CONJUNCTIONS

In the simplest case, a complex English sentence such as:

(1) Piers was a CONSERVATIVE and Bruin was a MARXIST

would be represented in our symbolic notation as:

(1a) C & M

Variants on ‘and’

However, English contains many words other than ‘and’ that we shall also render as &. Thus:

Piers was a CONSERVATIVE but Bruin was a MARXIST

Piers was a CONSERVATIVE however Bruin was a MARXIST

Piers was a CONSERVATIVE moreover Bruin was a MARXIST

Piers was a CONSERVATIVE although Bruin was a MARXIST

Piers was a CONSERVATIVE yet Bruin was a MARXIST

Piers was a CONSERVATIVE even though Bruin was a MARXIST

Piers was a CONSERVATIVE nevertheless Bruin was a MARXIST

are all rendered:

C & M.

Some nuances of meaning are ignored

(i) It is true that ‘but’, ‘although’ and so on do not mean exactly the same as ‘and’. If I say ‘she was poor but honest’, I convey to my hearer the thought that poor people are not normally honest. But saying ‘she was poor and honest’ has no such consequence. Despite these differences, we assume here that the logical or inferential properties of ‘but’, ‘although’ and so on are the same as those of ‘and’, and this is why ‘but’, ‘although’ and so on get translated as ‘&’.