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I'm find this very hard to describe, but as it's something that I find grating I'm trying to find a word to describe it so I can discuss it with people.

Here is a conversation that to me makes sense:

Me: Do you like butter?

Someone else: No I don't, but I can spread it

This is not jarring. Maybe they could have said 'but at least I can spread it', but that feels implied.

Here is an example where the two clauses feel jarring:

Me: Do you like butter?

Someone else: Yes I do, but I can spread it

Here, you expect but to be a counter to the first clause, but in this example it's not countering anything. It feel clear the speaker meant to say 'and', but regardless this formation feels jarring.

Here's another example:

This is not isolated to but, however I can't find good example.

What is this called?

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AncientSwordRage
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    These are puns of a sort. – Hot Licks Oct 25 '17 at 12:32
  • @HotLicks except in 100% of the times I've encountered this is said as though this makes perfect sense but the person's brain has just used a random conjuction rather than a sensible word in there – AncientSwordRage Oct 25 '17 at 13:20
  • The second example is nonsense, unless there is context where say you've already asked ten people who can't spread butter the same question and got ten No's. And 'Someone else' realises what's going on. – Edwin Ashworth Oct 25 '17 at 23:03
  • @EdwinAshworth I'm parraphrasing, but I hear it often enough that it irritates me... – AncientSwordRage Oct 26 '17 at 09:01
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it seems merely to be asking for a term for illogical use of conjunctions. 'Error' seems the correct answer. – Edwin Ashworth Oct 26 '17 at 09:07
  • @EdwinAshworth isn't 'There's no term for illogical use of conjunctions, except Error' a correct answer to this question then? – AncientSwordRage Oct 26 '17 at 09:24
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    There are over 1 million words in the lexicon. I don't know them all, so I can't be definitive. But if 'error' actually is the best answer here, as seems very likely, then the question is hardly suitable for ELU. We could have a flood of 'What is it called when ...?' questions covering different types of error, almost all with no specific names. Giving a trivial 'answer' here would be encouraging this. // The only relevant article I've found addressing this has a section titled 'Use of wrong Conjunction', with no suggested paraphrase, but I'd not consider it an authoritative source. – Edwin Ashworth Oct 26 '17 at 09:38
  • Example two is not jarring depending on context. "A: I hate peanut butter. It tears the bread when I try to spread it. B: Do you like butter? A: Yes I do, but I can spread it." – MetaEd Oct 26 '17 at 15:44
  • @MetaEd the only thing in that sentence that matter is the affirmative 'yes' and the negating conjuction 'but' because speading is a 'positive' quality. If it had been "A: Do you like butter? B: "Yes, but I can't spread it" the 'But' and the 'Can't' agree. – AncientSwordRage Oct 26 '17 at 16:03
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    Think of the last utterance as short for "Yes I do, but [that's because] I can spread it". – MetaEd Oct 26 '17 at 16:11
  • I'm reminded of Groucho Marx: "Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read." – rajah9 Oct 03 '20 at 13:38
  • A non sequitur? I'm struggling to see anything more specific to the examples given. Are they supposed to be jokes? Have you tried asking the people saying them what they mean? – Stuart F Jun 30 '21 at 14:54

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This has to do with Conventional Implicature

An example:

Donovan is poor but happy.

This sentence is logically equivalent to – that is, it has the same truth conditions as – "Donovan is poor and happy". In addition, the word "but" implicates a sense of contrast.

If you had the impression that being poor is not a contrast to being happy, the formulation with but instead of and, would seem weird and possibly ungrammatical.

AncientSwordRage
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    Possibly better at the question IELTS: true / false / not given confusion. Here, OP requests a term like 'malapropism', 'mixed metaphor'. I think 'anacoluthon' is normally restricted to abrupt changes in a stream of thought where the syntax is also fouled up. – Edwin Ashworth Oct 03 '20 at 13:46
  • @edwin which op? Which term is better suited to this question? I'm happy for you to write your own answer. I was only self answering as this is the best I've found. – AncientSwordRage Oct 03 '20 at 13:55
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    Ah, you're OP. You need to rephrase your question to make 'Conventional Implicature' an appropriate answer (it certainly contains useful material). But your question as it stands asks for 'a word referring to a breaching of conventional implicature'. // Over on the IELTS correctness issue, OP is missing the fact that conventional implicature trumps strict logical analysis in everyday language. – Edwin Ashworth Oct 03 '20 at 14:15
  • That makes more sense @edwin. I'll try to adjust shortly – AncientSwordRage Oct 03 '20 at 14:54