Causal relations in Classical Greek tragedy. An analysis of ἐπεί

Abstract

The paper deals with causal relations in a corpus of Classical Greek tragedy, focusing on the usage of the conjunction ἐπεί. It accounts for different uses of ἐπεί-clauses on the basis of a typological description of adverbial clauses and a cognitive linguistic analysis of conjunctions. The analysis is based on the data annotation of ἐπεί occurrences in the corpus when signaling causal relations. According to my annotation, four different functions are identified for the ἐπεί-clauses. By means of examples, the analysis shows that in the majority of the cases ἐπεί-clauses cover functions beyond the coordination/subordination dichotomy, operating not at the sentence level of syntax but rather at the discourse level. Furthermore, the analysis is supported by information on the frequency of ἐπεί-clauses according to the function they fulfill and their occurrence in bi-clausal constructions or in freestanding units.

10.4424/lam132024-4