The conjunction is a part of speech which denotes connections between objects and phenomena. It connects parts of the sentence, clauses, and sentences [3; 254].
Sadie brought them in and went back to the door (Mansfield).
… the blinds were down in the dining-room and the lights turned on – and all the lights were red-roses (Mansfield).
The other day I was saying to Fabermacher that Haviland isn’t really cruel, he’s just thoughtless. And Fabermacher said that was the cruellest thing about the human race. And he’s right (Wilson).
According to their morphological structure conjunctions are divided into the following groups:
- simple conjunctions (and, or, but, till, after, that, so, where, when, etc.).
- derivative conjunctions (until, unless, etc.).
- compound conjunctions (however, whereas, wherever, etc.)
- composite conjunctions (as well as, as long as, in case, for the reason that, etc.)
Some conjunctions are used in pairs (correlatively): both… and, either… or, not only… but (also), neither… nor, whether… or [3; 255].
The 2 main types of connection of clauses in a composite sentence are subordination and coordination. By coordination clauses are arranged as units of syntactically equal rank, i.e. equipotently. The leading clause and a sequential clause (He came and we had coffee. We had coffee and he came).By subordination they are arranged as units of unequal rank, one being categorically dominated by the other [8].
Besides the classical types of coordination and subordination of clauses, we find another case of construction of a composite sentence. When the connection between the clauses combined in a polypredicative unit is extremely loose, placing the sequential clause in a syntactically detached position. In this loosely connected composite sentence the information expressed by the sequential clause is presented as an afterthought, an idea that comes to the speaker’s mind after the completion of the foregoing utterance. This kind of connection is called cumulation. Its formal sign is the tone of completion. In writing it is a semifinal mark, such as a semicolon, a dash, sometimes a series of periods.
– Continuative cumulation: He did his job in the office without any fuss; he answered questions in the House: he made a couple of speeches.
– Parenthetical cumulation: Your story, you know, showed such breadth and depth of thought [8].
There are two classes of conjunctions:
- Coordinating conjunctions;
- Subordinating conjunctions.
Coordinating conjunctions join coordinate clauses in a compound sentence, or homogeneous parts in a simple sentence, or homogeneous subordinate clauses in a complex sentence, or independent sentences [3; 255].
He had said he would stay quiet in the hall, but he simply couldn’t anymore; and crossing the gravel of the drive he lay down on the grass beyond (Galsworthy).
He opened his eyes and stared quietly at the pure sky (Wilson).
Hers was that common insularity of mind that makes human creatures believe that their color, creed, and politics are best and right and that other human creatured scattered over the world are less fortunately placed than they (London).
Fabemacher wasted no time on a comedy of errors, and Haviland apologized for his mistake. But he was not as impressed as Erik had wanted him to be (Wilson).
Types of coordination:
- Copulative coordination, expressed by the conjunctions and, nor, neither… nor, not only… but (also).
Mr. Home did not lift his eyes from his breakfast-plate for about two minutes, nor did he speak (Ch. Bronte).
- Disjunctive coordination expressed by the conjunctions or, else, either… or, otherwise.
Don’t come near me with that look else I’ll knock you down (Eliot).
- Adversative coordination expressed by the conjunctions but, while, whereas, nevertheless, still, yet. These conjunctions connect two clauses contrasting in meaning.
He had a glass eye which remained stationary, while the other eye looked at Reinhardt (Heym).
- Causative-consecutive coordination expressed by the conjunctions for, so, accordingly, consequently, etc.
After all, the two of them belonged to the same trade, so talk was easy and happy between them (Priestly).
The coordinate phrases may be of two types: syndetically connected (free and happy) and asyndetically connected coordinate phrases (hot, dusty, tired out). In the structure of the first type, there’s always a word that connects the constituents of the phrase while in the second type there’s no connector [12; 43].
Subordinating conjunctions generally join a subordinate or dependent clause to a principal clause, or adverbial modifiers to the predicate in a simple sentence, or sometimes they join homogeneous parts [3; 255].
When he was eight, he got work in another mill (London).
He shook his head a bit as if in wonder that he had permitted himself to be caught in such crosscurrents (Wilson).
My look or something else must have struck her as offensive, for she spoke with extreme, though suppressed irritation (Ch. Bronte) [3; 255].
The subordinate phrases are classified according to the head word. Thus there are noun phrases (cold water), verb phrases (saw a house), adjective phrases (extremely red) and so on [12; 43].
The predicative phrases fall under:
Infinitive predicative phrases: I asked him to stay.
Gerundial predicative phrases: I saw him running.
Absolute predicative phrases: Everybody stood up, glass in hand.
As it is seen from the examples the types of predicative phrases depend on what non-finite form of the verb verbal part of them is expressed by [12; 43].