In some language, (I would especially like it in one where conjunctions are followed by an oblique case along the line of what English does, only with non-pronouns as well - alternatively, case marking is sensitive to context), there could be a commonly used construction with dummies carrying grammatical information about the VP or NP in which they occur, so, for instance,
A bit like if "... and shit" was grammaticalized, but for a more wide range of meanings: TAM, case/adposition-like things, adjectival things for nouns, indefinite determiners and quantifying expressions, ... some other expressions could be formed likewise with and + noun.
(obviative) it and (obviative) it : some
ran around and it.obl : ran around intently, ran around (perfective)
stone and them : stones (if the language lacks, say, morphological plural for inanimates or somesuch)
bean and it: some beans (with uncountable nouns, to express large quantity)
we thought and at it (locative case of some kind) : we considered, but did not reach a conclusion
we thought and in it (locative case of some other kind): we considered carefully
we thought and it.acc : we concluded
we traveled the land and it.acc: we passed through the landThis would probably go at the end of the vp?
Examples with nouns instead of dummies:
bean and bag : a bagful of beans
fish and net: a catch of fish
water and pitcher: a pitcherful of waterTo obtain the meaning "and" usually would entail would require reversing the order of the nouns:
net and fish: some/a fish and a/some nets
bag and bean: a bag and some beans
...Over time, the conjunction easily could turn into an affix, and sound changes could obscure the relation to the conjunction.
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