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to boldly proceed ...3.3 ExistentFigure 1 below shows the frequency of the eight most recurrent existents present in ourcorpus and Figure 2 indicates the rate of the ten most frequent groups of synonymousexistents.Existent250200192 187150100152131116104 101 98500evidencereasondifferencewayrelationproblemneedcaseFigure 1: Most frequent existentsSyndrome250234200150100192 1881731551101015049 45240reasonevidencedifferencerelationexampleproblemneedargumentrestrictionaccountFigure 2: Most frequent synonymous existentsAs can be noticed in figures 1 and 2 above, the most frequent existents are nominalsspecifically related to the construal of the author’s argument. Moreover, very frequentlyexistents involve nominalisations of processes, qualities and relators. For instance, theprocesses differ, relate and argue have recurrently nominalised into difference, relation andargument, respectively; the qualities evident and necessary have become the nominalsevidence and need; and the congruent relator so has repeatedly been transcategorised into thenoun cause.3.3.1 PremodificationTable 4 below summarises the most recurrent determiners present in the nominal group ofexistents. By far, there is an overwhelming predominance of non-specific determiners like theindefinite article a(n) and the negative determiner no. This strikingly frequent use of no (23%of instances) in existential clauses is noticeable since authors have repeatedly chosen toexpress the lack of evidence, reason, need, example, account, etc. rather than their existence,as exemplified in (12). This adds to the heteroglossic and argumentative character of theregister under study.114