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Causation and Reasoning Constructions
Causation and reasoning are different but related types of relationships. Both causal relations and reasoning processes may be expressed with one and the same connective word in some languages: English speakers use because and Japanese speakers use kara. How then are causation and reasoning processes related to and different from each other? How do we construe and encode them? How is because different from other conjunctions with similar meanings?
To account for these and related empirical questions, this book presents an integrated analysis in accordance with the original principles of Construction Grammar. In particular, the book shows that the analysis proposed is compatible with our general knowledge about causation and reasoning and that it is valid for English and Japanese. The proposed analysis is also comprehensively applicable to a variety of related phenomena, ranging from the just because X doesn’t mean Y construction to the innovative and less known because X construction.
To account for these and related empirical questions, this book presents an integrated analysis in accordance with the original principles of Construction Grammar. In particular, the book shows that the analysis proposed is compatible with our general knowledge about causation and reasoning and that it is valid for English and Japanese. The proposed analysis is also comprehensively applicable to a variety of related phenomena, ranging from the just because X doesn’t mean Y construction to the innovative and less known because X construction.
[Constructional Approaches to Language, 25] 2019. xi, 196 pp.
Publishing status: Available
Published online on 4 March 2019
Published online on 4 March 2019
© John Benjamins
Table of Contents
- Acknowledgments | pp. ix–x
- List of abbreviations | pp. xi–11
- Chapter 1. Introduction | pp. 1–8
- Chapter 2. Previous studies: From gestalt to construction | pp. 9–38
- Chapter 3. Constructions of causation and reasoning | pp. 39–70
- Chapter 4. Focalizations of because- and since-clauses | pp. 71–86
- Chapter 5. causal Construction and reasoning Construction in Japanese | pp. 87–108
- Chapter 6. Constructions of metalinguistic reasons | pp. 109–129
- Chapter 7. Analogy in construction grammar: The case of just because of X doesn’t mean Y | pp. 131–145
- Chapter 8. Innovative use of because | pp. 147–172
- Chapter 9. Conclusion | pp. 173–182
- References | pp. 183–191
- Construction Index | p. 193
- Subject index | pp. 195–196
“In summary, Kanetani’s monograph is a valuable contribution to the grammatical expression of causal relations and reasoning processes in English. At the same time, it is a fine contribution to the Construction Grammar literature, showing the potential of this theoretical framework to account for both ‘core’ and ‘peripheral’ linguistic phenomena.”
Enrico Torre, Università degli Studi di Genova, on Linguist List 31.548 (6 February 2020)
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