Temporality and causality in asymmetric conjunction

Abstract

In contrast to the symmetric logical conjunction, sentences conjoined by the conjunctive coordinator and can be asymmetric. In asymmetric conjunction, the temporal or causal relation in the coordinated sentence is related to the order of conjuncts. Various accounts are proposed to address this asymmetry at the semantics–pragmatics interface. The pragmatic approaches maintain a minimal conjunctive semantics of the coordinator and attribute additional meanings to pragmatics, while the semantic approaches assign a richer semantics to and that blocks backward temporal or causal relations. The present study addresses whether these backward relations are incompatible with and. Using an acceptability judgement task, we compared coordinated sentences with different semantic relations. The results indicate that sentences with backward relations received higher ratings than sentences with semantic inconsistencies, against the prediction of the semantic approaches, and reversing a temporal relation is considered as worse than reversing a causal relation. The new empirical evidence provides support for pragmatic approaches and shows that while temporality between the conjuncts is more sensitive to the order of the clauses, causality relies more on the assumed relation between a cause and its effect.