A conceptual and procedural view of causal connectives: the case of Modern Greek γiati and epiδι

The current analysis takes a relevance-theoretic view of the two most frequently applied mono-lexemic causal connectives in Modern Greek discourse, i.e. γiati and epiδι. The suggestion is that epiδι-introduced clauses are to be treated conceptually, while γiati performs either a conceptual or procedural function depending on its use. This treatment follows up on Kitis's (2006) findings regarding the operation of the connectives under discussion. It will be concluded that the relevance-theoretic based results corroborate Kitis' s account and, further, offer a more refined explication of the constraints on the application of the conjuncts. In fact, it will be illustrated that the theory in application offers the required tools for distinguishing among three types of procedural meaning underlying the interpretation of γiati