THE CONJUNCTION IN SOME OF ITS USES
In our study of complex and compound sentences we have noted the office
of conjunctions, both subordinating and coördinating, so far as they
join propositions. But this is by no means their sole office nor their
most common one.
* * * * *
=The Coördinating Conjunction.=--The abridgment of propositions has
been carried so far that we find the coördinating conjunctions, _and_,
_or_, _but_, joining words or phrases just as often as propositions,
for example, “The intimacy between man _and_ nature began with the
birth of man on the earth, _and_ becomes each century more intelligent
_and_ far-reaching.” The first _and_ joins the two nouns _man_ and
_nature_, the second the two predicates whose base-words are the verbs
_began_ and _becomes_, the third the two adjective complements _more
intelligent_ and _more far-reaching_.
There is nothing at all peculiar or difficult in this use of the
conjunction, for we naturally expect it to join any two like elements,
provided they have the same office in the sentence. Occasionally,
however, we find it joining unlike elements; for example, “St. Edmund
punishes terribly _yet_ with mercy.”--_Carlyle._ Here _yet_ joins two
modifiers of the verb _punishes_, but one is an adverb, the other a
prepositional phrase.
A common substitute for _and_ when it joins words or phrases is _as
well as_, the whole group of words having the value of one conjunction;
as, “Truth needs the wisdom of the serpent as well as the simplicity of
the dove.”--_Helps._ This conjunction has a peculiar force. By its aid
the sentence just quoted tells us not that truth needs two qualities,
which the conjunction _and_ would imply, but rather that, while
everybody grants that truth needs the simplicity of the dove, it is the
author’s opinion that she needs, too, the wisdom of the serpent. It is
wonderful that the substitution of this little phrase _as well as_ for
_and_ can make a sentence so different in meaning.
A group of words similar in office to _as well as_, but not so often
used, is _no less than_; as, “The first lesson of literature, no less
than of life, is the learning how to burn your own smoke.”--_Lowell._
Besides joining words, phrases, or propositions as the elements of one
sentence, the coördinating conjunction, especially _and_ or _but_, is
often found at the beginning of an entirely new sentence, where its
function is to show the relation in thought between the new sentence
and the one preceding. In such a position its office is not grammatical
but logical; for example, “_But_ month after month only showed the
king the uselessness of further resistance.”--_J. R. Green._ This
conjunction is sometimes reinforced by an adverb; thus, “_And again_,
Drake’s cannon would not have roared so loudly and so widely without
seamen already trained in heart and hand to work his ships and level
his artillery.”--_Froude._
* * * * *
=The Subordinating Conjunction.=--Owing to abridgment we find many
sentences constructed like the following,--
“Then safe, though fluttered and amazed,
She paused, and on the stranger gazed.”--_Scott._
Here the subordinating conjunction of concession, _though_, seems to
join two adjective modifiers of _she_. These are _safe_ and the two
participial adjectives, _fluttered and amazed_. Of course it would
be proper to fill out the ellipsis and make a clause of concession,
_though she was fluttered and amazed_, but it does not seem necessary,
and we certainly would not supply anything if _but_ had been used
instead of _though_.
The subordinating conjunction _than_ is used in this way between like
elements oftener than any other, especially when it is associated with
the adverb _rather_; for example, “Commonly a light is for the eyes
rather than for the feet, and a lamp is to read or sew by rather than
to walk by.”--_Munger._ The ellipsis after _than_ may be supplied here,
that is, we may make the sentence read as follows,--“Commonly a light
is rather for the eyes than it is for the feet, and a lamp is rather
to read or sew by than it is to walk by.” But if the sentence had
been,--“Commonly a light is not for the feet _but_ for the eyes,” etc.,
we should say that _but_ joins the two phrases and that the first one
is modified by _not_. So in the original sentence we may say that the
first _than_ joins the two prepositional phrases _for the eyes_ and
_for the feet_, while the second joins the infinitives _to read or sew
by_ and _to walk by_. _Rather_ is then an adverb modifying in one case
the phrase _for the eyes_, and in the other the infinitives _to read or
sew by_.
* * * * *
=Correlatives.=--The correlatives _when ... then_, _where ... there_,
_so ... as_, _as ... as_, _though ... yet_, _whether ... or_, have been
sufficiently noted in previous lessons. There remains something to be
said about the familiar pairs _either ... or_, _neither ... nor_, _both
... and_, _not only ... but_. The first three pairs are alike in use,
the second word in each case, _or_, _nor_, _and_, being the connective,
and the first no part of speech whatever. _Either_, _neither_ and
_both_, when correlatives, merely hint that the real conjunction is
coming. The correct position of these words is immediately before the
first of the two elements joined by the conjunction. _Either_ and
_both_ may be omitted without affecting either the meaning or the
structure of the sentence.
These correlatives are found with verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs,
phrases, or propositions either independent or dependent; for
example, “Generally, good useful work, whether of the hand or the
head, is either ill-paid or not paid at all.”--_Ruskin._ “He neither
pretended to high blood nor in good truth cared one fig about the
matter.”--_Lamb._ “There is a working class--strong and happy--among
both rich and poor.”
The correlatives _not only ... but_ are different in some respects
from the others. _But_ is the conjunction, and _only_ is an adjective
or adverb modifying the first of the two words joined by _but_, while
_not_ makes this word negative; thus, “Longfellow has not only charmed
the ear, but has touched the heart of the world.” In this sentence
_but_ joins the two predicates. The first predicate is modified by
_only_ and then denied by the negative adverb _not_. In this use
_but_ is not an adversative conjunction, that is, it does not signify
any opposition between the two predicates. The sentence means that
Longfellow has done two things which are in the same line of action--he
has charmed the ear of the world and in addition has touched its heart.
It is not uncommon for _but_ to be reinforced by the adverb _also_; for
example, “Punctuality should be made not only a point of courtesy, but
also a point of conscience.”
Exercise 23
State the office of all conjunctions in the following sentences.
Determine, if possible, why the given conjunction is chosen instead of
some other.
1. But I for one do not grudge Amos Barton his sweet wife.--_George
Eliot._
2. Either they may be nomads, living in tents and driving their flocks
and herds from one pasture ground to another, or they may be people
with fixed habitations.
3. You must be able, not only to hit any particular dog out of the
team of twelve, but also to accompany the feat with a resounding crack.
4. The finest passages are those which are lyric in form as well as in
spirit.--_Macaulay._
5. He was abstemious in his food and careless in what it consisted,
rarely or never touching wine.--_Froude._
6. The prince or chief governor was elected annually, but only by the
nobles.--_Motley._
7. In many parts of London it is difficult, if not dangerous, to cross
the streets.
8. But the times were times for action rather than for
contemplation.--_Webster._
9. And you would say that sun and stars took part
In that unnatural conflict; for a cloud
Grew suddenly in Heaven, and darked the sun
Over the fighters’ heads.--_M. Arnold._
10. Discipline, no less than concentration, is a cure for a weak
will.--_J. F. Clarke._
11. But not only is its own population the vastest in the world; a
large population is poured into it every morning by railway and by
steamer from all parts of England and from every continent and country
on the globe.
12. We are on the eve of a great political crisis, if not of political
change.--_Ruskin._
13. It is injurious to the mind as well as to the body to
be always in one place, and always surrounded by the same
circumstances.--_Jefferies._
14. Let us do our work as well,
Both the unseen and the seen.--_Longfellow._
15. I recall him in the attitude of the Colossus of Rhodes, standing
full before a generous wood fire, not facing it but quite the
contrary.--_Holmes._
16. Rough work, honorable or not, takes the life out of us.--_Ruskin._
17. The elected chieftains had rather authority to persuade than power
to command.--_Motley._
18. Not only were the labors of Hannah More extended to the ignorant
and degraded by the establishment of schools, but she employed her pen
in their behalf.--_Lord._
19. They neither get fairly hold of their subject, nor, what is more
important, does it get hold of them.--_Lowell._
20. The rough work is, at all events, real, honest, and, generally
though not always, useful; while the fine work is, a great
deal of it, foolish and false as well as fine, and therefore
dishonorable.--_Ruskin._
21. To detect the flavor of an olive is no less a piece of
human perfection, than to find beauty in the colors of a
sunset.--_Stevenson._
22. All the ground was covered, not with grass and green leaves, but
with radiant corollas.--_Muir._
23. The world is filled with the voices of the dead; they speak not
from the public records of the great world only, but from the private
history of our own experience.--_O. Dewey._
24. And where now the steamers of all nations may be seen resting
at anchor, on that day one solitary ship from France discharged her
cargo and was viewed with lingering interest by every colonist in
Quebec.--_Mrs. Catherwood._
25. Before him and facing him, two paces in front, stood Dan, his
arms still bound to his sides, his head uncovered, and his legs
free.--_Caine._