On the use of dar și [but also] in current Romanian

In more recent normative works of the Romanian language, the way in which the sequence dar și [but also] is discussed indicates an acceptance of it among the copulative coordinating constructions, along with those organized in correlative pairs. As in the case of nu numai ..., dar și [not only..., but also], the correct involvement in the discourse of dar și is necessarily controlled by the latent adversative semantic content of the conjunction dar [but] from its structure. In everyday use, however, the transmitter no longer takes into account the fact that dar și “focuses the syntactic limb it precedes, presenting it as less likely, therefore more significant”. In situations as such, dar și appears as a verbal excess, instead of the simple coordinating conjunction și [and]. The tendency could be justified by the speaker’s need to compensate, through the formal note and lexical agglomeration, for the simplicity (sometimes pauperity) of the content that is to be transmitted.


The construction but also in normative works
The repertoire of the copulative correlatives in current Romanian records-along with atît ..., cît și and nu numai ..., ci și [Engl.: not only… but also]-the construction nu numai ..., dar și 1 , between dependent syntactic components, indicating, like the other conjunctions of the same class, a cumulation or "the association, the most direct connection between two elements that must be interpreted together" (gblr 2016, p. 334): (1) Ascultă nu numai muzică clasică, dar și jazz.
[They listen to both classical music and jazz.] ‹ Email address: chiriladina@yahoo.com. 1 It must be said that from the point of view of literary language the structure nu numai ..., dar și is not in the same position as the other two mentioned here.Iorgu Iordan considered it a serious deviation, determined by the fact that the speakers ignored the semantic difference between the conjunctions ci and dar, the former being the only one that correctly supports that complex copulative conjunctional structure (Iordan, [1943]

The logical-pragmatic condition of the use of dar și
From a pragmatic point of view, however, the elements that constitute the informational cumulation are charged differently -a fact determined by the latency of the semantic adversative content of the conjunction but from the structure of the conjunctional locution (Avram, 1986, p. 229) dar și, and of the correlative construction nu numai ..., dar și.In this respect, dig 2020, p. 218 states that dar plays here "a specific role: it focuses the syntactic limb it precedes, presenting it as less likely, therefore more significant".Thus, in a sentence like: ( [The loop of hair that an Australian soldier who died in France had on him is still identifiable after a hundred years.A symbol, moreover, for the risks of the archaeology of love, found, one would say, at the interface with sweetness.But also with pride -for from where else could come the mission to quantify weightlessness, working with minimal clues, like the strands of paper left over from a picture.] Without such discursive extensions (5), ( 6), (11), the receiver may not reach the exact informational content (historical, cultural, etc.) envisaged by the transmitter to the syntactic limb focused by dar și; however, under the authority of the logic held by the connector (alone or in the composition of the copulative coordinating construction) and as long as the context supports the "reading" of the text in this direction3 , the receiver will interpret the sequence of the two connected elements as a progression in terms of their meaning and importance in building the message.
[We also find here [at Oxyrhynchos, on the Nile, in the ancient landfills of the city; o.n., A.C.] the correspondence of countless local couples of Egyptians but also, depending on the period, of Greeks, Macedonians, Romans and others.](12) "Solidaritate, dar și haos în vămi" 4 .
[Solidarity but also chaos in customs] Around the sequence dar și appears, therefore, with necessity, a type of copulative construction in which one or another of the options for placing the syntactical members is a) rigorously controlled by what the transmitter wants to communicate (this is not only the sum of the meanings of the elements in the "enumeration", as is usually the case with recurrent and reversible copulative constructions), b) in harmony both with the semantic and connotative load of the linguistic material with which the transmitter operates, as well as c) with the contextual elements in which the communication takes place.

Negligent use
Often, however, the use of the correlative construction nu numai..., dar și, and of dar și loses sight of the conditions that ensure their purpose and, therefore, their correctness in speech.Sentences like the ones below are negligent: grammatically, dar of the conjunctional construction dar și focuses the syntactic limb that follows it, thus presented as "less likely" (see supra; o.e., A.C.); however, its semantic content in relation to a) that of the syntactic limb on the first position, with b) other elements of the co-text, and with c) the entire context in which the communication takes place does not justify such a linguistic option: (13) "Pînă să ajungă în România, Anastasia, mama ei, dar și fiul de șapte ani au dormit nouă nopți într-un buncăr."5[Before arriving to Romania, Anastasia, her mother but also her seven-year-old son slept nine nights in a bunker.](14) "Alte cinci sute de persoane sînt cazate în căminele studențești, dar și în blocul social pus la dispoziție de Primărie.Not infrequently, the deviation from the norm harms the message9 to a deeper level, circumscribing it to the involuntary contextual comical (17) and compromising its gravity (18):
1948, p. 404-405).The justification of the critical position (also encountered in Avram, 1986, p. 229) is supported by the clarifications regarding the types of semantic relations marked by the connectors dar and ci, given by galr 2005, I, p. 643: "[f ]rom a semantical-pragmatic point of view, [...] dar [...] marks the contradiction of the expectations triggered by the first term of the adversative syntactical report (Îi strig pe nume pe cîțiva dintre ei, dar e de prisos.[I call a few of them by name, but it's superfluous], Camil Petrescu, Ultima noapte); ci indicates a correction of a hypothesis negated by the previous cocurrent term (Mitul nu trebuie să fie recunoscut, ci crezut.[The myth does not have to be recognized, but believed], N. Manolescu, Teme)".["In addition, the parallel placement of different interpretations of the commented texts offers the possibility to appreciate the value of the various Romanian versions [...], which are distinguished by accuracy, but also by refinements and subtleties of details."] The reversal of the topic of the two elements attached to the fixed structure nu numai ..., dar și [not only ... but also] (8) generates a message essentially different from the first regarding the characterization, namely: 'thrifty' , 'moderate' , 'sober' , since the discursive component to which attention is drawn is different, and the two (i.e.măr [apple] and smochină [fig]) do not share the same connotation.(8) În pivnițele șvabilor din Banat se păstrau pînă la Crăciun nu numai smochine, de cu vară învelite în paie și gheață, dar și mere, frumos rînduite în lădițe.[In the cellars of the Swabians of Banat were kept until Christmas not only figs, from summer wrapped in straw and ice, but also apples, beautifully arranged in crates.]Sometimes the focus of the syntactic limb preceded by dar și is justified by the speaker through developments, explanations and co-textual details.These, in fact, resume or support the implications of the initial bipartisan statement/discourse, making it easier to reach the complex and precise message: (9) "E sigur, în plus, că Piranesi a studiat cu mare atenție nu numai pasajele cu implicații topografice din sursele antice, dar și sutele de fragmente din uriașul (18 × 13 m, scara 1:250) plan de marmură al Romei din vremea dinastiei Severilor.Aceste fragmente din Forma Urbis Romae fuseseră descoperite cu două secole mai devreme, desigur nu prin săpături profesioniste, dar aici contează doar că ele fuseseră făcute de topografi romani profesioniști și că Piranesi le cunoștea."(Pavel, 2019, p. 81; s.n., A.C.); [It is certain, moreover, that Piranesi studied very carefully not only the passages with topographical implications from ancient sources, but also the hundreds of fragments of the huge (18 × 13 m, 1:250 scale) marble plan of Rome from the time of the Severus dynasty.These fragments of the Forma Urbis Romae had been discovered two centuries earlier, not by professional excavations, of course, but here it only matters that they had been made by professional Roman topographers and that Piranesi knew them.](10) "Bucla de păr pe care o avea asupra lui un soldat australian mort în Franța e încă identificabilă după o sută de ani.Un simbol, de altfel, pentru riscurile arheologiei iubirii, aflate, s-ar zice, 7) În pivnițele șvabilor din Banat se păstrau pînă la Crăciun nu numai mere, frumos rînduite în lădițe, dar și smochine, de cu vară învelite în paie și gheață., [In the cellars of the Swabians of Banat were kept until Christmas not only apples, beautifully arranged in crates, but also figs, from summer wrapped in straw and ice.] the second element in the pair mere -smochine [apples -figs] stands out as unusual, rare in the general known context (i.e.season, storage period, perishability of fruits, etc.), in opposition to the first, which is common, unsurprising; and it is also the element on which is based, within the complex message of the predicational structure, the implicit characterization of the respective household type -'rich' , 'foresighted' , 'meticulous' .la interfața cu dulcegăria.Dar și cu trufia -căci de unde altundeva ar putea veni misiunea de a cuantifica imponderabile, lucrînd cu indicii minimale, ca firele de hîrtie rămase dintr-o poză."(Pavel, 2019, p. 17-18; s.n.A.C.).