Translating Conjunctions
Conjunctions are not always indicated by "and." Sometimes "but" serves for conjunction, as does "also":
| Translation: | Commentary: |
| Ferris likes hay, but he also tolerates pellets. | English sentence to be translated |
| A: Ferris likes hay. B: Ferris tolerates pellets. |
Sentence letter abbreviations for simple sentences |
| A but B | Replacement of simple sentences by sentence letters |
| (A & B) | Full translation |
When we have more than one type of operator, we always need to be aware of the scope of
the operators. In the following example we have a disjunction where one of the disjuncts
is a conjunction:
| Translation: | Commentary: |
| Either Fred will run five miles, or he will go home and take a nap. | English sentence to be translated |
| A: Fred will run five miles. B: Fred will go home. C: Fred will take a nap. |
Sentence letter abbreviations for simple sentence |
| A or (B and C) | Replacement of simple sentence by sentence letter |
| (A v (B & C)) | Full translation |
Notice that we kept the conjunction together, since what is intended is that the second disjunct is that Fred both goes home and takes a nap. Translating the sentence as ((A v B) & C) has an entirely different meaning, and is an incorrect translation.
Some sentences which look like conjunctions aren't really conjunctions at all. An example of this is the sentence "Fred went to the store and then walked home." In this sentence "and then" doesn't express conjunction. As an exercise, explain why "and then" can't be translated as "&".
