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CONJUNCTIONS IN ENGLISH
Tukhtasinova Zarina Zokirjon kizi
Student of Master’s department Karshi state university
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8346619
Abstract.
This paper contains an in-depth study of conjunctions, including their meaning,
types as well as uses or functions in English. Conjunctions are words that link or connect two
words, phrases, clauses or sentences together, either in speech or in writing. Conjunctions are one
of the eight parts of speech in English, according to the traditional grammar. Apart from the
coordinating, subordinating and correlative types, the author has also researched into other kinds
of conjunctions that can be of great interest to the reader. The author deemed it necessary to carry
out a study of this kind because over the years, this important area of language study has received
less attention from language scholars and students of English/linguistics in comparison with other
parts of speech like nouns, verbs, adjectives and prepositions. As this paper had unveiled, the
author had not only conceived of conjunctions as one of the eight parts of speech in English, as
upheld in traditional grammar, but also went beyond to examine the meaning and uses of
conjunctions semantically and pragmatically as well as in propositional logic. This study is very
significant, as it provides an impetus for those who hitherto have not thought of researching into
this area of language study. Furthermore, the paper has presented before the reader a myriad of
sentential examples for easy understanding or comprehension.
Keywords:
Conjunctions, Coordinating, Subordinating, Correlative.
СОЮЗЫ В АНГЛИЙСКОМ ЯЗЫКЕ
Аннотация:
Эта статья содержит углубленное исследование союзов, включая их
значение, типы, а также использование или функции в английском языке. Союзы — это
слова, которые связывают или связывают два слова, фразы, предложения или
предложения вместе в устной или письменной форме. Согласно традиционной
грамматике союзы — одна из восьми частей речи английского языка. Помимо
сочинительных, подчинительных и соотносительных типов, автор исследовал и другие
виды союзов, которые могут представлять большой интерес для читателя. Автор счел
необходимым провести исследование такого рода, поскольку с течением времени этой
важной области изучения языка уделялось меньше внимания со стороны языковедов и
студентов, изучающих английский язык/лингвистику, по сравнению с другими частями
речи, такими как существительные, глаголы, прилагательные. и предлоги. Как было
показано в этой статье, автор не только рассматривал союзы как одну из восьми частей
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речи в английском языке, как это поддерживается в традиционной грамматике, но также
пошел дальше, чтобы исследовать значение и использование союзов семантически и
прагматически, а также в логика высказываний. Это исследование очень значимо, так как
дает толчок тем, кто до сих пор не задумывался об исследованиях в этой области изучения
языка. Более того, статья представила читателю множество сентенциальных примеров
для облегчения понимания или понимания.
Ключевые слова:
союзы, сочинительные, подчинительные, соотносительные.
Traditionally, the conjunction is one of the eight parts of speech in English. A conjunction,
as reported by Malmkjӕr, is defined as an indeclinable part of speech that links other parts of
speech, in company with which it has significance, by classifying their meaning or relations.
According to Leung, conjunctions have been studied under various labels and have drawn much
attention from various scholars in the field of English/Linguistics over time: Halliday and Hasan
treat them as “linguistic devices that create cohesion”, while Sanders and Maat describe them as a
“semantic relation that is explicitly marked” (1-2). According to Er, as cited by Aidinlou and
Reshadi, conjunctions are a “semantic connection between two clauses”. Furthermore, Leung cites
four scholars in this regard. These are: Schiffrin, who treats conjunctions as “discourse markers”,
Fraser considers them as a “pragmatic class of lexical expressions”, or simply, “pragmatic
markers”, while Rouchota states that conjunctions “encode different meanings, and that they can
be a procedural device”, and lastly, Caron conceives conjunctions simply as being used “to express
various kinds of relations between utterances”.
Aside from the scholars mentioned above, others most generally conceive conjunctions as
linkers or connectors that join two words, phrases, clauses or sentences together, either in speech
or in writing. To this end, Leech and Svartvik note, “Clauses or phrases may be linked together
(coordinated) by conjunctions”. They further state that conjunction or coordination can also link
two words of the same word class. Aarts says, “Conjunctions belong to a closed class of words
that have a linking function”. (Closed class here means that we cannot derive another word class
from conjunctions the same way we do with others such as nouns, verbs and adjectives). According
to Roberts, conjunctions perform the function of joining any two or more sentences together to
form another coordinate sentence. Speaking from the same viewpoint, Lester states that
conjunctions join words or groups of words. In the words of Eckhard-Black, “A conjunction stands
between two words, phrases or clauses and links them”. Similarly, Carnie says that “Coordinate
structures are constituents linked by conjunctions like
and
or
or
”. In addition, Kirkpatrick states
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that “A conjunction is a linking word used to join words, word groups or clauses”. Again, a
conjunction, in the words of Murthy, is “A word which joins together sentences or words and
clauses”. Furthermore, Baskervill and Sewel say that “Unlike adverbs, conjunctions do not modify
but they are just solely for the purpose of connecting”. As noted by Kirksten, “Conjunction is an
indeclinable part of speech that links other parts of speech, in company with which it has
significance, by classifying their meaning or relations”. In a similar fashion, Crystal says that
conjunctions are “A term used in the GRAMMATICAL classification of words to refer to an ITEM
or a process whose primary function is to connect words or other CONSTUCTIONS in which the
conjoined elements may be referred to as conjuncts”. Also, McArthur says that a conjunction is a
part of speech or word class used to connect words or constructions, adding that the linked units
that result are said to be coordinated or coordinate.
All these scholars, as we have seen, are unanimous in echoing the fact that conjunctions
are words that link, connect or join two words, phrases, clauses and sentences together. This is
absolutely true because whenever the word conjunction, being a part of speech in a language, is
mentioned, the first thing that comes to mind traditionally is that it is a linker, a connector or a
joinder.
Language scholars have divergent views on the types of conjunction. For instance,
Baskervill and Sewell, Arthur, Lester and Eckhard-Black divide conjunctions into two classes:
coordinating and subordinating conjunctions. These scholars (including others not mentioned
here) leave out correlative conjunctions because, according to them (e.g. Lester (65)), correlative
conjunctions are similar to coordinating conjunctions. However, there are traditionally basically
three types of conjunctions, which are: coordinating, subordinating, and correlative conjunctions.
In a different development, Halliday and Hasan on their part, propose four types of conjunction
that ensure cohesion in English generally: (1)
Additive Conjunctions
act to structurally coordinate
or link by adding to proposed item and are signalled by
and, also, furthermore, in addition,
etc.
Additive conjunctions may also act to negate the proposed item and are signalled by
nor, and
…
no, neither
. Kinds of additive include:
alternative
, e.g.
or, or else
,
alternatively; after-thought (or
conjunct)
, e.g.
incidentally, by the way; expository
, e.g.
that is, I mean, in other words;
exemplificatory
, e.g.
for instance, thus
;
comparing similarity
, e.g.
likewise, similarly, in the same
way (
or
in the same vein);
and
comparing dissimilarity
, e.g.
on the other hand, by contrast, on the
contrary
. (ii)
Adversative Conjunctions
are used to express comparison or contrast between
sentences and they include
but, on the other hand, however, yet, though, only
. Kinds of adversative
include:
emphatic
, e.g.
nevertheless, despite this; contrastive avowal
, e.g.
in fact, actually, as a
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matter of fact; correction of meaning
, e.g.
instead, rather, at least; closed dismissal
, e.g.
in any
case, in eithercase, whichever way it is;
and
open-ended dismissal
, e.g.
any how, at any rate,
however it is
.
(iii)
Causal Conjunctions
express the cause or reason of what is being stated. They include:
then, so, hence, therefore
. Kinds of clausal conjunction include:
specific causal
. It is divided into
three – (a)
reason
, e.g.
for this reason, on account of this, on this basis, it follows;
(b)
result
, e.g.
as a result, in consequence, arising out of this
and (c)
purpose
, e.g.
for this purpose, with this in
mind, to this end; simple emphatic
, e.g.
in that case, in such an event, that being so
;
direct
respective
, e.g.
in this respect, in this regard, with reference to this; reversed polarity
, e.g.
otherwise, under other circumstances, in other respects, aside from this
. (iv)
Temporal
conjunctions
represent sequence relationships between clauses and they include:
next, secondly,
then, in the end
. Kinds of temporal conjunction include:
simultaneous
, e.g.
just then, at the same
time; preceding
, e.g.
previously, formerly, before that; conclusive
, e.g.
finally, at last, in
conclusion;
immediate
, e.g.
at once, thereupon, forthwith; repetitive
, e.g.
next time, on another
occasion, later; specific
, e.g.
next day, an hour later; durative
, e.g.
meanwhile, in the interim, for
the time being; here and now
. This is divided into three – (a)
past
, e.g.
up to now, last time;
(b)
present
, e.g.
at this point, here, now
and (c)
future
, e.g.
from now on, henceforth (
or
henceforward);
summarizing
, e.g.
to sum up, in short, briefly; resumptive
, e.g.
to resume, to return to the point
.
Moreover, Halliday, as cited by Saya and Fatemi, further classifies conjunction into three more
abstract types: elaboration, extension and enhancement. Elaboration includes apposition like
in
other words
and clarification like
rather
. Extension includes addition and variation like
alternatively
. Enhancement includes spatial-temporal like
there, previously
and causal-conditional
like
consequently
and
in that case.
We deem it necessary to comment here that the above taxonomy
by Halliday and their examples are more of adverbs than conjunctions. Also on his part, Murthy
outlines four types of conjunctions which are: coordinating, subordinating, correlative and
compound conjunctions. We will consider them one after the other.
3.1 Coordinating Conjunctions
These are used to link words, phrases and clauses. They are conjunctions which are used
to join together clauses of equal rank. In other words, they generally connect sentence elements of
the same grammatical class such as nouns with nouns, adverbs with adverbs, phrases with phrases
and clauses with clauses. They also link two sentences that do not depend on each other for
meaning. They are simply referred to as coordinators, and the art of joining two words, phrases,
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clauses or sentences using coordinators is known as
coordination
. Huddleston divides coordination
into two - basic coordination, which can be described directly, e.g.
(1) Her daughter is a dentist
and
her son is studying law;
and non-basic coordination, which can be described indirectly, in terms of its relation to the more
elementary type.
(2) Okosun says he is innocent
and
she is a disinterested witness.
According to Aarts (45-6), we treat coordination as an instance of
parataxis,
a term derived from
Greek, meaning „syntactic side-by-side arrangement‟. Furthermore, all cases of coordination that
involve an overt coordinator are referred to as
syndetic coordination.
Where there is no overt
coordinator, it is referred to as
asyndetic coordination
. Asyndetic coordination is exemplified as
follows:
(3) (a) She is honest, hard working, intelligent.
(b) We need bananas, apples, oranges, pears.
(c) Abu laughed, Jummai chuckled, Ojo grinned.
Coordinating conjunctions include:
and, nor, but,
and
or.
Sentential examples:
(4) (a) I bought a computer
and
a keyboard.
(b) When his wife left him, he did not bother
nor
went to plead for her return.
(c) She is poor
but
she is happy.
(d) The books are on the table
or
in the cupboard.
According to Murthy (215), coordinating conjunctions are divided into three kinds. They are:
Cumulative or Copulative Conjunctions
Adversative Conjunctions and
Disjunctive or Alternative Conjunctions
Also, we will consider them one after the other:
(i) Cumulative or Copulative Conjunctions
These are used to join statements, or they add one statement to another. They include:
and, so,
both … and, as well as, not only … but also, no less than,
etc. Sentential examples:
(5) (a) He looked
and
smiled at me.
Generally, conjunctions perform linking functions. To this end, Leung (14-15) says that
conjunctions perform the following functions: to link two or more words, groups or clauses, to
link two clauses especially the main or independent and the dependent or subordinate, to link two
identical words or phrases in order to emphasise the degree of something or to suggest that
something continues or increases over a period of time (e.g.
Day by day I am getting better and
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better
), to introduce a question which follows logically from what somediv has just said, to link
two or more alternatives, to be used between numbers to give estimation (e.g
We will stay there a
day or
two), to introduce a comment for correction, to introduce something for explanation or
justification, to show contrast, for adding, to change a subject in a discussion, to be used as a
condition in conditional statements, to be used for warning.
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