conjunctionlike

Conjunctionlike is a term used in linguistics to describe words, particles, or phrases that perform the connective function of conjunctions without fitting neatly into the standard grammatical categories of coordinating or subordinating conjunctions. Items described as conjunctionlike may link clauses or phrases, indicate relations such as addition, contrast, or consequence, or organize discourse at a sentence level, yet they often belong to other lexical classes such as adverbs, adverbial phrases, or particles.

In English, conjunctive adverbs like therefore, however, and meanwhile are classic examples: they connect independent clauses and convey a speaker’s stance or the relationship of the second clause to the first. Other items act as discourse markers (well, anyway) or as particles that attach to a subordinate clause without behaving like true subordinators.

In many languages, there are conjunctionlike elements that cannot be easily categorized as conjunctions: for example, sentence-initial particles or mood markers that tie sentences together, or clause-linking words that function more as adverbs or modifiers than as conjunctions.

Scholars use the label to accommodate data that blur category boundaries, as well as to describe discourse-structuring devices that primarily serve pragmatic or discourse-structural roles rather than rigid syntactic coordination.

Related topics include conjunction, discourse marker, connective, and particle.