Another(’s) perspective on subjectivity in causal connectives: a usage-based analysis of volitional causal relations

Under a linguistic categorization hypothesis causal connectives are taken as categorization devices. Indeed, corpus studies suggest that connectives strongly specialize in one specific causality category, but also that their use is not restricted to the causality categories they are prototypically a...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ninke Stukker, Ted Sanders
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Presses universitaires de Caen 2017-10-01
Series:Discours
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/discours/7260
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1832581851929116672
author Ninke Stukker
Ted Sanders
author_facet Ninke Stukker
Ted Sanders
author_sort Ninke Stukker
collection DOAJ
description Under a linguistic categorization hypothesis causal connectives are taken as categorization devices. Indeed, corpus studies suggest that connectives strongly specialize in one specific causality category, but also that their use is not restricted to the causality categories they are prototypically associated with. If we assume that the meaning of causal connectives can adequately be described with reference to well-defined conceptual categories – how can we explain that variation in the actual usage of connectives occurs? We focus on volitional causal coherence relations, which count as the prototypical usage context of the Dutch causal connective daarom “that’s why”. Volitional causal relations can alternatively be marked with the connective dus “so” which is prototypically used in epistemic causal relations. Our hypothesis is that volitional causal relations marked with daarom vs. dus systematically differ in terms of subjectivity. We discuss a model of analysis that contains multiple operationalizations of subjectivity and distinguishes between different levels of complexity (sub-clause, clause, and discourse). We find that volitional causal relations with dus contain subjective elements more often than volitional causal relations with daarom. We interpret this patterning within a usage-based theoretical framework, and propose to analyze cases of volitional dus as non-prototypical instantiations of dus’s inherent subjective, prototypically epistemic meaning.
format Article
id doaj-art-6e5ebbf8fdb74418b08ae19fd12c52d2
institution Kabale University
issn 1963-1723
language English
publishDate 2017-10-01
publisher Presses universitaires de Caen
record_format Article
series Discours
spelling doaj-art-6e5ebbf8fdb74418b08ae19fd12c52d22025-01-30T09:52:53ZengPresses universitaires de CaenDiscours1963-17232017-10-01410.4000/discours.7260Another(’s) perspective on subjectivity in causal connectives: a usage-based analysis of volitional causal relationsNinke StukkerTed SandersUnder a linguistic categorization hypothesis causal connectives are taken as categorization devices. Indeed, corpus studies suggest that connectives strongly specialize in one specific causality category, but also that their use is not restricted to the causality categories they are prototypically associated with. If we assume that the meaning of causal connectives can adequately be described with reference to well-defined conceptual categories – how can we explain that variation in the actual usage of connectives occurs? We focus on volitional causal coherence relations, which count as the prototypical usage context of the Dutch causal connective daarom “that’s why”. Volitional causal relations can alternatively be marked with the connective dus “so” which is prototypically used in epistemic causal relations. Our hypothesis is that volitional causal relations marked with daarom vs. dus systematically differ in terms of subjectivity. We discuss a model of analysis that contains multiple operationalizations of subjectivity and distinguishes between different levels of complexity (sub-clause, clause, and discourse). We find that volitional causal relations with dus contain subjective elements more often than volitional causal relations with daarom. We interpret this patterning within a usage-based theoretical framework, and propose to analyze cases of volitional dus as non-prototypical instantiations of dus’s inherent subjective, prototypically epistemic meaning.https://journals.openedition.org/discours/7260causal connectivesvolitional causalityepistemic causalitysubjectivityperspectivizationcorpus studies
spellingShingle Ninke Stukker
Ted Sanders
Another(’s) perspective on subjectivity in causal connectives: a usage-based analysis of volitional causal relations
Discours
causal connectives
volitional causality
epistemic causality
subjectivity
perspectivization
corpus studies
title Another(’s) perspective on subjectivity in causal connectives: a usage-based analysis of volitional causal relations
title_full Another(’s) perspective on subjectivity in causal connectives: a usage-based analysis of volitional causal relations
title_fullStr Another(’s) perspective on subjectivity in causal connectives: a usage-based analysis of volitional causal relations
title_full_unstemmed Another(’s) perspective on subjectivity in causal connectives: a usage-based analysis of volitional causal relations
title_short Another(’s) perspective on subjectivity in causal connectives: a usage-based analysis of volitional causal relations
title_sort another s perspective on subjectivity in causal connectives a usage based analysis of volitional causal relations
topic causal connectives
volitional causality
epistemic causality
subjectivity
perspectivization
corpus studies
url https://journals.openedition.org/discours/7260
work_keys_str_mv AT ninkestukker anothersperspectiveonsubjectivityincausalconnectivesausagebasedanalysisofvolitionalcausalrelations
AT tedsanders anothersperspectiveonsubjectivityincausalconnectivesausagebasedanalysisofvolitionalcausalrelations