The ‘Ands’ and ‘Buts’ in Kahlil Gibran’s English Works: A Corpus Stylistics Perspective

Abstract

The sentence-initial coordinating conjunctions (and, but), referred to in the literature as SIA and SIB, have been well established as discourse markers beyond their syntactic function as connectors of related propositions. In reference to the proof-editing process of The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran’s most internationally acclaimed work in English, records show that Gibran tends to “overuse” “Ands” and “Buts”. In this context, this study traces Gibran’s use of sentence-initial coordinating conjunctions (and, but) in The Prophet and his seven other works in English, attempting to determine whether his use of SIA and SIB can be stylistically characterized. In this context, this study adopts a corpus stylistics approach to look into the frequency of SIA and SIB across Gibran’s English works. The findings of this study reveal that Gibran’s frequent use of SIA and SIB is statistically “meaningful” and his use of SIA and SIB is a “conscious” act of discourse marking, similar in nature to their “unique” use in King James Bible and William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience (Gibran’s most influential and inspirational literary sources). In addition, the collocational networks for both SIA and SIB display that Gibran depends heavily on the coordinating conjunction (and) to verbalize his arguments and points of view, shifting his prose-poetry as close as possible to “orality”—a biblical stylistic feature par excellence

1. Introduction

Born on 6 January 1883, in Bsharri, Lebanon, Kahlil Gibran was a Lebanese–American poet, philosopher, and artist who immigrated to the United States in 1895. His early life in Boston, Massachusetts, was marked by an artistic talent and a passionate pursuit of both visual and literary arts. Gibran’s literary career reached its zenith with the 1923 publication of “The Prophet”, a collection of 26 prose-poems on life, love, and spirituality that transcended cultural and religious boundaries. Gibran’s writings, in English and Arabic, continue to inspire readers with their universal wisdom, reflecting a fusion of Eastern and Western influences. Gibran’s legacy endures through his profound impact on literature, philosophy, and spirituality, cementing his status as one of the 20th century’s most influential and widely read authors. He passed away on 10 April 1931, in New York City (Buck 2010; Bushrui and Jenkins 1998).

Since its publication in 1923 in the United States, The Prophet has been internationally embraced and intensely loved. The Prophet has been translated into more than 50 languages and its worldwide reach has been a literary phenomenon on both sides of the Atlantic (Amirani and Hegarty 2012; cited in Altabaa et al. 2021). Indisputably, Kahlil Gibran’s (henceforth Gibran) name has become synonymous with his Prophet, published at the age of 40, 27 years after he left his homeland Lebanon.

Gibran was 12 years of age when he left his village Bsharri, in North Lebanon, and settled in Boston’s South End. With virtually no grasp of English, Gibran embarked on his journey with the English language that saw its beginnings in special migrant classes. Apart from the records of his English classes, little is documented of Gibran’s formal education path in the U.S. Notably, three years after his landing in the US, Gibran went back to Lebanon in 1897 to study at La Sagesse school in Beirut, interrupting his immersion in the English language for two consecutive years (Buck 2010). Meanwhile, Gibran’s stay at La Sagesse was his opportunity to perfect his Arabic—his mother tongue that earned him much respect and cemented him as a major literary figure in the Arab world (Bushrui 2012).

Apart from his short trip to Lebanon in 1902, Gibran stayed uninterruptedly in Boston until 1908, the year he left for Paris to refine his artistic talent. In 1912, two years after his return from Paris, Gibran moved to New York, where he lived until his death on 10 April 1931.

The Prophet was not Gibran’s first book in English. It was his third, after The Forerunner (1920) and The Madman (1918). Gibran’s legacy in writing in English continued with the publication of Sand and Foam (1926), Jesus, the Son of Man (1928), The Earth Gods (1931), in addition to The Wanderer (1932), and The Garden of the Prophet (1933) which were published posthumously.

As the focus of this study is on Gibran’s writing style in English, it is important to shed light on the major shapers of Gibran’s literary style.

2. Literature Review

2.1. Major Shapers of Gibran’s Literary Style in English

Gibran’s cultural immersion in Boston and then in New York, as well as his voracious reading habits, all contributed to the shaping of his writing style in English.

Fred Holland Day, a well-established photographer, art curator, and publisher, played a pivotal role in Gibran’s literary and artistic integration in Boston. Gibran was introduced to Day in 1896, only one year into Gibran’s migration journey. It was clear for Day that Gibran had a natural literary and artistic talent. Day made it possible for Gibran to join “the prestigious circles of Boston’s artistic and intellectual elite”, and he held the door wide open for him to be part of timely literary discussions (Buck 2010). With time, Day had become Gibran’s friend and mentor, as well as patron.

Mary Haskell is another friend who had a direct influence on Gibran’s English. In 1904, Mary Haskell, then headmistress of The Cambridge School, facilitated an exhibition of Gibran’s drawings. Mary Haskell took Gibran’s literary and artistic talent upon herself and spared no effort to support him financially, emotionally, and professionally (Hilu 1972). Believing in Gibran’s artistic potential, Mary Haskell funded Gibran’s studies in Paris at a private art school in 1908. Upon his return from Paris in 1910, Gibran proposed to Mary. Despite Mary’s rejection of Gibran’s marriage proposal, the couple managed to sustain the closest of friendships until Mary’s marriage to Jacob Minis in 1923.

Mary Haskell’s editorial contributions to Gibran’s English works continued for years to come after her marriage. As documented in the letters between Mary and Gibran, her language advice was sincerely sought by Gibran. Mary always encouraged Gibran to write directly in English, as opposed to his habit of translating from Arabic to English. By 1920, Gibran had a superior command of English. As recollected by Mary: “[Gibran] knows more English than any of us, for he is conscious of the bony structure of the language, its solar system. And he creates English” (Hilu 1972, p. 352). Mary Haskell edited all of Gibran’s English works that were published during his life. Notably, Gibran’s last two works, The Wanderer (1932) and The Garden of the Prophet (1933), were posthumously compiled and edited by Henrietta Breckenridge Boughton, a literary critic and poet, known by her pen name of Barbara Young. Young was Gibran’s “companion and self-proclaimed disciple and publicist” for the last seven years of his life (Bushrui 2012, p. xv).

Most of the research conducted on Gibran’s English works and his literary style has been in the context of ideological influences, thematic interpretations, and literary translation accuracy. Gibran’s ideological and thematic influences have been well documented. The English painter and writer, William Blake, had a significant impact on Gibran’s writings and paintings, mainly through symbolism and romanticism (Bushrui 2012). In addition to his influence on Gibran’s style, Blake shaped Gibran’s philosophical vision (Alshareif 2018). According to El-Hage (2013), as Blake’s influence on Gibran’s writings and paintings started to surface in Paris between 1908 and 1910, Gibran earned the title of “the twentieth-century Blake” (p. 14). Ultimately, Gibran’s literary and poetic association with Blake culminated in Gibran’s Tear and a Smile—the Arabic adaptation of Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience (El-Hage 2013). Considering both Blake and Gibran as the “poets of the Bible”, El-Hage (2013) underlined the important role the Bible had in shaping Gibran’s literary style (p. 15). In fact, Gibran’s fascination with the Bible style was self-declared. In his letter addressed to Mary Haskell (dated 19 May 1922) related to The Prophet literary/poetic style, Gibran expressed his admiration of the Old Testament poetic style and urged poets “to listen to the rhythm of the sea. That’s the rhythm in job—and in all the magnificent parts of the Old Testament” (Hilu 1972).

Specifically, Nassar (1980) note that Gibran’s “emotive and evocative” style is a direct effect of The King James Bible (p. 34). Jesus’ life and teachings shaped Gibran’s spirituality and philosophy. Christ’s influence can be pinpointed in most of Gibran’s works, mainly in The Prophet and Jesus, the Son of Man (Altabaa et al. 2021; Bushrui 2012; Buck 2010; Bushrui and Jenkins 1998; Naimy 1985). In the same vein, though to a lesser extent, the Baha’i faith also had some impact on Gibran’s literary philosophy. As claimed by Gibran himself, his relationship with Abdu’l-Bahá, the son of the founder of the Baha’i faith, was a turning point in his visionary thoughts on reconciliation, unity, and harmony (Bushrui 2012; Hilu 1972).

2.2. Gibran’s Sentence-Initial “Ands” and “Buts”

Much of the research conducted on Gibran’s English works has been dominated by translation-focused studies related to literary translation methodologies and approaches, mostly from English to Arabic. These studies investigate the extent to which literary translation, mainly from English to Arabic, remained faithful to the meaning and/or the aesthetic Gibran intended (Al-Saidi and Khalaf 2022; Boushaba 1988; El Hajj 2019; Ali 2019; Nasr 2018; Farghal and Kalakh 2017; Lebsir and Louiza 2016; El-Khatibi 2015; Mansour et al. 2014). It is also important to note that the majority of the translation-based research put emphasis on The Prophet, at the expense of Gibran’s other English works- except for Ali (2019) and Mansour et al. (2014) who tackled The Earth Gods and The Garden of the Prophet, respectively.

Nasr (2001) is the only study, to the best of the author’s knowledge, which highlights some of the stylistic patterns in The Prophet and thus the suitability of poetry as a teaching tool for learners of English as a Foreign Language. Although Nasr’s (2001) analysis was limited to the ‘on love’ sermon, it revealed that Gibran depended on the use of parallel syntactic structures, antonyms, and lexical repetitions.

With the dearth of research on Gibran’s linguistic and stylistic characteristics, this study is geared towards investigating a stylistic characteristic that Gibran himself accounted for. Interestingly enough, in the following letter to Mary Haskell, Gibran acknowledges his use of “Ands” and “Buts” in the Prophet, implying his ‘overuse’ of the sentence-initial coordination (and, but) (Hilu 1972, p. 406):

[New York]

Beloved Mary, 17 April 1923

I have been talking to you […]-so the silence was only in my hand.

Your going over the galley proof of The Prophet, and with such love, was so sweet. Your blessed touch makes every page dear to me. The punctuations, the added spaces, the change of expressions in some places, the changing of “Buts” to “Ands” and the dropping of several “Ands”—all these things are just right. The one thing which I thought a great deal about, and could not see, was the rearrangement of paragraphs in Love, Marriage, Children, Giving and Clothes. I tried to read them in the new way, and somehow they seemed rather strange to my ear... I want very much to talk to you about it […] arrive?

Love from Kahlil

In light of Gibran’s acknowledgement of Mary’s “blessed” meddling with his capitalized “Ands” and “Buts”, this section provides an account of “Ands” and “Buts” inter-sentential stylistic function—as discourse markers.

Sentence-initial coordinating conjunctions (and, but), referred to in the literature as SIA and SIB, have been well established as discourse markers at the inter-sentential structural level (Bell 2007; Dorgeloh 2004; Halliday and Hasan 1976; Hertwig et al. 2008; Kallay and Redford 2021; Lewis 2015; Schiffrin 1987; Sotirova 2011; Torabi Asr and Demberg 2020). According to Sotirova (2011), it is this inter-sentential cohesive function of SIA and SIB that makes linguists pay attention to their interactional role as “discourse markers”, essential to the “organization of talk” (p. 105). In fact, sentence-initial coordinating conjunctions are associated with a pragmatic dimension that continues (in the case of SIA) or contrasts (in the case of SIB) actions in conversation, a shared responsibility among speakers to construct dialogue at discourse level (Schiffrin 1987 cited in Sotirova 2011).

In addition to their “additive” and “contrastive” functions, the use of SIA and SIB to “indicate the development of an argument” (Bell 2007, p. 184) remains one of the most important discourse functions associated with SIA and SIB. This argumentative function of SIA and SIB can also culminate in an “authorial comment on the previous discourse” (Bell 2007, p. 190). In reference to D.H. Lawrence’s use of SIA and SIB, Sotirova (2011) argues that his stylistic decision to use SIA and SIB is not “simply a matter of course” (p. 120). It seems that D.H. Lawrence intended to signal perspectival shifts in free indirect style and he “creatively engaged with a feature of oral narration to use it structurally for the manipulation of viewpoints” (120). To illustrate this stylistic choice, Sotirova (2011) provides a pre-edited excerpt from D.H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers that Cambridge editors kept to a minimum:

And soon the struggle went down in his soul, and he forgot. But then Clara was not there for him, only a woman, warm, something he loved and almost worshipped, there in the dark. But it was not Clara. And she submitted to him. The naked hunger and inevitability of his loving her, something strong and blind and ruthless in its primitiveness, made the hour almost terrible to her. She knew how stark and alone he was. And she felt it was great, that he came to her. And she took him simply, because his need was bigger either than her or him. And her soul was still within her. She did this for him in his need, even if he left her. For she loved him.

(Sons and Lovers, p. 397 quoted in Sotirova 2011, p. 123)

As explained by Sotirova (2011), D. H. Lawrence’s stylistics preference for SIA and SIB highlights clearly his different viewpoints “next to each other…and played off against each other in a dialogue of minds” (p. 124).

In regard to SIA, it links “events or ideas in a linear fashion” (Kallay and Redford 2021, p. 90). Dorgeloh (2004) frames SIA within an order-governed relationship, an empowering “initiator” function (p. 1764). When positioned sentence-initially, and functions as “index additive cohesion between what has been said and what will be said” (Traugott 1986, p. 140; quoted in Dorgeloh 2004, p. 1764). That is, SIA is a discourse marker that signals more involvement on behalf of the speaker, and thus, its use is speaker-bound, mainly in narration and description (Schiffrin 1986; Traugott 1986; cited in Dorgeloh 2004). Similarly, in narrative fiction, SIA can provide a possible shift between “dialogue” and “narrative” as illustrated in the following example from Through the Looking-Glass:

“While you’re refreshing yourself,” said the Queen, “I’ll just take the measurements.” And she took a ribbon out of her pocket, marked in inches.

(Halliday and Hasan 1976, p. 235; quoted in Bell 2007, pp. 186–87)

Interestingly enough, in some cases, the coordinating conjunction “and” (not necessarily excluding SIA) is appropriate to substitute for “but”. In such cases, “and” can only be interpreted as “contrast” as shown in the example taken from the BBC weather report example (Blakemore 2002, p. 100):

The wettest weather has been in Preston where they have had 15 mm of rain and the driest weather has been in Ashford where there has been only 3 mm of rain.

Blakemore (2002) indicates that the use of “but” instead of “and” in this example would have been odd even though the speaker could be described as drawing a contrast between the wettest place and the driest place (pp. 100–1). According to Blakemore (2002), listeners can only assume that “and” helps establish a clear “contrast” relationship between the “wettest” and the “driest” places. In their investigation of the Arabic coordinating conjunction wa (and in English), Taha et al. (2014) reveal similar dynamic function wa (and) can have. They note that the substitution of but for wa (and) reduces “the processing effort for the speaker and maximize[es] the contextual effect for the listener needed to derive implicature, and thus, maximizes its optimal relevance” (Taha et al. 2014, p. 181).

Moving to SIB, its use has been less controversial and more frequent than SIA across the genres (including academic and scientific writing) (see Bell 2007). Torabi Asr and Demberg (2020) indicate that SIB carries inter-sentential relational information. SIB discourse functions can mark “contrast” as well as “violated-expectations” relations—“denot[ing] a fact that triggers a set of potential consequences, while the other argument denies one or more of them” (pp. 379–80). Although Blakemore (2002) does not tackle SIA and SIB in particular, she highlights the argumentative load of SIB as an extension of a speaker’s attitude, aiming at guiding the hearer’s conceptual representation. This intentional relationship between speaker and hearer in relation to the use of SIB is clear in the following example:

Tom thinks that Sheila is rich but unhappy. But I have always thought that all rich people are unhappy.

(Blakemore 2002, p. 91)

In addition to its “cancellation” function, SIB has a “subtractive” argumentative function, allowing “speakers to subtract potential unintended meanings away from existing intended meanings” (Bell 2007, pp. 194, 196). Fraser (2009) sees SIB as a discourse marker that can signal “context and pragmatic elaboration” (p. 293) through “contrastive” and “elaborative” functions. Fraser (2009) considers that the discourse marker but “does not create the relationship between two successive discourse segments, but it provides clues which inform the hearer of the relationship intended by the speaker” (p. 302). In this context, SIB transcends its ‘referential’ contrast, highlighting and reclaiming a competitive edge between speakers in a conversation (Schiffrin 1987 cited in Sotirova 2011). Thus, SIB contributes to argument development—a discourse function most frequently used in academic writing (Bell 2007).

Based on the above, SIA and SIB, as discourse markers, are intentionally used to help build arguments in speaking and writing. Indisputably, Gibran’s prose-poetry works are philosophical in nature and accordingly are more persuasive than informative.

Back to Gibran’s acknowledgement letter to Mary Haskell, his acceptance of the changes of “Buts” to “Ands” and the dropping of several “Ands” is similar to D.H. Lawrence’s acceptance of the changes made to his SIA and SIB in Sons and Lovers (Sotirova 2011). Despite their acceptance of the changes regarding their “Ands” and “Buts”, their initial use foregrounds both Lawrence’s and Gibran’s stylistic preferences for SIA and SIB. As shown in the following excerpt from The Prophet, Gibran’s use of SIA and SIB appears to be intentional and stylistic.

“When you love you should not say, “God is in my heart”, but rather, “I am in the heart of God”.

And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.

Love has no other desire but to fulfil itself.

But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:

To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night. To know the pain of too much tenderness.

To be wounded by your own understanding of love;

And to bleed willingly and joyfully” (the underlining is my emphasis).

The question that remains to be answered is whether Gibran’s SIA and SIB are still a prominent stylistic feature of The Prophet after the editorial changes made by Mary Haskell? And if so, are they as prevalent in his other English works as well? Adopting a corpus stylistics approach, this study investigates the use of SIA and SIB across Gibran’s English works, attempting to answer questions related to the stylistic function associated with their use. Specifically, this study seeks to answer the following research questions:

• Is Gibran’s use of “Ands” and “Buts” a stylistic feature of The Prophet?
• Is Gibran’s use of “Ands” and “Buts” a stylistic feature of his other English works?
• Is the use of “Ands” and “Buts” a stylistic feature specific to Gibran’s writing?
• Is there a discourse relationship between the “Ands” and “Buts” in Gibran’s writing?

3. Method

3.1. Corpus-Stylistics Analysis

In order to investigate the scale of SIA and SIB in Gibran’s English works (including The Prophet), this study uses a corpus stylistics method. As a quantitative method, corpus stylistics has emerged as a powerful stylistic tool that allows researchers to manage large corpora through computational lexical analysis software, bridging language in use and literary analysis (Carter 2004, 2010; Čermáková and Mahlberg 2022; Mahlberg 2013; McIntyre and Walker 2019; Semino and Short 2004; Stockwell and Mahlberg 2015; Bacha and Khachan 2023). Corpus stylistics has provided insights into stylistics analysis beyond the limitations of manual stylistics analysis methods. In 2004, Hori (2004) employed a corpus-driven approach to analyze the use of collocations in Dickens’ language and assess the creativity of Dickens’ language in terms of “usual” and “unique” collocations (Hori 2004, p. 26). In a similar fashion, Mahlberg (2013) adopted a corpus stylistics method to study Dickens’ fictional language by exploring his patterns of lexical bundles “as pointers to local textual functions” (p. iii). Using a similar corpus stylistics approach, Ihrmark and Nilsson (2021) analyzed Hemingway’s writing style. In their corpus of Hemingway’s short stories and novels, researchers explored Hemingway’s stylistic features through a quantitative data analysis of lexical frequency, type-token ratio, and sentence length among others. Similarly, Can and Cangir (2021) adopted a corpus stylistics approach to examine the linguistic aspects of the First World War poetry in a corpus of wartime poems.

3.2. Corpus, Corpus Tools, and Data Selection

For a more comprehensive understanding of the frequency and distribution of ‘Ands’ and Buts’, this study compiles a corpus of all of Gibran’s English works (henceforth GEC- 98113 words), including The Wanderer and The Garden of the Prophet that were published posthumously. Accordingly, GEC is composed of eight sub-corpora with each sub-corpus representing one of Gibran’s eight works in English (see

Table 1. Detailed description of GEC corpus.

Novel	Number of Words	Year of Publication	Genre
1. The Madman: His Parables and Poems	6945	1918	Parables and poems; 35 prose-poems
2. The Forerunner: His Parables and Poems	6904	1920	Parables and poems; 25 prose-poems similar to The Madman in theme and style
3. The Prophet	12,280	1923	26 prose-poetry pieces/fables
4. Sand and Foam: A Book of Aphorisms	7172	1926	A collection of life-observation aphorisms
5. Jesus, the Son of Man: His Words and His Deeds as Told and Recorded by Those Who Knew Him	40,098	1928	78 poetic/fictional portraits of Jesus (i.e., short narratives)
6. The Earth Gods	4665	1931	A dialogue-structured narrative; it is a mythological dialogue between three gods in the form of prose-poems
7. The Wanderer: His Parables and His Sayings	10,909	1932-Posthumously	52 parables and sayings; similar to The Madman and The Forerunner
8. The Garden of the Prophet	9140	1933-Posthumously	Similar format to The Prophet (prose-poetry fables)
	98,113

).

This study adopts a corpus linguistics analytic framework using #LancsBox 5.1.1—a software package for the analysis and visualization of language data and corpora developed at Lancaster University (Brezina et al. 2020). Data analysis was processed using the Whelk1 function in #LancsBox, enabling SIA and SIB word searches across the eight sub-corpora, simultaneously. In addition to Whelk, the #LancsBox GraphColl tool was used to identify the SIA and SIB collocations2 and to display them as a collocation graph to help with visualization (Brezina et al. 2015, 2020).

Data selection of SIA and SIB in this study refers to the use of the coordinating conjunctions (and, but) at the beginning of a sentence, either after a full stop or a semi-colon. The decision to include the semi-colon as a possible determiner of SIA and SIB, despite the arbitrariness of the sentence boundary determination, is based on Halliday and Hasan’s (1976) association of semi-colons with an inter-sentential separating function (cited in Smith and Frawley 1983). Hence, sentence-initial (and, but) used after a semi-colon are referred to in this study as SIa and SIb, respectively (as opposed to SIA and SIB) (Dorgeloh 2004). To illustrate, the following example from The Prophet was not included in the data for this paper, despite the coordinating conjunction (and) being in initial position and capitalized:

“Your seeds shall live in my body,

And the buds of your tomorrow shall blossom in my heart,

And your fragrance shall be my breath,

And together we shall rejoice through all the seasons”.

This exclusion of this type of sentence-initial coordinating conjunctions is based on the fact that Gibran intentionally differentiated between sentence-initial coordinating conjunctions that start an independent clause (as shown below) and those used within the same sentence (i.e., polysyndeton as shown in the example above).

“And others came also and entreated him.

But he answered them not. He only bent

his head; and those who stood near saw

his tears falling upon his breast.

And he and the people proceeded towards

the great square before the temple.

And there came out of the sanctuary a

woman whose name was Almitra. And she

was a seeress” (the undelining is my emphasis).

3.3. Gibran’s English Corpus (GEC) Description

Except for Jesus, the Son of Man, whose genre is “short story” (78 fictional portraits of Jesus through the eyes of various real and imaginary friends and foes), GEC sub-corpora fall under prose-poetry, revealed through genres such as the parable and the fable (see Table 1).

The details on each of the GEC sub-corpora in Table 1 highlight Gibran’s English works in terms of “year of publication” and “length of publication” (i.e., size of each of the sub-corpora). The chronology of publications provides insights into Gibran’s publication timeline and a tool to measure possible changes in his writing style (in relation to SIA and SIB).

4. Data Analysis and Discussion

4.1. Is Gibran’s Use of “Ands” and “Buts” a Stylistic Feature of the Prophet?

To answer this question, firstly, a count of sentence-initial (and, but) must be accounted for. The presence of SIA and SIB in the GEC sub-corpora was processed according to the two formats of sentence-initial (and, but) that satisfied the selection condition set earlier (as defined in Section 3.2).

Table 2. Random selections of SIA concordances in GEC sub-corpora.

JESUS THE SON.TxT	the multitudes of the kingdom of heaven.	And	He accused the scribes and the
JESUS THE SON.TxT	towards the north gate of the city.	And	He said to us, “My hour has
JESUS THE SON.TxT	followed Him, that day and the next.	And	upon the afternoon of the third day
JESUS THE SON.TxT	down upon the cities of the plains.	And	His face shone like molten gold, and
JESUS THE SON.TxT	you behold, and therein I shall rule.	And	if it is your choice, and if
MADMAN.txt	to their houses in fear of me.	And	when I reached the market place, a
MADMAN.txt	and I wanted my masks no more.	And	as if in a trance I cried,
MADMAN.txt	my masks.” Thus I became a madman.	And	I have found both freedom of
MADMAN.txt	and like a mighty tempest passed away.	And	after a thousand years I ascended the
MADMAN.txt	like a thousand swift wings passed away.	And	after a thousand years I climbed the
SAND and FOAM.txt	and lo, the mist was a worm.	And	I closed and opened my hand again,
SAND and FOAM.txt	again, and behold there was a bird.	And	again I closed and opened my hand,
SAND and FOAM.txt	man with a sad face, turned upward.	And	again I closed my hand, and when
SAND and FOAM.txt	and a night.” And I followed him.	And	we walked many days and many nights,
SAND and FOAM.txt	we did not reach the Holy City.	And	what was to my surprise he became
THE EARTH GODS.txt	All this have I done, and more.	And	all that I have done is empty
THE EARTH GODS.txt	all dark spirits we guarded the flower.	And	now that our vine hath yielded the
THE EARTH GODS.txt	that lieth therein is bred for gods.	And	naught but bread ungraced shall it be
THE EARTH GODS.txt	gods raise it not to their mouths.	And	as the mute grain turns to love
THE EARTH GODS.txt	GOD Aye, man is meat for gods!	And	all that is man shall come upon
THE FORERUNNER.txt	are but the foundation of your giant-self.	And	that self too shall be a foundation.
THE FORERUNNER.txt	that self too shall be a foundation.	And	I too am my own forerunner, for
THE FORERUNNER.txt	own forerunners, and always shall we be.	And	all that we have gathered and shall
THE FORERUNNER.txt	out of our eagerness dreams were born.	And	dreams were time limitless, and dreams
THE FORERUNNER.txt	not more, shining, than I, shone upon.	And	we, sun and earth, are but the
TheGardenoftheProphet.txt	which is the month of remembrance.	And	as his ship approached the harbour, he
TheGardenoftheProphet.txt	prow, and his mariners were about him.	And	there was a homecoming in his heart.
TheGardenoftheProphet.txt	there was a homecoming in his heart.	And	he spoke, and the sea was in
TheGardenoftheProphet.txt	once more and learn of the beginning.	And	what is there that shall live and
TheGardenoftheProphet.txt	a cry of remembrance and of entreaty.	And	he looked upon his mariners and said:
THE PROPHET CLEAN.txt	back to the isle of his birth.	And	in the twelfth year, on the seventh
THE PROPHET CLEAN.txt	his joy flew far over the sea.	And	he closed his eyes and prayed in
THE PROPHET CLEAN.txt	wings. Alone must it seek the ether.	And	alone and without his nest shall the
THE PROPHET CLEAN.txt	mariners, the men of his own land.	And	his soul cried out to them, and
THE PROPHET CLEAN.txt	often have you sailed in my dreams.	And	now you come in my awakening, which
THE WANDERER.txt	a veil of pain upon his face.	And	we greeted one another and I said
THE WANDERER.txt	to my house and be my guest.	And	he came. My wife and my children
THE WANDERER.txt	a silence and a mystery in him.	And	after supper we gathered to the fire
THE WANDERER.txt	the dust and patience of his road.	And	when he left us after three days
THE WANDERER.txt	met on the shore of a sea.	And	they said to one another Let us

and

Table 3. Random selections of SIB concordances in GEC sub-corpora.

JESUS THE SON.TxT	me I shall see Him no more.	But	how shall I believe what they say?
JESUS THE SON.TxT	His body seems to fill my arms.	But	is it not passing strange that my
JESUS THE SON.TxT	and raised my hand to hail Him.	But	He did not turn His face, and
JESUS THE SON.TxT	I was cursed, and I was envied.	But	when His dawn-eyes looked into my eyes
JESUS THE SON.TxT	fade away sooner than their own years.	But	I see in you a beauty that
MADMAN.txt	with a new and happy submission.	But	the seventh self remained watching and
MADMAN.txt	sides of the cloth that I weave.	But	I have a neighbour, a cobbler, who
MADMAN.txt	he went about looking for camels.	But	at noon he saw his shadow again--and
MADMAN.txt	looking for a hidden and lonely place.	But	as we walked, we saw a man
MADMAN.txt	sand. Great waves came and erased it.	But	he went on tracing it again and
SAND and FOAM.txt	the wind will blow away the foam.	But	the sea and the shore will remain
SAND and FOAM.txt	opened it there was naught but mist.	But	I heard a song of exceeding sweetness.
SAND and FOAM.txt	lie again in the dust of Egypt.	But	behold a marvel and a riddle! The
SAND and FOAM.txt	would not be difficult to find you.	But	should you hide behind your own shell,
SAND and FOAM.txt	choose the ecstasy. It is better poetry.	But	you and all my neighbors agree that
THE EARTH GODS.txt	the infinite would I conquer the infinite.	But	you would not do this, were it
THE EARTH GODS.txt	eyes the shadows of night are sleeping.	But	terrible is thy silence, And thou art
THE EARTH GODS.txt	not cling to that clings to me.	But	unto that that rises beyond my reach
THE EARTH GODS.txt	and of gods, I would be fulfilled.	But	you and I are neither human, Nor
THE EARTH GODS.txt	beyond, And we are the most high.	But	love is beyond our questioning, And love
THE FORERUNNER.txt	to himself, and he too went in.	But	what was{10} his surprise to find himself
THE FORERUNNER.txt	the envoy disappeared among the trees.	But	in a few minutes they returned, and
THE FORERUNNER.txt	true he no longer believes in me.	But	he went away much comforted.” At that
THE FORERUNNER.txt	tell me my faults and my shortcomings.	But	strange, not one word of reproach have
THE FORERUNNER.txt	triumph in disguise; and he was ashamed.	But	suddenly he raised his head, and like
The Garden of the Prophet.txt	that we may sing and be heard.	But	what of the wave that breaks where
The Garden of the Prophet.txt	walks the day between sleep and sleep.	But	I shall gaze upon the sea." And
The Garden of the Prophet.txt	head held high you sought the heights.	But	the sea followed after you, and her
The Garden of the Prophet.txt	travel ere you become one with Life.	But	of that road I shall not speak
The Garden of the Prophet.txt	that grow their longing for the light.	But	it is night that raises them to
THE PROPHET CLEAN.txt	prayed in the silences of his soul.	But	as he descended the hill, a sadness
THE PROPHET CLEAN.txt	take with me all that is here.	But	how shall I? A voice cannot carry
THE PROPHET CLEAN.txt	also. These things he said in words.	But	much in his heart remained unsaid. For
THE PROPHET CLEAN.txt	our faces. Much have we loved you.	But	speechless was our love, and with veils
THE PROPHET CLEAN.txt	no other desire but to fulfil itself.	But	if you love and must needs have
THE WANDERER.txt	the eagle all is well with us.	But	do you not know that we are
THE WANDERER.txt	might rid himself of the little bird.	But	he failed to do so. At last
THE WANDERER.txt	the smile of dawn upon her lips.	But	now the young men seeing her turned
THE WANDERER.txt	the field came unto him in greeting.	But	all the people said that his wife
THE WANDERER.txt	woman like unto Spring in a garden.	But	pity me and my husband for we

provide random selections of SIA and SIB whereas

Table 4. Frequency of SIA, SIa, SIB, and SIb in the GEC sub-corpora.

Novel	SIA	SIa	SIB	SIb
1. The Madman	137	13	27	2
2. The Forerunner	146	19	10	2
3. The Prophet	269	12	55	0
4. Sand and Foam	48	11	17	11
5. Jesus, the Son of Man	679	112	152	17
6. The Earth Gods	160	1	18	0
7. The Wanderer	245	13	54	3
8. The Garden of the Prophet	152	32	23	2
	Total: 836	Total: 213	Total: 355	Total: 37

and

Table 5. Relative frequency of SIA and SIB in the GEC sub-corpora.

Novel	Number of Words	SIA	SIA Relative Frequency/10 K	SIB	SIB Relative Frequency/10 K
1. The Madman	6945	150	215.982	29	41.756
2. The Forerunner	6904	159	230.301	12	17.381
3. The Prophet	12,280	228	185.667	42	34.201
4. Sand and Foam	7172	59	82.264	28	39.035
5. Jesus, the Son of Man	40,098	725	180.807	159	39.652
6. The Earth Gods	4665	36	77.17	17	36.441
7. The Wanderer	10,909	258	236.501	56	51.333
8. The Garden of the Prophet	9140	172	188.183	25	27.352

indicate the frequency of SIA and SIB as well as SIa and Sib—the sentence-initial connectors (and, but), often used after a semi-colon.

As shown in Table 4, Gibran employs SIA almost four times more than SIa (836 vs. 213 occurrences) and his use of SIB is 9.59 times more frequent than that of SIb (355 vs. 37 occurrences). Despite the disproportional use of SIa and Sib, their presence across the GEC sub-corpora adds more accuracy to Gibran’s overall use of these sentence-initial coordinators. Accordingly, the occurrences of SIa and Sib will be added to those of SIA and SIB, respectively, and as such they will be considered under the same functional entity (see Table 5).

In order to normalize the impact of the size of the GEC sub-corpora on the frequency of SIA and SIB, the relative frequency3 per 10,000 words for each sub-corpus was calculated, using #LancsBox 5.1.1, as shown in Table 5.

With the calculations of relative frequency, the use of SIA and SIB in Jesus, the Son of Man (highest frequency of SIA and SIB occurrences) and across the GEC sub-corpora changes drastically, as indicated in Table 5. Hence, The Wanderer has the highest relative frequency of SIA (236.501 occurrences) across GEC, i.e., 1.3 times that of Jesus, the Son of Man (725 occurrences), 1.2 times that of The Prophet (228 occurrences), and 3 times that of The Earth Gods (36 occurrences). Noticeably, The Wanderer returns the highest relative frequency of SIB in GEC (51.33 occurrences), i.e., 2.95 times that of The Forerunner (12 occurrences), 1.3 times that of Jesus, the Son of Man (159 occurrences), and 1.5 times that of The Prophet (42 occurrences) (see Table 5).

These results provide a clear answer as to whether Gibran’s use of SIA and SIB is still evident in The Prophet despite Mary Haskell’s conscious editorial changes. In fact, the relative frequency of SIA in The Prophet is within the (relative) frequency vicinity revealed in Jesus, the Son of Man and The Garden of the Prophet. In the same vein, Gibran’s use of SIA in The Prophet is noticeably twice the frequency explored in Sand and Foam and The Earth Gods. Similarly, the SIB relative frequency in The Prophet is within close proximity to the frequency displayed across the GEC sub-corpora. Gibran’s evident use of SIA and SIB in The Prophet opens this discussion to more important questions, mainly, in relation to Mary Haskell’s editorial contribution to The Madman (published in 1918) and The Forerunner (1920), with higher SIA and SIB frequencies than The Prophet (1923). Why did not Mary Haskell flag the issue of the ‘Ands’ and ‘Buts’ before The Prophet? Was Gibran too reliant on SIA and SIB in The Prophet in a way that affected the framing of his messages and subsequently prompted Mary Haskell to intervene? In light of these questions, contextualizing the genres explored in Gibran’s English works may provide some insight into the use of SIA and SIB across the GEC sub-corpora.

4.2. Is Gibran’s Use of “Ands” and “Buts” a Stylistic Feature of His Other English Works?

As indicated in Table 5, out of Gibran’s eight works, The Wanderer exhibits the highest relative frequency of both SIA and SIB (SIA: 236.5; SIB: 51.33). Except for The Earth Gods and Sand and Foam, the five remaining works have similar average SIA relative frequencies. In regard to SIB, The Forerunner and The Garden of the Prophet return the lowest relative frequencies, 17.38 and 27.35, respectively. Considering genre as a variable in The Earth Gods (i.e., a dialogue-structured narrative) and Sand and Foam (collection of aphorisms), they may help unfold the reasons as to why Gibran did not resort to the use of SIA in the same fashion and with the same frequency as he did in most of his other English works. Generally, aphorisms are expressed in wisdom-loaded statements and usually framed within a concise structure. This explains the one- to two-verse sections that dominate the stylistic landscape/patterns in Sand and Foam. These short philosophical stands are non-negotiable arguments with already-framed emotions and do not necessitate the textual complexity nor the discourse functionality of SIA. That is, Sand and Foam requires less dependency on SIA.

The following excerpt from Sand and Foam illustrates clearly this low frequency of SIA:

*How noble is the sad heart who would sing a joyous song with joyous hearts.

*He who would understand a woman, or dissect genius, or solve the mystery of silence is the very man who would wake from a beautiful dream to sit at a breakfast table.

*I would walk with all those who walk. I would not stand still to watch the procession passing by.

*You owe more than gold to him who serves you. Give him of your heart or serve him.

*Nay, we have not lived in vain. Have they not built towers of our bones?

*Let us not be particular and sectional. The poet’s mind and the scorpion’s tail rise in glory from the same earth.

Despite the genre-based differences between The Earth Gods and Sand and Foam, the low frequency of SIA in The Earth Gods is, in fact, related to data selection rather than generic requirements. Notably, the use of ‘And’ in The Earth Gods is highly detectable but excluded from the SIA dataset. Even though the pragmatic function of the clausal conjunction and and its role in enabling speakers to signal their attitude and willingness to carry on with their narrative, beyond how events are ordered in reality (Lazaraton 1992; see also Dorgeloh 2004), this study did exclude all occurrences of the clausal conjunctions (and, but) from its data count.

In this context, Gibran’s sentence-initial ‘And’ in The Earth Gods did not grammatically signal the beginning of new sentences (i.e., sentence connectors), and accordingly were ignored. Advancing this point of view, the use of ‘And’ at the beginning of a line/verse (i.e., clausal coordination structure) in The Earth Gods, if considered under SIA, will change its relative frequency from 77.38 to 342.97, the highest across the GEC sub-corpora. The following excerpt from The Earth Gods is a clear example of Gibran’s frequent use of ‘And’, outside the SIA set conditions.

Ours is the will he heralds,

And ours the sovereignty he proclaims,

And his love trodden courses are rivers, to the sea of our desires.

We, upon the heights, in man’s sleep dream our dreams.

We urge his days to part from the valley of twilights

And seek their fullness upon the hills.

Our hands direct the tempests that sweep the world

And summon man from sterile peace to fertile strife,

And on to triumph.

Having identified this non-SIA status, the recurrent use of ‘And’ in The Earth Gods can still pinpoint to Gibran’s preference for the discourse functionality of his ‘Ands’. Similarly, this practice is very frequent in William Blake (1992)’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience- foreshadowing Blake’s stylistic impact on Gibran (see Section 2.1). The decision to select Songs of Innocence and of Experience to compare to Gibran’s sub-corpora is the direct stylistic influence this work had on Gibran’s Arabic work, Tear and a Smile, as stated in El-Hage (2013). Under the same clausal conjunction and condition, Songs of Innocence and of Experience (as illustrated in the excerpt below) returns a frequency of 290.29/10 K.

And I made a rural pen,

And I stained the water clear,

And I wrote my happy songs

Every child may joy to hear

As such, this finding draws an indisputable stylistic relationship between Gibran and William Blake in relation to the discourse functionality and stylistic preference for SIA.

Now that we have contextualized SIA low (relative) frequency use in Gibran’s GEC sub-corpora, the genre-based use of SIA cannot be conclusively drawn due to SIA (relative) frequency discrepancies within the same genre and across the genres in the GEC sub-corpora.

Similar to SIA, the SIB genre-based differentiation may not be clearly established. As indicated in Table 5, The Wanderer has the highest relative frequency of SIB in GEC (51.33 occurrences), i.e., 2.95 times that of The Forerunner (12 occurrences), 1.3 times that of Jesus, the Son of Man (159 occurrences), and 1.5 times that of The Prophet (42 occurrences). On the other hand, The Forerunner and The Garden of the Prophet returned the lowest relative frequency (17.38 and 27.35, respectively) (see Table 5). Noting that The Forerunner and The Garden of the Prophet fall under the same genre as The Madman, The Prophet, and The Wanderer, one can conclude that SIB in GEC is not genre-bound; Gibran uses SIB with varying frequency for the same genre.

Considering SIB’s discourse functions of violating expectations, cancellations, and most importantly, “subtractive” argumentation (Bell 2007), it seems that the Gibran’s low dependence on SIB implies that his message in The Forerunner and The Garden of the Prophet was straightforward and not necessarily requiring excessive reasoning/arguing and thus has a “lower” SIB frequency relative to his other works.

In view of the above, the association between Gibran’s genres and his use of SIA and SIB cannot be established. This relationship, however, implies that Gibran was aware of the stylistic implications of SIA and SIB, and accordingly, he optimized on their discourse functions. Having said this, it becomes important to further investigate whether Gibran’s use of SIA and SIB is unique to his style. This leads us to question whether Gibran’s contemporaries and influencers portrayed similar use of SIA and SIB in their writings. Accordingly, the following section attempts to answer this question.

4.3. Is the Use of “Ands” and “Buts” a Stylistic Feature Specific to Gibran’s Writing?

For this purpose, COHA (Corpus of Historical American English) was consulted. COHA contains more than 475 million words of fiction, popular magazine, newspaper, and non-fiction books published between the 1820s and 2010s (Davies 2015). To capture Gibran’s era and thus to draw a possible comparison, a sample COHA (COHA SAMPLE) of 2,086,612 words written between 1817 and 1922 was selected (downloaded from https://www.corpusdata.org/formats.asp). In addition to COHA SAMPLE, The King James Bible (1604) was also used, having the most direct impact on Gibran’s writing/poetic style (see Section 2.1) and its SIA high frequency has already been established (see Dorgeloh 2004).

COHA SAMPLE and King James Bible were used as reference corpora to establish a comparison threshold with GEC. A reference corpus is used as a standard of comparison. The size of the reference corpus is usually larger than the compared to corpus. This benchmarking procedure is an analytic requirement to contextualize the salience of SIA and SIB in GEC when compared against other corpora.

As set out in

Table 6. Comparison of SIA and SIB across COHA SAMPLE, King James Bible, and GEC.

CORPUS	Number of Words	SIA Frequency	Relative Frequency/10 K	SIB Frequency	Relative Frequency/10 K
1. COHA SAMPLE	2,086,612	5742	27.518	5320	25.495
2. King James Bible	821,130	15,377	187.26	2033	24.75
3. GEC	98,114	1787	182.13	368	37.507

, the use of SIA in COHA SAMPLE is noticeably of a lesser frequency. That is, SIA in the GEC corpus and Bible occur almost seven times more frequently than they do in the COHA SAMPLE. Notably, Gibran’s use of SIA is almost as frequent as in King James Bible. This finding is in line with Sotirova (2011) who acknowledges the frequent use of sentence-initial connectives in genres such as oral and biblical narratives, a stylistic technique that D.H. Lawrence took advantage of to signal perspectival shifts. The importance of this finding lies in the fact that it provides empirical support for the possible stylistic influence the Bible had on Gibran’s English works, drawn in (comparative) literary criticism (see Section 2.1). Interestingly, this finding negates Rudolph’s (1989) assumption that genres such as poetry and description of facts and events may not necessitate a frequent use of the and conjunction (cited in Sotirova 2011).

Moreover, Gibran’s SIA high frequency use fits well the foregrounding of the narrative viewpoint function that sentence-initial coordinating conjunctions have been associated with. In her seminal work on D.H. Lawrence and Narrative Viewpoint, Sotirova (2011) engages with sentence-initial coordinating conjunctions in the context of free indirect style. This stylistic technique allows the voices of the narrators and their characters to merge. At times, it may facilitate a double narrator function (Pascal 1977; cited in Sotirova 2011). In addition to “sustain[ing] an already established character viewpoint across sentence boundaries”, these stylistic markers shift the focus from the narrator to the character’s viewpoint (Sotirova 2011, p. 49).

By foregrounding the speaker’s voice in this way, Gibran he was able to convey a more personal and subjective perspective on the events or themes he is writing about. To illustrate, throughout The Prophet, the narrator’s voice is prominent and is used to express his views on various topics such as love, marriage, children, work, and death. Gibran’s use of SIA and SIB helps him emphasize his narrator’s perspective by linking his ideas together in a cohesive and continuous manner. For example, in the section on love, Almustafa (the narrator) says:

“When you love you should not say, “God is in my heart”, but rather, “I am in the heart of God”.

And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.

Love has no other desire but to fulfil itself.

But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:

To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night. To know the pain of too much tenderness.

To be wounded by your own understanding of love;

And to bleed willingly and joyfully”.

Here, the use of both SIA and SIB brings Gibran’s thoughts together, emphasizing the narrator’s opinion on the nature of love, reinforcing the prominence of his voice and viewpoint in the text.

In the absence of rivalry between Gibran and his vocal characters in GEC, Gibran’s soliciting of SIA becomes a stylistic tool necessary for Gibran to unite in oneness with his characters—a characterization of greater self-responsiblilty for a “universal spiritual message of love and compassion” (Altabaa et al. 2021, p. 231; Badran 2012).

In relation to the use of SIB, its frequency in GEC surpasses all other corpora under investigation. As summarized in Table 6, SIB is approximately 1.5 times more frequent in GEC than in COHA SAMPLE and in King James Bible. Gibran’s SIB high frequency implies a SIB dependence, and in turn, a dominant stylistic feature indicative of argumentation in GEC. The high frequency of both SIA and SIB in GEC suggests that Gibran’s works embed argumentation in narration. His dominant “parable” genre (i.e., short-narration in prose-poetry form) are made of a sequence of events within an argumentative framework (i.e., message). In other words, SIB may be interpreted in terms of Gibran’s clear intentions to guide his readers into well-determined philosophical conclusions, a buildup of arguments that bears no misinterpretation (Badran 2013). In line with Bell (2007), SIA facilitates argument development by “building on or adding to the argument structure” whereas “SIB facilitates argument development by its canceling or refining the previous argument” (p. 197). It seems that despite his adoption of “biblical” style (i.e., SIA use), Gibran’s philosophical vision did not fall short from being “defended” or “guided”, using SIB.

In light of the positive correlations between SIA and SIB in GEC, looking into the nature of the SIA–SIB relationship may provide some answers into Gibran’s perception of their stylistic relevance.

4.4. Is There a Discourse Relationship between the “Ands” and “Buts” in Gibran’s Writing?

In light of the prevalence of SIA and SIB across the GEC sub-corpora, widening the scope of the present investigation into the collocational networks for both SIA and SIB can deepen our understanding of Gibran’s use of SIA and SIB. That is, plotting the SIA and SIB collocational networks sheds light into a possible exploration of how Gibran wove his arguments and point of views across the GEC corpus (see Section 2.2).

The exploration of the collocational network for SIB will help us see whether the coordinator conjunction (and) is part of this network and the strength of such a relationship. It is important to note here that our exploration of the SIB collocational network is by no means restricted to SIA. After all, the SIB collocational network is plotted to identify the overall interactive nature between SIB and the coordinating conjunction (and) due to the argumentative value of “and”—whether positioned sentence-initially or not4 (See Torabi Asr and Demberg 2020 and Blakemore 2002). Taking into account the staggering average occurrences of SIA (42.5%) and SIB (77.5) compared to non-sentence-initial (and, but) (see

Table 7. SIA, non-sentence-initial (and), SIB and non-sentence-initial (but) in GEC.

Novel	Number of Tokens	SIA	Non-Sentence Initial (and)	SIB	Non-Sentence Initial (but)
1. The Madman	6945	150	317	29	27
2. The Forerunner	6904	159	306	12	32
3. The Prophet	12,280	228	449	42	95
4. Sand and Foam	7172	59	222	28	39
5. Jesus, the Son of Man	40,098	725	1770	159	171
6. The Earth Gods	4665	36	126	17	11 1
7. The Wanderer	10,909	258	522	56	50
8. The Garden of the Prophet	9140	172	498	25	50
Total		1787	4210	368	475

¹ Excluding the clausal verse-initial structure.

), plotting the collocational networks for both SIA and SIB makes it more feasible and worthy of investigation.

Exploring the collocational relationship between SIB and the coordinating conjunction (and) reveals a degree of collocational interdependence across the GEC corpus. To measure the collocational network for SIB, this study uses the #LancsBox GraphColl tool (Brezina et al. 2020). Based on the frequency of SIB collocates, GraphColl displays a visual representation of the collocational network, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1 indicates the collocational strength5, expressed in terms of the length of the line between the network collocates. In a way, the shorter the line between the center of the graph (here SIB) and its network collocates is, the stronger the collocational relationship will be. At the same time, the darker the dot next to the network collocates is, the more frequent the collocate will be. For a “reasonably” high frequency collocational network, this study sets the minimum collocate frequency threshold to 10 occurrences (the statistical norm is 20 in a corpus of 1 million words). Taking into account the size of GEC is under 100 K (98,113 words), the set frequency threshold for this study is “reasonably” conservative (See Baker 2016).

As shown in Figure 1, the lexical relationship between SIB and the coordinating conjunction (and)—including SIA—is a strong one. Across the eight sub-corpora, SIB has the coordinating conjunction (and) as its 2nd most frequent collocate (132 occurrences), second to the definite article (the) (191 occurrences) (See

Table 8. The five most frequent collocates of SIB.

	Collocate	Frequency of Collocate
1	the	191
2	and	132
3	i	127
4	you	93
5	a	83

).

In terms of the lexical relationship between SIB and the coordinating conjunction (but), the GEC sub-corpora returned six occurrences only in four of the eight sub-corpora, lower than the threshold set for this analysis. This absence of a collocational relationship can be due to the fact that the coordinating conjunction (but) (whether sentence-initially or not) is used sparingly when compared to “and”. Interestingly enough, this finding foregrounds the “but” functions within the collocational vicinity of “and”—where the inverse in untrue (see Figure 2).

Having said this, Figure 2 reveals an interesting finding. There is a strong collocational relationship between SIA and the coordinating conjunction (and) (609 occurrences), 2nd most frequent collocate behind the definite article (the) (1301 occurrences).

This strong collocational relationship between SIA and the coordinating conjunction (and) is a clear indication that Gibran depends heavily on “and” to verbalize his arguments and points of view, shifting his prose-poetry as close as possible to “orality”—a biblical stylistic feature par excellence (see Section 4.3; Rossette 2013; Sotirova 2011; Badran 2010).

5. Conclusions

Using a corpus stylistics approach, this study attempted to provide answers to whether Gibran’s SIA and SIB remain prominent stylistic features of The Prophet after the editorial changes made by Mary Haskell. In fact, the frequency of SIA and SIB in The Prophet supports their function as discourse markers and thus stylistic features. Notably, this study reveals that Gibran’s use of SIA and SIB is not only limited to The Prophet but also appeared to be common stylistic features across his works in English. At the same time, this study flags SIA and SIB as Gibran’s “signature” stylistic features influenced by “biblical” style. In addition, this study establishes collocational relationships between SIB and the coordinating conjunction (and) on one hand and SIA and the coordinating conjunction (and) on the other; clearly, these collocational relationships help Gibran reconstruct his persuasive approach and point of view in a style within the proximity of “orality”. Finally, this study calls for more corpus stylistics research on SIA and SIB as markers of argumentation in prose-poetry, and it encourages more studies on Gibran’s works in Arabic, to explore whether Gibran uses the same stylistic feature that he associates with his SIA and SIB in English.