Causality in language
What is it about?
Human beings tend to link events happening in the world in a causal, i.e. cause-and-effect way, in order to make better sense of them and explain them. To understand this cognitive phenomenon, the book studies its expression in language. And its expression is commonly realized by using discourse markers like ‘because’. But the picture that causal understanding presents is much more intriguing than it seems, especially if it is observed from the point of view of different languages.
Why is it important?
The book explains why the picture that causal understanding presents is intriguing, especially from a cross-linguistic point of view. Why is it that English has only one ‘because’ to express prototypical causality, while Modern Greek has two? If Modern Greek has two ‘becauses’, why does it need them? What are the cognitive and cultural differentiations between users of different languages that support this type of diversity?