Definition:Conjunction/Semantics of Conjunction/Warning

Semantics of Conjunction: Warning

Beware of the usage of and in natural language which has the following form:

He fell out of bed and broke his leg

which does not mean the same as:

He broke his leg and fell out of bed.

This use of and actually means and then, as it is implicit that the two occurrences are neither simultaneous nor independent, but that the second occurrence happens as a result of the first.

Sources

• 1998: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): and
• 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): and