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영어

The Conjunction 'and' not only conjoin words. phrases, or sentences but also convey extra information, such as temporal relation and causal relation. The aim of this thesis is to review the studies of the past and to suggest that the conjuntion is funtioned as a semantic constraint on relevance with a regard to the relevance theroy. Lakoff & Petes(1969) assumes that asymmetric 'and' is reducible to symmetric 'and plus then', but they do not explain the meaning of constraints on the use of 'then' . Moreover, there are counterexamples to this assumption. R. Lakoff(l97l)says that in order to decide when conjunction is possible, we should find out whether two conjuncts share a common topic, whether the verbs are of a related category, or whether they contain two contradictory or tautological statements. However, some of her judgements on the acceptability of sentences do not seem to be correct, and there are apparent counterexamples to these constraints. Grice(l975) suggests that the meaning of 'and' is simply a conversational implicature due to the maxim of Manner 'Be orderly'. but many have felt that the maxims, especially the maxim of Relation, are too vague and that pragmatic theory needs to be made more formal and precise. Sperber and Wilson(1986) adopts the Gricean implicature theory but suggests the principle of relevance in order to explain more general phenomena. Thus, I explain the meaning of conjunction 'and' on the basis of the principle of relevance.