Concept
Conjunction (grammar)
Overview
In grammar, a conjunction (abbreviated conj or cnj) is a part of speech that connects words, phrases, or clauses, which are called its conjuncts. That description is vague enough to overlap with those of other parts of speech because what constitutes a "conjunction" must be defined for each language. In English, a given word may have several senses and in some contexts be a preposition but a conjunction in others, depending on the syntax. For example, after is a preposition in "he left after the fight" but a conjunction in "he left after they fought".
In general, a conjunction is an invariant (non-inflecting) grammatical particle that stands between conjuncts. A conjunction may be placed at the beginning of a sentence, but some superstition about the practice persists. The definition may be extended to idiomatic phrases that behave as a unit and perform the same function, e.g. "as well as", "provided that".
A simple literary example of a conjunction is "the truth of nature, and the power of giving interest" (Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Biographia Literaria).
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
In the original texts
Passages from public-domain books where Conjunction (grammar) is discussed.
But such as keep overstrict to the law, and (according to custom) omit not a conjunction, rhetoricians blame for using a dull, flat, tedious style, without any variety in it. And inasmuch as logicians mightily want conjunctions for the joining together their axioms, as much as charioteers want yokes, and Ulysses wanted withs to tie Cyclop's sheep; this shows they are not parts of speech, but a conjunctive instrument…
Plutarch, Complete Works of Plutarch — Volume 3
names the idea; states what it is; opens on it
To this act we shall give the general appellation of synthesis, thereby to indicate, at the same time, that we cannot represent anything as conjoined in the object without having previously conjoined it ourselves. Of all mental notions, that of conjunction is the only one which cannot be given through objects, but can be originated only by the subject itself, because it is an act of its purely spontaneous activity…
Immanuel Kant, The Critique of Pure Reason
names the idea; states what it is; opens on it
At conjunction, when the Moon occupies a position between the Sun and the Earth, the Moon is illuminated by the Sun’s rays on her half towards the Sun which is turned away from the Earth, and the other half, with which she regards the Earth, is covered with darkness, and so in no degree illumines the Earth’s surface. When the Moon has slightly separated from the Sun, straightway she is partly illumined on the half…
Galileo Galilei, The sidereal messenger of Galileo Galilei
names the idea; opens on it
The Moon, when either in conjunction, or in opposition to the Sun, appears furthest from the Earth, and nearest to it when in her quarters. According to the system of that philosopher, when she is in conjunction with the Sun, she is nearer the Sun than the Earth is; consequently, more attracted to him, and, therefore, more separated from the Earth. On the contrary, when in opposition to the Sun, she is further from…
Adam Smith, The Essays of Adam Smith
names the idea
And now to take a quick glance at our time! We fly back in astonishment. The clearness, naturalness, and purity of the connection between life and history has vanished; and in what a maze of exaggeration and contradiction do we now see the problem! Is the guilt ours who see it, or have life and history really altered their conjunction and an inauspicious star risen between them? Others may prove we have seen…
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Thoughts Out of Season, Part II
states what it is; names the idea
Philosophers who discussed Conjunction (grammar)
Related ideas
- German language
- Grammar
- Japanese language
- Language
- Polish language
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge
- Noun
- Logical consequence
- Part of speech
- Oxford University Press
- Suffix
- Ambiguity
- English language
Place in the tradition
Part of Parmenides.