Misconstruing Means (And Clarification) As Internal Consequence

Marin & Rose (2007: 139):

Internal consequence is concerned with drawing conclusions from arguments, and countering them. We have already seen how Tutu uses Thus to signal a conclusion for each of his Arguments:

The Act required that the application should be dealt with in a public hearing ...
Thus there is the penalty of public exposure and humiliation 

…amnesty is only given to those who plead guilty ...
Thus the process in fact encourages accountability 

…there is another kind of justice, restorative justice,
Thus we would claim that... justice, is being served

Conjunctions such as thus, consequently, in conclusion signal that a conclusion is being drawn. By this means the conclusion is construed as the expected outcome of the argument that has been presented.

Blogger Comments:

[1] To be clear, the claim here is that conjunction is a discourse semantic system of logical relations. As such, it is not concerned with "drawing conclusions from arguments and countering them"; see further below.

[2] To be clear, thus typically functions like thereby (manner: means) rather than therefore (cause-condition).  In the first two examples, the conjunctive relation is manner: means, as can be demonstrated by the fact that replacing thus with by such means still realises the same meaning. The third example, in contrast, realises cause-condition (consequently).

[3] To be clear, in conclusion typically marks a conjunctive relation of summative clarification (elaboration) rather than a consequential relation (enhancement); see Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 613).  Here Martin & Rose confuse 'conclusion' in the sense of a logical inference (cause: result) with 'conclusion' in the sense of a summing up (clarification: summative).

[4] To be clear, two of these three examples did not present the result ("conclusion"/"outcome") of reasons ("argument'), and none of the three included wording that construed the 'means' or 'result' clause as expected.  Any "expectation" here could only be that of a reader, in hindsight.