The tricky “and”

Dear Readers,

Our minds do funny things when we read. Consider this sentence:

Roger tripped and fell.

What do you assume that sentence means? I bet you assume that Roger fell because he tripped. I bet you think that that sentence means that the trip caused the fall. Your interpretation is typical. People fall a lot when they trip.

But your interpretation isn’t entirely warranted. The story behind the sentence (assuming that the sentence is trying to represent a real-world occurrence, or at least a fictional-world occurrence, and that it is not a non-referential sentence.) (I’m making up linguistic terms now.) could be that Roger tripped on Tuesday, which caused him to stumble, and fell on Thursday because he passed out when he saw a monster coming towards him. It could be that Roger tripped in 1997 and fell in 2001.

“And” doesn’t mean “because” or “therefore”. It just means “also.” What’s the deal? Why do we assume, when we read, “Roger tripped and fell,” that Roger tripped because he fell?

Oooo… that tricky “and”!

Update! Ala-quiffert!

I just looked “and” up on dictionary.com and I found this definition for “and”, among a lot of other definitions: “Used to indicate result: Give the boy a chance, and he might surprise you.” and this definition, “(used to introduce a consequence or conditional result): He felt sick and decided to lie down for a while. Say one more word about it and I’ll scream.”

Ala-quiffert! So I guess “and” can mean “because.” But how do you know which definition of “and” the author of “Roger tripped and fell,” intended? You can’t know that! You can only infer and guess. That’s what’s so crazy!

Here’s a sentence that I made up that uses “and” in a tricky way:

Alice went to the grocery store yesterday and got some mushrooms that grew in her back yard.

Ha ha ha. That sentence is tricky because when you read “Alice went to the grocery store yesterday and got some mushrooms,” you assume that Alice bought the mushrooms at the store. (Right, isn’t that what you assume?) But when you read the next part of the sentence, “that grew in her backyard,” you think, “Wait a minute. Oh…. OK… Alice went to the grocery store, but she may not have bought anything there, and she also got some mushrooms that grew in her backyard.”

Sincerely,
Telemoonfa