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202
It was Saturday, so they were back from school early.
Combinability of conjunctions and their functions
§ 252. Coordinating conjunctions connect homogeneous parts of a simple sentence (words, phrases),
clauses of equal rank in a composite sentence or independent sentences. Some of them can only join
coordinated clauses (so, for), others only homogeneous parts of simple sentences (both ... and), others are used
to join both clauses and homogeneous parts of the sentence (and, but, or, either ... or, nor, not only ... but also,
etc.).
Coordinating conjunctions always stand between the elements they join. The most common coordinating
conjunction is and:
Slowly and painfully he worked through the first volume.
He spoke for the first motion and against the second motion.
She moved quickly and with grace.
I approached the girl who stood in the corner and who looked so shy.
Subordinating conjunctions join subordinate clauses to main clauses, although some of them may
join a word or a phrase within a simple sentence. They are positionally less fixed than coordinating
conjunctions and need not necessarily be between the elements they join, but may precede both the subordinate
and the main clauses.
Conjunctions which usually join subject, predicative, object attributive and appositive clauses (that, whether,
if) are very vague in their meaning and may therefore be used to join clauses of different syntactic value. Other
conjunctions retain their lexical meaning.
That the man didn’t call the police surprised nobody.
Somehow I felt that his feelings had changed.
Conjunctions introducing adverbial clauses are conjunctions of place:
where, wherever, whence, wherein.
Wherever he turned, he saw flowers.
time:
as, as soon as, as long as, when, whenever, while, now that, since, till, until, after, before, while, the
moment, the time, the instant, directly, instantly, etc.
When I leave town I never tell my people about it.
What happened after I left you?
I wouldn’t worry as long as I am not bothered.
She was feeling very cheerful as they walked from the station.
reason or cause:
as, because, since, seeing, so ... that, lest, considering.
His work was of vital importance to him, since all his life was devoted to it.
One day, because the days were so short, he decided to give up algebra and geometry.
As she had never heard of such stories, she was puzzled at first.
condition:
if, unless, in case, provided, supposing (that), suppose (that), on condition (that).
If you tell this to anybody I’ll never forgive you.
Tom simply could not work unless all the conditions were to his liking.
Vagabonds may get a bed there for a week, provided their papers are in order.