Conjunction (definition)

• See Conjunction (definition) for a discussion of how conjunction works in Gaelic.

Conjunction refers to two things (1) the act of linking items together and (2) the word that accomplishes such linking. In language, we can conjoin discrete elements in a sentence as long as they are constituents and are of the same syntactic category. For example, a verb can be conjoined with another verb, but not with a noun. In example (1), the sentence is ungrammatical because 'walks' is a verb whereas 'pencil' is a noun. These items are of different syntactic categories and therefore cannot be conjoined. On the other hand, when we have two verbs of the same category (example (2)), we have a perfectly grammatical sentence.

1) *Bill walks and pencil.

2) Bill walks and talks.

Conjunction (The linking particle)

In English you can list elements conjoined or coordinated using a comma and putting an "and" or "or" at the end:

• John, Bill, Susan, and Fred

In Gaelic, the conjunction must be put after each conjunct:

• Ian agus Uilleam agus Susan agus Fred.