Marian Wharton - Plain English

Men and women struggle for their rights.

Can you find a word in this sentence which is a connective word besides the preposition for ? Did you notice that little word and ? The noun men and the noun women are both subjects of the verb struggle , and they are joined by this little connective word and . If we did not have this word we would have to use two sentences to express our thought, thus:

Men struggle for their rights.

Women struggle for their rights.

But with the use of this connective word and we can combine these two sentences and express it all in one sentence:

Men and women struggle for their rights.

This word is used in a different manner from the preposition. The preposition connects two words and makes one modify the other. When we say, Get the book on the table , the phrase on the table designates the book just as much as if we had said, Get the green book . So the use of the preposition enables us to show the relation between two words and to make one word describe or modify the other.

51.This little word and in the sentence, Men and women struggle for their rights , is a connective word also, but it connects two words that are used in the same way, so it is a different sort of connective word from the preposition. Words used in this way are called conjunctions . Conjunction is a word which is taken from the Latin, being made up of the Latin word con , which means together , and the Latin verb juncto , which means to join . So conjunction means literally to join together .

52. A conjunction is a word that connects sentences or parts of sentences.

Notice the following sentence:

The class struggle is waged on the political field and on the industrial field.

Here we have the conjunction and connecting the two phrases on the political field and on the industrial field . Without the use of this connective word, we would have to use two sentences to express these two thoughts:

The class struggle is waged on the political field.

The class struggle is waged on the industrial field.

53.So a conjunction may be used to connect phrases as well as words.

Now notice the following sentences:

He will speak. I will listen.

He will speak, and I will listen.

He will speak, but I will listen.

He will speak, if I will listen.

He will speak, therefore I will listen.

He will speak, because I will listen.

He will speak, until I will listen.

54.These sentences are joined by different conjunctions, and the conjunction used alters the meaning of the sentence.

The conjunction is a very useful part of speech. Without it we would have many disconnected sentences requiring tiresome repetition of the same words. Like prepositions, there are not many conjunctions in English and they are readily recognized.

55.We will study about these conjunctions at length in later lessons. If you consult the following list of those most commonly used, you can easily pick out the conjunctions in your reading:

and

as

as if

after

although

as soon as

because

besides

before

but

either

for

hence

in order that

lest

neither

nor

or

since

still

so

then

though

that

than

therefore

till

until

unless

while

whether

yet

The seven classes of words which we have studied make up all of our sentences. The hundreds of words which we use in forming our sentences and expressing our thoughts belong to these seven classes. They are either nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, prepositions or conjunctions.

Underscore the conjunctions in the following sentences. Notice whether they connect words or phrases or sentences.

1. We cannot win unless we are organized.

2. Books and music are true friends.

3. Men, women and children work under conditions neither proper nor just.

4. We must educate and organize.

5. The workers on the farms and in the factories must be united.

6. Winter has come and the birds are going South.

7. We have been ignorant, therefore we have been exploited.

8. We must learn before we can teach.

9. We do not understand the situation, because we do not know the facts.

10. Do you know whether these statements are true or false?

56.There is another class of words which we use with sentences, but which are really not parts of the sentences. They are emotional expressions which seem to belong more to the natural language than to the invented language. For example:

Oh! You hurt me!

Aha! Now I have you.

Oh , used in this way, is very apt to sound like a groan, and aha like a shout of triumph. These words do not really belong in the construction of the sentence. The sentence would be complete without them, but they are thrown in to express the emotion which accompanies the thought. We call expressions such as these interjections . Interjection is from the Latin and means literally thrown into the midst of . It comes from the Latin word inter , which means between , and the Latin verb jecto , to throw , so it literally means to throw between .

Some of these words imitate sounds, as for example:

Bang! There goes another shot.

Ding-dong! There goes the first bell.

We do not use interjections very frequently in writing on scientific subjects that express deep thought, but you will find them often used in poetry, fiction, oratory or any emotional writing. Therefore we have our definition of an interjection:

57. An interjection is an exclamatory word or phrase used to express feeling or to imitate some sound.

58.Following is a list of commonly used interjections. Use them in sentences of your own.

oh

hello

bravo

ahoy

aha

hurrah

bow wow

ssh

alas

hist

whirr

pshaw

fie

whoa

ding-dong

rub-a-dub