Connectors and an introduction to complex meaning

Concession

In this snippet, the narrator is on board a ship that is being shot at by cannonballs. What relationship is being created by the connector?

Vicious pain rips through my body even though nothing strikes me.

Children of Blood and Bone(2018)

Interesting!

There's a battle going on between the two statements connected above: the narrator hasn't been directly hit, but they feel pain anyway.

Here's another example:

There was a museum in town, but it wasn't very exciting.

Jasper Dash and the Flame-Pits of Delaware(2007)

In this snippet, there's a museum, but the narrator doesn't think it's a very good museum.

The term for this kind of relationship is a 'concession': it's a museum, but it's not a good museum. I felt pain, but nothing was directly causing it.

Let's write our own.

The stairs stretched upwards even though we'd been climbing the tower all day.

Maisie was aching all over yet she was determined to get through to the semi-finals.

Notice that the concession doesn't have to be something negative. It just needs to be opposed in some way to the original premise (premise is just a fancy word for some kind of initial statement). For example:

  • A circumstance that makes an action easier or more difficult than you would expect.
  • A quality you wouldn't expect something to have.
  • A reason something should be different to how it is.
Write your own version. Start with some kind of statement, followed by how something is different to what you would expect. Use connectors like 'but', 'even though', or 'yet' to show the relationship.
Previous page