what does と mean here

Question

文字は、言語と直接結び付いて意味を表すものであり、その結び付いた意味によって字種に分類される。

I have a rough understanding of the first sentence, but the usage of 「と」 here goes beyond me. Does it mean "and" or "to" here?

Answer 1

It means "with" here (you could probably think of it as a subset of the "and" meaning), and "connected with" can also be expressed as "connected to" or some other variation.

Check ALC for some examples.