Collected in this volume are a series of original papers, many authored by internationally known specialists, dealing with the semantic relations of cause, condition, contrast and concession and their realization in language, typically at the level of the clause and beyond. The perspective taken is a dual one, some contributions dealing primarily with cognitive and semantic aspects of the categories in question or their linguistic exponents, others more with the deployment of causal, conditional, contrastive and concessive markers in written and spoken discourse. The methodologies represented are varied, ranging from introspection, informant questionnaires and psycholinguistic experimentation to textlinguistic and conversational analysis. The focus is on English, with some attention, however, being paid to typological issues and to comparable structures in Dutch, German, French and Spanish. This set of innovative studies throws new light on the nature and the expression of these four central coherence relations and, at the same time, on the interface of cognition and language use. Table of Contents: Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen/Bernd Kortmann: Introduction I. Cause Paul Georg Meyer: The relevance of causality Leo Noordman/Feimke de Blijzer: On the processing of causal relations Henk Pander Maat/Ted Sanders: Domains of use or subjectivity? The distribution of three Dutch causal connectives explained Christine Gohl: Causal relations in spoken discourse: Asyndetic constructions as a means for giving reasons II.Condition Barbara Dancygier/Eve Sweetser: Constructions with if, since, and because: Causality, epistemic stance, and clause order Estrella Montolmo: On affirmative and negative complex conditional connectives Peter Auer: Pre- and post-positioning of wenn-clauses in spoken and written German Noriko McCawley Akatsuka/Susan Strauss: Counterfactual reasoning and desirability III. Contrast Ewald Lang: Adversative connectors on distinct levels of discourse: A re-examination of Eve Sweetser's three-level approach Scott A. Schwenter: Viewpoints and polysemy: Linking adversative and causal meanings of discourse markers Cecilia E. Ford: The treatment of contrasts in interaction IV. Concession Mily Crevels: Concessives on different semantic levels: A typlogical perspective Ekkehard Kvnig and Peter Siemund: Causal and concessive clauses: Formal and semantic relations Arie Verhagen: Concession implies causality, though in some other space Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen and Sandra A. Thompson: Concessive patterns in conversation Dagmar Barth: "that's true, although not really, but still": Expressing concession in spoken English Susanne G|nthner: From concessive connector to discourse marker: The use of "obwohl" in everyday German interaction