A term used in the grammatical classification of words to refer to an item or a process whose primary function is to connect words or other constructions. The conventional subclassification of these 'connective' items distinguishes co-ordinating conjunctions (e.g. and, or, but) and subordinating conjunctions (e.g. because, when, unless) -- also referred to as 'co-ordinators' and 'subordinators' respectively. [Crystal 2008: 101]