Coordinators are sometimes used
without performing any strictly coordinating role:
I'll come when I'm good and
ready
Here, the adjectives good and ready
are not really being coordinated with each other. If they were, the
sentence would mean something like:
I'll come [when I'm good]
and [when I'm ready]
Clearly, this is not the meaning which good
and ready conveys. Instead, good and intensifies the meaning
of ready. We might rephrase the sentence as
I'll come when I'm completely
ready.
Good and ready is an example of FALSE
COORDINATION -- using a coordinator without any coordinating role. It is
sometimes called PSEUDO-COORDINATION.
False coordination can also be found in
informal expressions using try and:
Please try and come
early
I'll try and ring
you from the office
Here, too, no real coordination is taking place.
The first sentence, for instance, does not mean Please try, and please
come early. Instead, it is semantically equivalent to Please try
to come early.
In informal spoken English, and and
but are often used as false coordinators, without any real coordinating
role. The following extract from a conversation illustrates this:
Speaker A: Well he
told me it's this super high-flying computer software stuff. I'm sure
it's the old job he used to have cleaning them
Speaker B: But it went off okay last night then did it? Did
you have a good turnout? [S1A-005-95ff]
Here, the word but used by Speaker B
does not coordinate any conjoins. Instead, it initiates her utterance, and
introduces a completely new topic.
Minor
Word Classes...
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