TY - JOUR AU - Zobel, Sarah PY - 2019/08/06 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Accounting for the “causal link” between free adjuncts and their host clauses JF - Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung JA - SuB VL - 23 IS - 2 SE - Articles DO - 10.18148/sub/2019.v23i2.626 UR - https://ojs.ub.uni-konstanz.de/sub/index.php/sub/article/view/626 SP - 489-506 AB - <p>This paper investigates the causal interpretation of <em>free adjuncts</em>. These are non-clausal adjuncts that associate with an individual denoted by an argument of the main verb and contribute propositional content about that individual (e.g., <em>being an Englishman </em>in <em>John, being an Englishman, is brave</em>). Based on a comparison with <em>since</em>-clauses, I analyze causally interpreted free adjuncts as contributing presuppositional propositional content that provides supporting evidence for the speaker’s main claim. I argue that the “causal link” responsible for this interpretation is not contributed by the free adjunct but inferred. I propose that it is pragmatically necessary that the presuppositional content of the free adjunct is linked to the truth-conditional content of the host clause and that the causal flavor follows from general pragmatic requirements placed on the assertion act.</p> ER -