Identifying function words

[Anton]

Definitely not universal as a "word" as Marco points out.

In Latin, for example, "and" is very frequently indicated by the number 7 and attached to the word that follows, and also stands for the letters "et" as in etiam (written 7iam). Thus, the same symbol is used for two different functions and doesn't necessarily ever stand alone because the same convention is used in other languages that may use a word other than "et" for "and", but which still uses the Latin scribal 7 symbol to express it.


In some languages "and" is a single or double character added to the beginning of a word. In English we are used to putting "and" between words, but it's not always done that way, sometimes adding a character to the beginning of the first of the two words that go together represents "and" and once again, it is not a separate word, it is attached to other words in much the same way as a prefix is attached to words rather than standing alone.

Some languages use a clitic to express 'and'. Arabic, Hebrew, even Latin do this.

OK, but whether a word, clitic, shorthand or otherwise, the portion of the script that represents "and" is presumably to be found in between labels of homogenous objects - unless shuffling is in place, but shuffling is already not a natural flow of language. That's the point with working with the "and" notion: it presents a direct opportunity to find out contexts where it is likely to appear. Offhand, I can't imagine any other opportunities, except, possibly, for "or". Basically, "or" would appear in the same context. That "and" (or "or") may be not a separate word, but instead somehow appended or prepended, just expands the scope - one should look not only for exact label matches, but for partial matches.