The Expression of Causality in Latin and in Romance Languages: Formal Frames and Intentional Gradation

This approach proposes a reflection on the expression of "causality" in Latin and in Romance languages. First, we will study the ontology and the multiple nature of the notion of "causality", as well as the formal matrices of the realization of the causal link between two propositions, between two sentences or between two communication situations. We will then take into consideration the relationship between "causality" and "subjectivity" and we will exemplify this relationship by reviewing some causal connectors with an argumentative and/or metadiscursive function. At this point, we will also review the syntactic and semantic functioning of the explicative causal constructions introduced by the prototypical connectors: Lat. NAM, Fr. car and Rom. caci, in order to indicate the similarities and especially the differences in the behaviour of these lexical and grammatical units.