CAUSAL LINKS: TYPES AND EXAMPLES - LITERATURE - 2025

The causal links or causal connectors are links that indicate a cause-effect relationship between two syntactic elements, usually clauses, but they can be other syntagmatic structures. In general, connectors are a textual cohesion mechanism that serves to link sentences.

These help the information to be presented in a fluid way and not as isolated fragments. These connectors, also called expressions or connective sequences, help establish the logical-semantic relationship between the elements of a sentence, thus avoiding ambiguity or a possible lack of clarity.

Causal links introduce the reason or cause of a situation: "It will not open new markets (effect) because it does not have the financial resources (cause)." The clauses introduced by these links are always subordinate (dependent) and, depending on the causal links used, they can exchange position with respect to the main one.

For example, either of these two possibilities is correct: "He left, since you weren't coming" or "Since you didn't come, he left." Compare also "She left, because you weren't coming" and "Well, you weren't coming, she left."

Types

Subordinate conjunctions

Conjunctions are invariable words, generally unstressed (without accents), that join words, phrases or clauses. These are classified into coordinators and subordinates.

In the first place, coordinating conjunctions ("and", "but", "but") join elements of the same category (words, phrases, clauses) without establishing a dependency function.

For their part, subordinates do establish dependency between the elements they link. In addition, they mark some kind of semantic relationship, among them that of cause-effect. Thus, the subordinating conjunctions "because", "then" and "as" belong to the group of causal links.

Conjunctive phrases

Conjunctive phrases are made up of sequences of two or more words that cannot be divided syntactically and that fulfill the function of a conjunction (link elements of a sentence).

These conjunctive conjunctions are characterized by their great variety of formal schemes and their varying degrees of grammaticalization.

Among others, those that can play the role of causal links are: "since", "since", "by reason of that", "since", "by virtue of" and "seen that".

Examples of sentences with causal connectors

The following examples serve to illustrate different causal connectors. The sentences were taken from different textbooks on literature or literary appreciation.

Why

"The name itself is, to begin with, extremely ambiguous, because, strictly speaking, 'children's literature' could be interpreted with at least three meanings that are not always compatible…".

(Children's literature and narrative point of view, Ricardo Senabre, 1994).

"Drama cannot be defined as the literature of language, because its linguistic construction serves to develop the plot in such a way that its potential is exploited to the maximum…".

(Drama as literature, Jirí Veltrusky, 1991).

Well

"For centuries the novel was considered a genre unworthy of belonging to literature, because it was thought that its sole purpose was the entertainment of women from the idle and uneducated classes…".

(Literature one, José Luis Martínez Arteaga, et al., 2006).

"'The symbolic of evil'… caught my attention because of his way of approaching the problem of evil so frequently recreated in literature, since I was discovering it now from a philosophical perspective".

(Guilt, confession and penance in "The enemy sister of José Revueltas", América Luna Martínez, 2009).

How

"As he was kind and of good nature, when he saw that the old man was digging laboriously, although the long walk and short meal of the day made him tired and hungry, he told him in a very good way to leave him the hoe…".

(Rainbow literary, Juan Bautista Bergua, 1981).

"… as he thought that the bad poet or prose writer does no harm to anyone, in him the predilection for benign criticism was accentuated".

(Stendhal in Spain: a century of critical reception, Inmaculada Ballano Olano, 2009).

Given the

"The consideration of these functions is essential in the study of literature, since the literary fact only exists as a differential fact with respect to the literary series or the extraliterary series".

(Theory of literature, José Domínguez Caparrós, 2002).

"Since the prophets were accusing prosecutors who pronounced the wrath of God on guilty sinners, I searched the historical and profane books for evidence of the condition of the people at that time."

(Biblical prophecy and apocalyptic literature, D. Brent Sandy, 2004).

Since

"Since the creation and reception of Afro-Ecuadorian literature are inseparable, my inquisitions continually move towards a society that is also a budding creation that seeks its own readers."

(Afro and multinationality: the Ecuadorian case seen from its literature, Michael H. Handelsman, 2001).

"It is something that should not be strange, since literature and advertising have a lot in common, since both need imagination and imagination and creativity to stimulate the taste of the recipients…".

(Literature and advertising: the persuasive-commercial element of the literary, Asunción Escribano Hernández, 2011).

Because of (what)

"The advertising work… deeply disappointed him on the grounds that this ideological cosmetic activity of the capital's production is incompatible with the socialist ideals for which he fought."

(Anthology of the Dominican tale, Diógenes Céspedes, 2000).

“The investigation of this matter is very helpful, because it not only poses a problem of a theoretical nature; that is, the capacity of European ideas for the interpretation of the Spanish-American reality… ”.

(Unamunian Constellations. Links between Spain and America, Claudio Maíz, 2009).

As

“These two elements mark his vital and literary career, since they are a recurring theme in his works. Even Nazarín has a priest as its protagonist and this element provoked such hatred in certain sectors of society… ”.

(Manual of Spanish literature, Manuel Maneiro Vidal, 2008).

"Etymologically, it is not correct to call it literature, since the word literature comes from the Latin litera which means letter, and the peoples of pre-Columbian America did not know the alphabet…".

(Literature 2, José Luis Martínez Arteaga, et al., 2006).

In virtue of

"… contains a large number of examples in which the imagination intervened as one of the most important elements of scientific activity, by virtue of the fact that fantasy has a property whose value and quality is inestimable".

(Children's literature: language and fantasy, Víctor Montoya, 2003).

"Let us therefore start from the premise of a person who not only says that he is a writer, but that he is, by virtue of the fact that he dedicates a good part of his existence to letters…"

(The books were still there: essays on contemporary literature, Ricardo Gil Otaiza, 2006).

Since

"… or, more exactly, it does not allow him to accept and appreciate his peculiar and constant literary productivity, given that it is not absent from any sector of society."

(Literature, culture, society in Latin America, Ángel Rama, 2006).

"A language so humble that it could not pass through Balcarce's head that it could serve for a literary creation, since it could only circulate in the cultured orbit, as the European model dictated."

(Literature and social class, Ángel Rama, 1983).

References

1. Escoriza Nieto, J. (2003). Assessment of knowledge of reading comprehension strategies. Barcelona: Edicions Universitat Barcelona.
2. Gramaticas.net (2018). Examples of causal links. Taken from grammaticas.net.
3. Rodríguez Guzmán, JP (2005). Graphic grammar to the juampedrino mode. Barcelona: Carena Editions.
4. Kattan Ibarra, J. and Howkins, A. (2014). Spanish Grammar in Context. Oxon: Routledge.
5. Burguera Serra, J. (Coord.). (2012). Introduction to Spanish grammar: grammatical categories. Barcelona: Edicions Universitat Barcelona.
6. Montolío, E. (2001). Connectors of the written language: counterargumentative, consecutive. Ariel: Barcelona.