TABLE 2.

(Hyland, 2008a, p. 49) functional taxonomy.

Category	Examples
Research-oriented: help writers to structure their activities and experiences of the real world
Location: indicate time and place	at the beginning of, at the same time
Procedure	the use of the, the operation of the
Quantification	the magnitude of the, a wide range of
Description	the structure of the, the size of the
Topic: related to the field of research	in the Hong Kong, the currency board system
Text-oriented: concern with the organization of the text and the meaning of its elements as a message or argument.
Transition signals: establishing additive or contrastive links between elements	on the other hand, in addition to the, in contrast to the
Resultative signals: mark inferential or causative relations between elements	as a result of, it was found that, these results suggest that
Structuring signals: text-reflexive markers which organize stretches of discourse or direct reader elsewhere in text	in the present study, in the next section
Framing signals: situate arguments by specifying limiting conditions	in the case of, with respect to the, on the basis of
Participant-oriented: focus on the writer or reader of the text.
Stance features: convey the writer’s attitudes and evaluations	are likely to be, may be due to, it is possible that
Engagement features: address readers directly	it should be noted that, as can be seen

The bold font denotes major categories.