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Coordinating
Conjunctions

Kareen Oineza C. Guillermo

Master of Arts in Language Teaching

Conjunction or coordination is the

process
of
combining
two
constituents of the same type to
produce another, larger constituent
of the same type. In traditional
grammar, this has been called
COMPOUNDING.

Review:
What are conjunctions again?

1.
2.
3.

Coordinating Conjunctions
Subordinating Conjunctions
Correlative Conjunctions

Three Types of Conjunctions

COORDINATING
CONJUNCTIONS are conjunctions
used to combine or connect like
constituents or with the same
grammatical unit.

What are coordinating

conjunctions?

Example:
1. We enjoyed wine and cheese.
WORD
2. The class arranged the chairs and
prepared the tables. PHRASE

Now what do we mean by like

constituents or same grammatical unit?

3. Goliath is very big and

extremely tall.
4. She got in the pool and
she began to swim

More Examples:

*bread and strong

*very big and hide
*The police saw nothing unusual and effectively.
We find difficulty conjoining two constituents
that are not of the same type.

You cant add apples and oranges.

Simple
conjunction
STANDARDLY
involves the coordination of constituents
of the same type marked by at least one
coordinating conjunction, where the
meanings of the conjuncts (i.e., the
individual constituents conjoined) are
distinct from each other.

Meaning to say:

They had vegetables, rice, and beans.

?The had vegetables, rice, beans.
*They had vegetables and rice, beans.

How about multiple coordination?

An optional deletion rule

that deletes all conjunctions
except the one between the
last pair of conjuncts will
generate
the
acceptable
sequence.

The rule says,

We had red beans and rice and fish

Here one may interpret red beans

and rice either as a separate food
items on a plate or as the famous
New Orleans dish by that name.

Lets examine this sentence:

NP

AP

NP

Conj

and

ADJ bean

-pl

NP Conj

NP

and

rice

red

As separate items:

fish

NP

NP

Conj

NP

Conj

NP

ADJ N

and

red bean pl

and

rice

New Orleans Dish:

NP
N
fish

Other than and, we have:

Or
Nor
So
But
Yet; and
For

Simple Coordinating Conjunctions

Not
all
of
these
coordinating
conjunctions are as amenable to
conjoining the full range of constituents
as is and. For instance, for seems able to
coordinate only full clauses, as in, They
closed the shop, for there was no other
choice. While so can join nonclause
conjucnts but that is not common:
The ring is (expensive so unaffordable).

Simple Coordinating Conjunctions

First, nor connects two negative clauses.

Second, nor cannot connect two clauses
without additional syntactic changes:
*John will not stay at his job, nor he will
leave town permanently.
John will not stay at his job, nor will he
leave town permanently.

Special case: NOR

Ellipsis, or deletion, occurs frequently in

English and will be encountered
elsewhere. Here, we view it in the context
of coordination. Consider the following:
a. ?Birds can fly, and I can fly.
b. Birds can fly, and I can fly too.
c. Birds can fly, and I can too.
d. *Birds can fly, and I too.

ELLIPSIS: Uninverted Affirmative

Form

Birds can fly, and I can too.

(See Page 465)

ELLIPSIS: Uninverted Affirmative

Form

Birds can fly, so can I.

She has left the country, and so have I.
She is a citizen, and so is he.
She believes the reports, and so do I.

Inverted Affirmative Form

(See page 467)

Mapping rules:
OB: [bird pl can fly] and [I can fly so]
ellipsis: [bird pl can fly] and [I can so]
so-fronting: [bird pl can fly] and [so I
can]
s-o inversion: [bird pl can fly] and [so
can I]
m: Birds can fly, and so can I.

How to diagram an inverted

one?

UNINVERTED

INVERTED

1. Turkeys cant fly,

and I cant fly either.
2. Turkeys cant fly,
and I cant either.
1. She hasnt left, and
I havent left either.
2. She hasnt left, and
I havent either.

Turkeys cant fly, and

neither can I.
She hasnt left, and
neither have I.
(Tree Diagram see
468)

Uninverted and Inverted Negative Forms

output of base: [not turkey pl can fly] and [not I can fly either]

not placement: [turkey pl can not fly] and [I can not fly
either]
ellipsis: [turkey pl can not fly] and [I can not either]
not contraction: [turkey pl can = nt fly] and [I can + nt
either]
morphology: Turkeys cant fly, and I cant either.

Mapping Rules:

Just add:
not + either
neither fronting
not placement
not contraction

Mapping Rules for the

We also have pro-forms and gapping.

PRO-FORMS
She has left the country, and I have left it too.
He graduated from Japan, and she graduated from there too.
*Instead of eliding the verb, the object or an object was deleted.
GAPPING
John trimmed the roses, and Mary the santan.
My uncle works in Dubai, and my aunt in Canada.

Aside from ellipsis:

Visit Murcias book , page 469.

Mapping: Just add gapping.
Like this,
gapping: [John past [+3+sg]
trim the tree [Mary the
hedge]

How to diagram?

Ana bought an Iphone and John bought a

Samsung.
Mary and John bought an Iphone and a
Samsung.

In sentence one, theres no doubt who bought

which. However, in sentence two, it is less
clear who bought whicha problem of which
the adverb respectively can answer.

Sentences with RESPECTIVELY

Conjunctions

Meaning

and

Plus

but

Shows contrast

yet

But at the same time

so

Therefore

for

Because

or

One or the other of two alternatives is

true
Conjoins two negative sentences both
of which are true

nor

The Meaning and Use of

Coordinating Conjunctions

AND as LOGICAL OPERATOR

Sue is a cook and Fred is a waiter.
AND as MARKER OF MANY MEANINGS
Peter married Annie, and she had a baby. (and after that)
BUT/YET in DENIALS OF EXPECTATIONS
He is friendly yet/but introverted.
BUT as MARKER OF SEMANTIC CONTRAST
John likes skiing, but his sister prefers tennis.
OR as WARNING
Stop that, or Ill call the police.
OR in PARAPHARASES
This is a matsutake, or pine mushroom.

More Functions:

OR as SELF-CORRECTIVE DEVICE
You are the light of my darkness. Or to put it another
way, I love you.
SO as MARKER THAT RELATES CAUSES WITH
RESULTS
She has cold so she wont be coming today.

More Functions:

Conjunction presumably exists as syntactic operation to

ease language processing.
When conjunctions are not used, the clause sentence may
be ambiguous:
It was bitter cold. It was snowing.
The most likely interpretation might be an additive one.
It was bitter cold and snowing.
Without conjunctions, we have no way of telling the
relationship of two syntactic evidence. People who live in
snowy climates, for e.g., know that bitter cold days and
nights are often the clearestthat is, it doesnt often snow
when it is bitter cold. So, we could give another
interpretation: It was bitter cold, yet snowing.

Coordinate Clauses Without Conjunctions

The point is conjunctions serve to

disambiguate the relationship between
sentences and thus clarify intended
meaning.

Coordinate Clauses Without Conjunctions

Happy Coordinating
Conjunctions to all.
Thank you for listening.
Good day.

Coordinating Conjunctions. BOW.