Register-specific meaning categorization of linking adverbials in English

•A new meaning categorization system of linking adverbials.•New linking adverbials and meanings were identified.•Registers vary in the use of meanings and types of linking adverbials.•Intonation units influence grammatical functions.•Corpus studies need to be complemented by manual analysis.

English grammar reference books present a wide range of categorizations of linking adverbials according to semantic meaning. Different from this traditional semantic-only approach in previous grammar books, this study develops a new categorization system based on both semantic and pragmatic approaches. The proposed new meaning categorization system represents five registers: written academic prose, written news, academic lectures, broadcast news and conversation. Bearing in mind pedagogical implications in EAP/ESP contexts, this paper also presents a possible substitution test, types of linking adverbials and frequency of each of the types of each meaning category in each register. This study confirms that register-specific corpus studies based on manual analysis complement prevalent corpus-based pedagogical grammar studies and contribute to the understanding of the nature and meaning of linguistic items, especially multi-functional forms in spoken registers.