Couper-Kuhlen Elizabeth, Kortmann Bernd (eds.) Cause, Condition, Concession, Contrast: Cognitive and Discourse Perspectives

Mouton de Gruyter, 2000. — vi, 475 p. — (Topics in English Linguistics [TiEL] 33). — ISBN: 3-11-016690-9.In this collection of original and innovative papers, many authored by internationally known specialists, new light is thrown on the nature and the expression of the four probably most widely researched coherence relations.Some contributions deal primarily with cognitive and semantic aspects of the categories in question or their linguistic exponents, others more with the deployment of causal, conditional, contrast and concessive markers in written and spoken discourse. This dual perspective also helps illuminate the interface of cognition and language use.Cause
The relevance of causality
On the processing of causal relations
Domains of use or subjectivity? The distribution of three Dutch causal connectives explained
Causal relations in spoken "discourse: Asyndetic constructions as a means for giving reasons
Condition
Constructions with if, since, and because: Causality, epistemic stance, and clause order
On affirmative and negative complex conditional connectives
Pre- and post-positioning of wenn-clauses In spoken and written German
Counterfactual reasoning and desirability
Contrast
Adversative connectors on distinct levels ofdiscourse: Are-examination of Eve Sweetser's three-level approach
Viewpoints and polysemy: Linking adversative and causal meanings of discourse markers
The treatment of contrasts in interaction
Concession
Concessives on different semantic levels: A typological perspective
Causal and concessive clauses: Formal and semantic relations
Concession implies causality, though in some other space
Concessive patterns in conversation
"that's true, although not really, but still": Expressing concession in spoken English
From concessive connector to discourse marker: The use of obwohl in everyday German interaction