_{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.

             ___________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