104-125

In stories connectives are especially important because they are used to sequence the events of the plot in the order in which the events happened, as well as to signal an unexpected event in the plot. Connectives also link meanings across clauses. Sometimes the meanings are linked when clauses are joined into one sentence; sometimes the meanings are linked across separate clauses.

	joined clauses	separate clauses
adding meanings: and, also, as well	The Hare lay down under a tree and* fell asleep.*	Persephone was very unhappy. She was also* very hungry.* The people on Earth were very unhappy as well.
contrasting and unexpected meanings: but, however	"Rosie!" she called out loud, but* there was no answer.*
connecting meanings in time: when, while, then, whenever, meanwhile	When he was halfway along the course, he felt hot and tired. She was sleeping in the sun while* she waited for him.* Whenever Rosie goes to Ocean Park, she always does the same thing. As soon as her saw her, Hades fell in love.	The Hare lay down under a tree and fell asleep. Meanwhile* the Tortoise never stopped for a moment.* She was petrified. Just then* a sparkle on the side of the path caught her eye.*
connecting meanings to cause, consequence or condition: so, in order to, because	She didn't worry because* she knew exactly where Rosie was going.* I bet she's gone around to the other side (in order) to find the horse with the blue ribbon. Even though you are as fast as the wind, I'll beat you. She was so sad that* she forgot to take care of the plants, so they started to die.*	For this reason Persephone refused to eat the food that Hades gave her.

Creative writers sometimes begin sentences with connectives in order to enhance the meanings in the story. For example, in the following sentences from the narrative Adventure at Ocean Park, the connective so joins the first two clauses into one smooth sentence. Then the storyteller tells us what Rosie always does and ends this sentence with a full stop. The full stop acts as a pause. Then the next sentence begins with the word but. Beginning a sentence with but emphasises that this sentence is introducing something unexpected. It is at this point that the suspense in the story begins to build:

In this next example the storyteller could have written the three clause as one connected sentence. Instead she has written three separate sentences which makes this part of the story feel jerky and urgent. This jerkiness highlights Lara's problem:

The storyteller even uses connectives in sentences with no verbs. The following sentences express Lara's thoughts and feelings. Compare the first sentence, which is very short, the second second which is made from two clauses joined by the connective whenever and the final sentence which is long with lots of connectives and no verbs:

The connectives may also be implicit, ie the storyteller does not use a connective but expects the audience to understand the connection between the clauses. In the following extract the first and last connectives are explicit, but the remaining connectives are implicit. If storytellers included all the possible connectives, the story would be very slow and hard to read:

In stories we also use connectives when we join a clause with reported thoughts or speech to a clause with a thinking or a saying verb.

Sometimes this connective is left out, but the audience 'understands' that it is there.