This fancy term may have given you cause for confusion but I guarantee you have heard a correlative conjunction in a movie, spoken one, written one in an essay or read one in a book.<\/p>\n
Remember the moment when Morpheus first takes Neo into the Matrix training program? (If you haven’t seen the Matrix yet, I am astounded at you! Go away and watch it, then we’ll talk.) While Morpheus lectures him, Neo is distracted by a woman wearing a red dress. This woman then turns into an Agent, giving Morpheus the opportunity to say, ‘If you are not one of us, you are one of them.’<\/p>\n
This phrase is a variation of the either … or<\/em> correlative conjunction.<\/p>\n There are many different kinds of correlative conjunctions, the term given to coordinating conjunctions<\/em> that pair up to connect elements in a single sentence. The two or more sections of that sentence should mirror each other in meaning.<\/p>\n Other examples of correlative conjunctions are:<\/p>\n \n rather … than<\/em><\/p>\n whether … or<\/em><\/p>\n not only … but also<\/em><\/p>\n as many … as<\/em><\/p>\n both … and<\/em><\/p>\n just as … so<\/em><\/p>\n what with … and<\/em><\/p>\n neither … nor<\/em><\/p>\n scarcely\/hardly … when<\/em><\/p>\n no sooner … than<\/em><\/p>\n as … as<\/em><\/p>\n not … but<\/em>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Another example of correlative conjunctions can be found in a famous scene from the 1959 movie Ben-Hur. When Messala asks Judah to become an informant for him and the Roman Emperor, the two argue.<\/p>\n \n Judah cries, ‘I would rather<\/strong> be a fool than<\/strong> a traitor or a killer!’<\/em><\/p>\n Messala angrily retorts, ‘Either<\/strong> you help me or<\/strong> you oppose me, you have no other choice. You’re either<\/strong> with me or<\/strong> against me.’<\/em>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Very powerful scene, that.<\/p>\n Further examples include:<\/p>\n \n Whether<\/strong> you like raspberries or<\/strong> hate them is unimportant.<\/em><\/p>\n Not only<\/strong> did she steal my mother’s jewels but also<\/strong> my heart!<\/em> (Boo-hoo.)<\/p>\n It was hard to get to the train station what with<\/strong> one thing and<\/strong> another.<\/em><\/p>\n The soccer game was not<\/strong> stressful but<\/strong> tiring.<\/em><\/p>\n Both<\/strong> boys and<\/strong> girls enjoyed watching the movie<\/em> Frozen.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Speaking of which… do you want to build a snowman?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Never heard of them? You use them, whether you know it or not!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":188,"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187\/revisions\/188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}