The Pragmatic Use of Some English Conjunctions

Abstract

This article explains some pragmatic uses of conjunctions in English. In our attempt to offer this explanation, the study utilizes or adopts the descriptive theory of linguistics, whose primary business is to describe the use of language or speech events. Words regarded as conjunctions are not only used to link or connect other words, phrases, clauses or sentences but also have pragmatic usage thereby supplying additional meaning different from the one they have been known for grammatically. The study adopts only secondary sources in its data generation technique, that is, the researcher drew the data exclusively from extant material on the subject but not without his thought or insight. These contained examples of sentences linked with conjunctions and offered explanation of their pragmatic application or use simultaneously. The sentential examples of utterances linked with conjunctions served as the data, while the description of their pragmatic relevance served as analysis for the study. For the purpose of easy comprehension, we number or label the sentential examples accordingly, and italicize all the conjunctions. The result of the study shows the aesthetics and uniqueness of the pragmatic function or usage of conjunctions in written and oral conversations or discourses.

Keywords ‒ English, language, conjunctions, pragmatics, descriptive linguistics