Scaling causal relations and connectives in terms of speaker involvement

Abstract

This article presents a scalar approach to the semantics and distribution of causal connectives in Dutch and French. The proposed scale is called the speaker-involvement scale, and is defined in terms of the degree of implicit involvement of the speaker in the construction of the causal relation. First, a number of causal coherence relations identified in the literature are reanalyzed in terms of increasing speaker involvement, yielding the following order: nonvolitional, volitional, causal epistemic, noncausal epistemic, speech-act relations. Subsequently, a number of frequent causal connectives in Dutch and French are investigated in terms of speaker involvement. Initially, we examine the distribution of these connectives in terms of the five relational interpretations. These distributions are taken as first indications of the speaker-involvement levels encoded by the different connectives. The speaker-involvement profiles thus developed are further supported by observations regarding the semantic effects of substituting a connective with a different speaker-involvement level. It is found that connectives are not necessarily tied to the expression of a particular coherence relation. The relative independence pertaining between connective meanings and categories of relational interpretation yields expressive possibilities for speakers who want to introduce assumptions to, or remove them from, the interpretation of a certain relation. Finally, more fine-grained differences in speaker involvement were revealed by analyzing the utterance containing the connective for linguistic features having to do with subjectivity. One of the results of this kind of analysis in that, in all relations, high speaker-involvement connectives more often accompany segments with a first-person protagonist than do other connectives.