Logical, temporal and causal interpretations of conjunction. An experimental approach

It is well known that the conjunction et can have various interpretations in natural language such as logical, temporal or causal ones. Assuming a structural uniformity among these different interpretations, semantic and pragmatic theories explain these interpretative differences by the general pragmatic principles of communication (Grice 1975, 1989, Posner 1980, Schmerling 1975, Carston 1993, Blakemore & Carston 1999, Blakemore & Carston 2005). However, quite recently, Bjorkman (2010) has put forth some arguments in favor of a structural division among these different interpretations. In brief, asymmetric interpretations (temporal and causal) in their syntactic structure involve a coordination of temporal phrases (TP), while symmetric interpretations (logical) imply a coordination of the complementizer phrases (CP).