THE SUBORDINATION CONNECTORS: CAUSAL AND TEMPORAL - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

The subordination connectors are those that join two ideas (or propositions), of which one is the main one (autonomous phrase) and the other is secondary and depends on the first one (subordinate).

In general terms, the connectors can be any word that allows establishing a relationship, such as conjunctions, adverbs, adverbial phrases, relative pronouns, among others.

For example:

In this statement, the first proposition is No wine. The subordination connector is because, which is a conjunction. The second proposition is it was busy.

There are several types of subordination connectors: interrogative, comparative, concessive, conditional, final, causal, and temporal.

Causal connectors are those that establish a cause and effect relationship between the two propositions, such as because, because, because of this, why, because of this, among others.

For their part, temporal connectors establish time relationships, which can be of three types: prior (before, first), contemporaneity (while, at the same time) and posteriority (after, finally).

Types of subordination connectors

- Causal connectors

Causal connectors create cause and effect relationships between the propositions that make up the statement. They answer the question why?

These can be easily recognized if any nexus is successfully substituted for the prototypical causal connector, which is why.

For example:

Since I didn't come to class yesterday, I didn't know there was an exam today.

I didn't know there was an exam today because I didn't come to class yesterday.

In these examples, it can be seen that the connector "as" is causal, since it can be replaced by "because" keeping the same message.

Some causal connectors are:

1. How
2. So that
3. It is because of that
4. This is because
5. Therefore
6. Why
7. Thus
8. Thus
9. Well
10. As

• Examples of causal subordination connectors

a) “His uncle was a man with sharp features, hard as rock, but his gray-blue eyes always seemed to smile. He was invariably dressed in black, because he belonged to the Night's Watch ”. "Games of Thrones" by George RR Martin.

b) “Aerys Targary surely thought that the gods had heard his prayers when he saw Lord Tywin Lannister standing at the gates of King's Landing, with an army of twelve thousand men and swearing allegiance to him. So the Mad King committed the ultimate folly: he opened the gates of his city to the lions ”. "Games of Thrones" by George RR Martin.

c) " It is for the safety of those readers who are not familiar with the early stages of my case that I present the preface to the disclosure itself, providing a comprehensive summary of all the factors involved." "The One Who Lurks in the Dark" by HP Lovecraft.

d) “One of the recurring philosophical questions is:

"Does a falling tree make noise in the forest when no one is there to hear it?"

Which says something about the nature of philosophers, because in a forest there is always someone. "Lesser Gods" by Terry Pratchett.

e) “Probably, her illness must have been long and terrible, and Rachel was at an impressionable age. Therefore, Louis thought, if she preferred to forget, so much the better. Stephen King's "Animal Cemetery".

- Temporary connectors

Temporal connectors are responsible for establishing chronological relationships and answer the question when?. For example: A tremor shook the house while he slept.

Temporal relationships can be of three types: anteriority, contemporaneity and posteriority.

Some previous connectors are:

1. At first
2. Previously
3. Before
4. Before
5. First
6. Initially
7. Once upon a time
8. Long ago
9. Initially
10. Long ago

Some contemporary connectors are:

1. At once
2. At the same time
3. As
4. It was then that
5. At this / that precise moment
6. While
7. So
8. In the meantime
9. When
10. While

Finally, some examples of rear connectors are:

1. Next day / month / year
2. At the end
3. Years later
4. Over the years
5. After
6. After what
7. Then
8. Later
9. As soon as
10. Once finished / finished

• Examples of temporary connectors

a) “The comet could be seen even during the day, while from the fumaroles of Montedragón, behind the castle, columns of light gray steam rose, and the day before, a white crow had arrived from the Citadel with a message, a news already anticipated but no less frightening for that: the announcement of the end of summer ”. "Clash of Kings" by George RR Martin.

b) " When later K freed himself from the cloth and looked around, he found - he was not surprised at all - that his assistants were back in his corner, admonishing each other while pointing their finger at K and saluting him." Franz Kafka's "The Castle".

c) " Since then, Momo has lived very well, at least that's what it seemed to her." "Momo" by Michael Ende.

d) “As my timid character is not the most suitable to make the most irascible of all professors see reason, I was about to prudently retire to the small room on the upper floor that served as my bedroom, when he turned the door on its hinges. front door, the wooden staircase creaked under the weight of his phenomenal feet, and the owner of the house crossed the dining room. "Journey to the center of the Earth" by Jules Verne.

e) “So she was immobile as a corpse, while the young woman and I played cards. All the decorations on her wedding dress appeared to be brown paper. Nobody knew then of the discoveries that, from time to time, are made of corpses buried in ancient times and that turn to dust when they appear in the sight of mortals; but since then I have often thought that perhaps the admission into the daylight room would have turned that woman to dust. " "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens.

References

1. Sentence connectors showing cause and effect. Retrieved on August 1, 2017, from englishgrammar.org.
2. Temporal conjuctions (time-when). Causal conjunctions (cause-why). Retrieved on August 1, 2017, from ucc-dk.
3. Connectors showing cause and result. Retrieved on August 1, 2017, from inmadon-myenglishclass-blogspot.com.
4. Temporal conjunctions. Retrieved on August 1, 2017, from grammarbank.com.
5. Causal conjunctions. Retrieved on August 1, 2017, from m.twinkl.co.uk.
6. Connectives / Conjunctions. Retrieved on August 1, 2017, from sparklebox.co.uk.
7. Definition of Conjunctions. Retrieved on August 1, 2017, from thoughtco.com.