the semantic relation between two events where one event causes the other. Example: I left the party because I was tired is a figure–ground construal of the simultaneous relation in an adverbial clause construction, and I was tired and (so) I left the party is a complex figure construal of the relation in a coordinate clause construction. In the figure–ground construal, the causing event (the protasis; Section 17.3.2) is construed as the ground, and expressed in the adverbial dependent clause. Causal relations also occur in conditional, concessive, concessive conditional, and comparative conditional constructions. Causal relations are divided into content, epistemic, and speech act relations. (Sections 15.3.1, 17.2.1, 17.3.2)