In grammar, a conjunction is a part of speech that connects words, sentences, phrases or
clauses.
A discourse connective is a conjunction joining sentences.
This definition may overlap with that of other parts of speech, so what constitutes a "conjunction"
must be defined for each language.
In general, a conjunction is an invariable grammatical particle, and it may or may not
stand between the items it conjoins.
The definition may also be extended to idiomatic phrases that behave as a unit with the same
function, eg "as well as", "provided that".
Many students are taught that certain conjunctions should not begin sentences.
But authorities such as the Chicago Manual of Style state that this teaching has "no
historical or grammatical foundation".
A simple literary example of a conjunction: "the truth of nature, and the power of giving
interest"
Coordinating conjunctions Coordinating conjunctions, also called coordinators,
are conjunctions that join, or coordinate, two or more items of equal syntactic importance.
In English, the mnemonic acronym FANBOYS can be used to remember the coordinators for,
and, nor, but, or, yet, and so.
These are not the only coordinating conjunctions; various others are used, including "and nor",
"but nor", "or nor", "neither", "no more", and "only".
Types of coordinating conjunctions include cumulative conjunctions, adversative conjunctions,
alternative conjunctions, and illative conjunctions.
Here are some examples of coordinating conjunctions in English and what they do:
For presents rationale
And presents non-contrasting item(s) or idea(s)
Nor presents a non-contrasting negative idea
But presents a contrast or exception
Or presents an alternative item or idea
Yet presents a contrast or exception
So presents a consequence
Correlative conjunctions Correlative conjunctions work in pairs to
join words and groups of words of equal weight in a sentence.
There are six different pairs of correlative conjunctions:
either...or not only...but
neither...nor both...and
whether...or just as...so
Examples: You either do your work or prepare for a trip
to the office.
Not only is he handsome, but he is also brilliant.
Neither the basketball team nor the football team is doing well.
Both the cross country team and the swimming team are doing well.
Whether you stay or you go, it's your decision.
Just as many Americans love basketball, so many Canadians love ice hockey.
Subordinating conjunctions Subordinating conjunctions, also called subordinators,
are conjunctions that join an independent clause and a dependent clause, and also introduce
adverb clauses.
The most common subordinating conjunctions in the English language include after, although,
as, as far as, as if, as long as, as soon as, as though, because, before, "even if",
even though", "every time" if, in order that, since, so, so that, than, though, unless,
until, when, whenever, where, whereas, wherever, and while.
Complementizers can be considered to be special subordinating conjunctions that introduce
complement clauses: e.g. "I wonder whether he'll be late.
I hope that he'll be on time".
Some subordinating conjunctions, when used to introduce a phrase instead of a full clause,
become prepositions with identical meanings.
The subordinating conjunction performs two important functions within a sentence: illustrating
the importance of the independent clause and providing a transition between two ideas in
the same sentence by indicating a time, place, or cause and thus effecting the relationship
between the clauses.
In many verb-final languages, subordinate clauses must precede the main clause on which
they depend.
The equivalents to the subordinating conjunctions of non-verb-final languages such as English
are either clause-final conjunctions; or
suffixes attached to the verb, and not separate words
Such languages often lack conjunctions as a part of speech, because:
the form of the verb used is formally nominalised and cannot occur in an independent clause
the clause-final conjunction or suffix attached to the verb is a marker of case and is also
used in nouns to indicate certain functions.
In this sense, the subordinate clauses of these languages have much in common with postpositional
phrases.
In other West Germanic languages like German and Dutch, the word order after a subordinating
conjunction is different from that in an independent clause, e.g. in Dutch want is coordinating,
but omdat is subordinating.
The clause after the coordinating conjunction has normal word order, but the clause after
the subordinating conjunction has verb-final word order.
Compare: Hij gaat naar huis, want hij is ziek.
Hij gaat naar huis, omdat hij ziek is.
Similarly, in German, "denn" is coordinating, but "weil" is subordinating:
Er geht nach Hause, denn er ist krank.
Er geht nach Hause, weil er krank ist.
See also
References
External links Wikitionary lists of conjuctions by language
Difference between conjunctions, relative pronouns and relative adverbs, by Jennifer
Frost