ABSTRACT
Nor is there any reason for making conjunctions a separate word-class. Compare such instances as "after his arrival" and "after he had arrived," "before his breakfast" and "before he had breakfasted," "she spread the table against his arrival" and (the antiquated) "she spread the table against he arrived," "he laughed for joy" and" he laughed for he was glad." The only difference is that the complement in one case is a substantive. and in the other a sentence (or a clause). The so-called conjunction is really. therefore. a sentence preposition: the difference between the two uses of the same word consists in the nature of the complement and in nothing else; and just as we need no separate term for a verb completed by a whole sentence (clause) as distinct from one completed by a substantive, so it is really superfluou8 to have a separate name for a " conjunction"; if we retain the name, it is merely due to tradition, not to any scientific necessity, and should not make us recognize conjunctions as a "part of speech." Note the parallelism in (1) I believe in God. They have lived happily ever
since. (2) I believe your words. They have lived happily sinet
they were married.
