Sur Les Contraintes D'emploi de Soit...Soit Alternatif

We present a semantic analysis of the French alternative conjunction soit ... soit (either ... or). Study of its selectional restrictions reveals some interesting semantic features which are either shared by the other alternating conjunctions {e.g. ou) or specific to it. For the first set of features, we focus on selectional restrictions related to synonymous terms which determine either simultaneity or a superordinate relation; for the second, we analyze selectional retrictions related to the restrictive terms, the interrogative mood and the metalinguistic use of soit... soit.