Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2020 April 22

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April 22

Thereafter, thereby, moreover, furthermore...

A student writes a paper, using all four of these words in one paragraph. S/he habitually (maybe compulsively) uses this type of word, especially to open paragraphs. When queried, s/he says that 'we were taught that we had to use these words in a 'business writing' class, and it was hammered into us.' Do these words have a label - what are they called, and can anyone share a useful link to a grammar usage guide that would explain the intended purpose of these words (which I find inefficient, unnecessary, and effing irritating when used incessantly)? I'm a little less interested in your own opinion about it, and most interested in an authoritative link to a writing guide. Thanks if you can help me find out why they do it.-- Preceding unsigned comment added by 2a02:a447:a6cd:1:3c38:c252:ca1e:e4eb (talk o contribs)

They are called conjunctive adverbs. Here is a style guide on their misuse and recommending proper usages. --Jayron32 14:10, 22 April 2020 (UTC)

They're conjunctions (see Conjunction (grammar)), specifically phrase-level conjunctions (as opposed to words like "and" and "or", which can join things at a number of levels). "Thereafter" and "thereby" are old preposition-pronoun substitutes (in earlier English, prepositions couldn't occur directly before the words "it" and "what", so preposition + "it" was replaced by "there" + preposition, and preposition + "what" was replaced by "where" + preposition, as is still the case in Dutch and German today), and can sound rather pompous and old fashioned today, except in a few specific contexts such as legal writing. "Moreover" and "however" are more ordinary words, but can still sound a little rhetoric-y if overused... AnonMoos (talk) 14:13, 22 April 2020 (UTC)

Like Groucho dictating a pseudo-legalese letter to Zeppo in Animal Crackers. <-Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots-> 14:25, 22 April 2020 (UTC)

I'm the OP. Thanks, helpful, appreciated. Cheers -- 15:33, 22 April 2020 2a02:a447:a6cd:1:b45c:f558:2d7e:b61c