There may be plenty of information out there, but I’ve been unable to find concise answers. I’d like to know if there is a reliable method to tell apart が (subject marker) from が (“but” “and”). Additionally, is context alone the only way to narrow down the second group of meanings: “but”; “however”; “still”; “and”?
Thanks in advance for your answers!
OK, chances are I’m completely blacking out right now and forgetting something important, but I would think that the subject marker が can only come right after a noun whereas the but-が can only come after a complete clause, that is a verb/i-adjective/copula.
Am I missing something?
You can tell that it’s a conjunctive が when it’s used at the end of a clause. If you see it after a verb, a です, or a ます, that’s unambiguously a conjunction. Also, it does not mean “and”, it means more like “but” or “however” which are synonyms. One use that doesn’t match up with the english “but” is that it is sometimes used to introduce a request in a roundabout way in order to be polite. 東京に行きたいんですが… “I would like to go to Tokyo, but… (I feel bad for asking for your help)”
Here’s an example with both types of が…
犬が好きですが、ネコのほうが一番好きです。
The first one must be a subject marker because it marks a noun, and the second must be a conjunction because it comes after a です. The third one marks a noun as the subject of the second clause… or at least that’s one interpretation, I believe there’s also an argument to be made that it’s acting as an object marker for すき but that’s more of an advanced grammar discussion.
And then some characters just want to mess with us learners, as seen where I first learned about this use of が:
(His dialogue is continuing from the prior panel.)
Sometimes the subject marker が can end a clause if the author thought it makes sense. Then it means neither “but”, nor “and”, but is simply a marker.
Some sentences from the book 怪人二十面相 by Edogawa Ranpo:
Unless that still falls under the standard conjunctive が uses.
I think this might be expanded to a general “trying to make a point” use, because sometimes it doesn’t necessarily have to be a request, I think 
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Aren’t those both just marking subjects like normal? Unless I’m completely misunderstanding, which is very possible 
I mean, that’s how I’ve been interpreting them in this book so far, but seeing as reading it is absolute torture because of the amount of kana, one can’t ever be sure, I guess .
Yeah although you’re not “supposed” to start a sentence with ですが or だが (which is the same thing but in a different politeness register), it often happens in speech. It’s the same way that you’re not “supposed” to start a sentence with “but” or “and” in English, but we often do it anyway.
That’s not the end of a clause; commas in Japanese do not follow strict rules like they do in English and are often placed after particles or other places where there is a natural break or pause in speech. That が is just acting as a subject marker. Also this author was born in 1894, so I believe his speech and writings are probably a little old fashioned compared to contemporary usage.
The #1 way to indicate that a character in an anime is a super old dude is to have them start every sentence with だが and use a nasalized g.
I feel like the super old dudes would use じゃが but… I know what you mean. 
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