This paper is concerned with the context in which because and cos occur in conversational English. We examine how, very often used outside of a strictly causal context and in growingly autonomous clauses, causal markers drift away from their original meaning to be used as elaboration markers, or as discourse connectives.
In doing so, we discuss the specificity of cos with regard to because. Statistical evidence shows a specialized behavior of cos that significantly distinguishes it from because and cannot be reduced to an effect of stylistic variation. Based on syntactic, prosodic and pragmatic analysis, our findings indicate that cos is preferred in contexts where the speaker voices sensations or impressions that support certitudes or hypotheses, or more generally when the relation between clauses is consiered so obvious that it rules out any discussion. Is cos a different marker altogether?