Syntactic Theory
Conjoining Phrases
Coordinating conjunctions (and, or, but, either ... or, both ... and) combine two or more syntactic units of the same type, usually of the same syntactic category.
We can give a general rule schema: X -> X Conj X, where 'X' is any syntactic category.
Example 1: conjunction of two clauses___________S_____________ / \ / _____________S_____ / / | \ __AdvP_ __________S___________ Conj ___S____ /_______\ /______________________\ | /________\ Yesterday Kim took the bus to work and Pat walked.
Example 2: conjunction of two NPs
________NP___ / / \ \ Conj NP Conj NP | /__\ | /__\ Either Sandy or Chris will get the job.
Back to the overview page about constituents and phrasal categories.
Categories: Glossary