The purpose of this paper is to analyse the constraints involved in the way connections between predicative relations (causal structures) are constructed, a domain traditionally associated with such notions as « subordination », « coordination » or « juxtaposition ». This requires that metalinguistic terminology (and therefore theoretical approaches) be brought into question. It also requires studying how inter-clausal values are (re)constructed in the absence of linking markers. In this regard, aspectual and tense markers, lexical aspect and the linear ordering of clauses are shown to play an important role as also do the referential values of the complex notions involved. By way of illustration, transformations are performed on a number of complex utterances containing the connective as. In order to be able to handle the (re)construction of temporal, as opposed to causal, concessive or hypothetical values, qualitative and quantitative parameters are included within the analytical apparatus.