Study the actual words and whatever goes with them (7)
I believe the answer is:
context
'whatever goes with them' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'study the actual words' is the wordplay.
'study' becomes 'con' (con can informally mean to study).
'the actual words' becomes 'text' (I've seen this before. I am not sure about the 'actual' bit.).
'con'+'text'='CONTEXT'
'and' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for context that I've seen before include "what they relate to" , "Setting of discourse" , "Surrounding setting" , "relevant conditions" , "Words surrounding a word or phrase that may fix its true meaning" .)