INGLÉS – 2ª

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25
TEMA 25:

RELATIONSHIP OF
REASON, RESULT AND PURPOS.
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OUTLINE
1.- INTRODUCTION.

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2.- EXPRESSING REASON.

PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES AND ADVERBIAL CLAUSES.

3.- RESULT.

PREPOSITIONS, CONJUNCTS, VERBS, NON-FINITE CLAUSES, SUBORDINATE

ADVERBIAL CLAUSES.

4.- PURPOSE.

PREPOSITIONS, INFINITIVE CLAUSE, THAT-CLAUSE.

5.- CONCLUSION.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.
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1.- INTRODUCTION.
The concepts of reason and result are frequently dependant: the result of A is B and also A is
usually the reason for B.

I wanted to buy a parrot. As a result I went to that shop.

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I went to that shop because I wanted to buy a parrot.

At the same time, purpose is closely related to reason or top result:

I went there to buy a parrot=purpose

I went there because I wanted to buy a parrot= reason
I wanted to buy a parrot, and so I went there= result

This is not as much as to say that these concepts can be treated as equals.
When reason, result and purpose are expressed by means of subordinate clauses, these need the
use of specific subordinators that will represent the function of the subordinate clause in the
superordinate sentence.

2.- EXPRESSING REASON.

If we want to know the reason why something has happened, this may take us to different units
of meaning and language.

What was the reason for the accident?

a) A man ran over her.

b) A car ran over her.
c) A man ran over her with his car.
d) A man ran over her because he hadn't stopped at the traffic lights.

The reason or cause of the accident is expressed in three ways:

• by the actor or causer: the man. (a)

• by the instrument: the car, which can also function as the subject of the clause.(b, c)
• by an adverbial clause specifying the reason. (d)

More generally, we express reason by means of a prepositional phrase or an adverbial clause.

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Prepositional phrases
Prepositional phrases that can indicate the reason for the action start by :

ON ACCOUNT OF, BECAUSE OF, FROM, OUT OF...: because of the weather, the car couldn't stop.
FROM and OUT OF usually introduce a reason of some psychological aspect. The driver collapsed
out of shock / from a sense of guilt.
THROUGH could also introduce a reason. The accident happened through the driver's carelessness.
FOR could also introduce a reason, usually with nouns of feelings: he collapsed for shock.

Adverbial clauses

Subordinate adverbial clauses indicating reason are introduced by linkers such as: BECAUSE, AS,
SINCE, SEEING THAT, NOW THAT, CONSIDERING THAT.

The clauses introduced by AS or SINCE come first, before the main clause and they usually
indicate that the emphasis is on the main clause; SINCE also gives the idea that the reason is
obvious. As / since the driver wasn't wearing the seatbelt, he also got hurt.

If the reason is given by means of BECAUSE, then, the subordinate clause must come after the
main clause and the emphasis is usually on the adverbial clause:
The driver also got hurt because he wasn't wearing the seatbelt.

The adverbial clause introduced by BECAUSE can take special emphasis being preceded by IT IS /
WAS and it takes front position:
It was because he didn't stop at the traffic lights that the accident happened.

Non-finite clauses

Sometimes the reason for an action can be expressed by non-finite clauses:

Having seen the accident, I phoned the ambulance.
Required by the police, I stopped my car.

3.- RESULT.
As we have previously mentioned in our introduction, reason and result are closely interrelated:

The man ran over her because he hadn't stopped at the traffic lights = the driver didn't stop at the
traffic lights and so he ran over her.

Ø Sometimes the result of an action is implied by means of a preposition accompanying the

verb or by means of a prepositional adjunct: I spent two hours dusting off the living-room.
The preposition "off" involves the result of "dusting", it gives the idea that dusting
resulted in a clean living room. In I went down the hill, "down the hill" involves the result of
my walking, it indicates the final point or result of the action.
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Ø Some conjuncts can be used to indicate that the sentence is the result of what has been
said before. These conjuncts are: THEREFORE, (AND) SO, THUS, HENCE, CONSEQUENTLY...
I wanted to see the view, (and) so / therefore, we went up the hill. Prices have gone down. As a
result, demand has increased.
Ø Verbs such as RESULT IN or BRING ABOUT can in themselves express result. The increase of
prices has resulted in /brought about a need to raise the salaries. GET and BECOME can

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accompany adjectives to denote the state of the adjective as a result of an action: The
river became polluted, I am getting fat... BECOME and the phrasal verb TURN INTO also
have a resultative meaning in themselves: he became a policeman, the frog turned into a
prince.
Ø Result can be expressed by a non-finite clause accompanied by TOO or ENOUGH and
expressing the result of the adjective phrase: She is tall enough to play basketball, when
we use TOO, the result expressed by the non-finite clause is usually something that is not
going to happen: he is too short to play basketball involves the idea that, as a result of his
height, he is NOT going to play basketball.
Ø Result is more frequently expressed by means of a subordinate adverbial clause using
adjuncts such as. THAT, SO (THAT), SO+ adjective phrase +THAT, SUCH+ noun phrase +
THAT:

He didn't stop at the traffic lights, so he ran over the girl.

He was driving so fast that he couldn't stop.
He was such a careless driver that he couldn't stop.

In formal style we can use SO + adjective + a + noun+ THAT: he wrote so romantic a poem that
ladies fell in love with him.

We can also use SO MUCH/MANY+ noun+ THAT: there were so many people that we couldn't see
the accident.

4.- PURPOSE.
Why do you want a new phone ? :

a) For pleasure. For phoning people.

b) so that my sister can take better photos.
c) To give it to my sister on her birthday

When we want to express the purpose of an action, it is clear that we may also be giving
information about the reason to perform that action.

Purpose can be denoted, mainly, by means of a preposition FOR+ gerund, an infinitive clause or
a that-clause.

a) We use FOR when followed by a noun phrase to involve what the action is done for. FOR
precedes a gerund when we refer to the usual purpose of a tool, thing, place: a CD is for listening
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to music.

There is a special structure to indicate purpose when there is another subject involved in the
action. I repeated the explanation for her to understand.

In this structure, the pronoun of the to-infinitive must be in the accusative case.

b) However, clauses of purpose are very often expressed by means of a to-infinitive, especially
when the subject of the subordinate and of the main clause is the same:

I repeated the explanation to make sure it was clear,

Apart from a to-infinitive, we can use IN ORDER TO, which is more formal.
If there is also a clear idea of result, then SO AS TO is preferred.
I'll phone her so as to give her the message.
When the purpose is negative, then, we use SO AS NOT TO or IN ORDER NOT TO: I phoned her so
as not to miss her.

c) This structure can be replaced by the most frequent one SO THAT, IN ORDER THAT when the
subject of the following verb is different from the one in the superordinate sentence:

I repeated the explanation so that / in order that she could understand.

In these adverbial clauses of purpose, the that-clause must include a modal verb. When the
adverbial clause indicates present or future, we can use MAY, CAN, WILL .When it refers to the
past, we use MIGHT, COULD, SHOULD, WOULD.
I will phone her so that she will/ can come to the party.
I phoned her so that she would / could come to the party.
SO THAT is more common than IN ORDER THAT, especially in an informal style.

d) Verbs like GO, COME, RUN, TRY... can be followed by AND+ a lexical verb to indicate purpose
instead of a to-infinitive: Try and jump to the other side, come and jump to the other side, go and
fetch some chalk.

5.- CONCLUSION.
In this unit, we have dealt with different syntactical and grammatical categories that can express
reason, result and purpose.
We have also tried to show how these three expressions share common or correlated points of
meaning.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Quirk, Randolph et al. A comprehensive GRAMMAR of The English language. London: Longman,
1985

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Greenbaum, Sidney The Oxford English Grammar. Oxford: O.U.P., 1996

Greenbaum, Sidney, Mair, Christian. The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics. New Jersey: Blackwell
Publishing, 2012
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