| conjunction |
| Definition: An uninflected part of speech that connects words, phrases, or clauses together. Some types of conjunctions are: (1) Coordinating conjunctions: These join two items of equal syntactic importance (for and and). (2) Correlative conjunctions: Word pairs that work together to coordinate two items (both … and and either … or). (3) Subordinating conjunctions: These introduce dependent clauses (because and although). |
| Example:
(1) The and in Bob and Dick is a coordinating conjunction; (2) the both … and in both truth and beauty is a correlative conjunction; and (3) the because in I left because it sucked is a subordinating conjunction. |
| Etymology: The term derives from the Latin conjunctionem, the past participle of conjugare, to join together. Note: the Latin grammatical term was coined as a loan translation of the Greek syndesmos, conjunction. |
| Oxford English Dictionary: The word's first citation in its part-of-speech sense is from 1388: "A participle … mai be resoluid into a verbe … and a coniunccion copulatif, as thus, dicens, that is, seiynge, mai be resoluid thus, and seith." (Wyclif Prol., 57) |
| Quotation:
"Prepositions show the relation of one notion to another. Conjunctions show the relation of one thought to another. Hence conjunctions for the most part join one sentence to another."
(Source: 1876 Mason English Grammar (ed. 21) §287) |