. To address this gap in knowledge, this study focuses on the study of cause, condition and concession in modern English texts written by women, specifically in the Corpus of Women's Instructive Writing in English, 1800-1899. The aim of the study is thus to investigate the most used forms of adverbial linkers which show a causal, conditional, and concessive meaning, and the ways in which interpersonal information is evident besides textual information. The study employs a corpus-based analysis of the COWITE19 dataset, using both quantitative and qualitative methods to identify patterns and trends in adverbial circumstantial linking usage. The data were analysed for the frequency of different types of these adverbial linkers, as well as their semantic and pragmatic functions. The study also examines how interpersonal information is conveyed through this adverbial relation. It is probable that the results of the analyses indicate that the most used adverbial linkers in modern English texts written by women may be the concessive and conditional ones. The intricate process of elaborating a recipe includes multiple clarifications which are expressed, for instance, by means of the “but” and “if” conjunctions. In addition, we seek to evaluate if said adverbial relations are used to express interpersonal information, such as the speaker's attitude, degree of certainty, and engagement with the listener. Overall, the findings of this study will provide valuable insights into the use and function of these adverbial circumstantial relations in modern English texts written by women. In conclusion, this study contributes to our understanding of circumstantial adverbial linking by shedding light on its usage, meaning, and function in modern English texts written by women. Further research could explore how these findings vary across different genres and registers, and how they may be used to inform language pedagogy and computational linguistics. By continuing to study adverbial relations in specific contexts, we can deepen our understanding of this linguistic phenomenon and its role in discourse.