Communicative functions: Interacting with others

Adjusting our interaction with others

Expressing and contradicting expectations

When we interact with others, we build relationships and try to keep the other people interested in what we are saying. One way we do this is to say what is expected and then to contradict it using the connective but:

	expected	Every morning the Gong children have a swim in their swimming pool ...
	contradiction	... but when the children came out for a swim in the morning, they found their swimming pools empty.

For more information about responding to requests, see: 

Text types: Stories: Building atmosphere and suspense