- と as "and": This follows the Noun+と+Noun(と) pattern:
犬と猫がいる
There is a dog and a cat.
- と as "with":
友達と遊ぶ。
Play with friend.
- Combining both senses at once: Here the first と is being used in the "and" sense, while the second is being used in the "with" sense:
父と母と公園に行きます。
I'm going to the park with my father and mother.
Question: Do native Japanese view these two uses of と as one, singular concept? Or do they view them as two seperate things that just happen to both use "と"?
I ask because if I squint my eyes I can kind of see the "and" usage of と being subsumed by the "with" usage:
犬と猫がいる
=> There is a dog with a cat.
父と母と公園に行きます。
=> I'm going to the park with my father, with my mother.
As far as I can tell, these convey basically the same meaning as the original translations. So I'm wondering if the fact that English speakers parse と as either "and" or "with" is some quirk of our language, and not the way actual Japanese people see it?