Geoff,
In the absence of examples, I can’t
be sure what you’re thinking of as “transitional words,” but
I would guess they include words like “nevertheless,” “however,”
“therefore,” “then,” etc. In my experience,
traditional grammar has relegated such words to that grab bag or otherwise
unclassifiable words called “adverbs.” There are, of course,
attempts to be more terminologically precise, e.g., “conjunctive adverb,”
but that’s a bastard term that says simply, “We don’t want to
call them either, so lets call them both.”
One problem with categories is that they
bleed. Clear conjunctions, like “and” or “but,” are
frequently used informally as conjunctive adverbs meaning “also” or
“in addition” and “however” or “nevertheless.”
They tend to be stressed as if they were separate clauses when treated this
way.
Herb
From:
Sent: Saturday, May 15, 2010 11:11
AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Part of Speech
What part of speech would
transitional words be defined by traditional grammar, or do they make up their
own (9th or 10th part or however many we're up to now)?
Geoff Layton
The New Busy think 9 to 5 is a cute idea. Combine multiple
calendars with Hotmail. Get busy.