Introducing reason clauses: a linguistic inquiry on the use of different types of conjunctions in Italian

This paper analyses the behaviour of different types of causal conjunctions used in Italian to introduce causal adverbial subordinate clauses. Starting from a short presentation on the typological characteristics of adverbial and causal relations, the properties of three main causal conjunctions used in Italian, namely perché, siccome and in quanto, are explored, looking for plausible differences in the domains of morphosyntax and semantics as well. Whilst clear differences between perché and siccome are found, in quanto shows a borderline behaviour between the two, sharing similarities with both. Although classifying causal conjunctions in two main different blocks is tempting, we needed to assert the underlying complexity of a seemingly simple resolution. Even though some correlates in using different subordinators may prompt for a bipartization into two main groups with associated properties, the in-betweener position of in quanto suggests for caution. Our proposal is then to look more carefully at the three main conjunctions and the shapes of meaning that a clause may acquire shifting from one to the other. Finally, a different perspective is offered that rejects bipartization and categorical distinctions in favor of a continuum solution in which a difference in the positioning unfolds related differences in the clause, possibly suggesting that a bundle of morphosyntactic and semantic correlates is distributed along a continuum.