Temporal and causal uses of the connector come in spoken italian

This paper is part of a larger research project on Italian connectors. The aims is to study the contribution of connectors to the encoding of conceptual relationship between two processes. The point of view to study the relationship between encoding and inference is the conceptual framework proposed by Prandi (2004). The occurrences of come in spoken Italian (LIP) allow us to describe the value of the connector as proposition and conjunction. As proposition come has a basic modal / comparative meaning; the temporal and the causal value of come derives from inferences which overlays other relationship: when the contents of the connected propositions allow, the meaning of the connector may be enriched by a temporal or a causal value.