Chapter 10

On the divergent developments of two German causal subjunctions

This chapter discusses the development of two German causal subjunctions weil and zumal. In particular, it introduces a new proposal for the syntactic reanalysis of weil in the C⁰-position from a free relative clause. Later, weil-clauses also underwent a shift in meaning in the course of which weil developed from a temporal into a causal subjunction. The development of temporal into causal meaning is widely-attested cross-linguistically. This chapter argues that in the case of German, the actuation of this general path was probably enabled by prior extensions of the temporal meaning, which had made the subjunction into a universal subjunction of simultaneity relations. The subjunction zumal, by contrast, developed from the combination zumal weil ‘especially since’ after zumal had been reanalyzed in the C⁰-position. The reanalysis only concerned the internal syntax of the clause. Its external syntax and the meaning remained stable and corresponded to zumal weil-clauses. Based on these findings, it will be argued more generally that the development of new elements in the C⁰-position takes place through the fusion of the properties of the new and the old C⁰-elements. After the reanalysis, the new C⁰-element has the subordinating force of the old C⁰-element as well as the semantic content of the new and the old C⁰-element.