Conjunctive, disjunctive and adversative constructions in Europe: Some areal considerations

The aim of this paper is to show the areal distribution of the semantic and morphosyntactic features characterizing conjunctive, disjunctive and adversative constructions in the languages of Europe. The analysis will be carried out on two levels. On the one hand, I will examine the cross-linguistic variation within Europe, identifying the geographical distribution of each construction type. On the other hand, I will compare European languages with non-European languages, pointing out the features which characterize Europe as an internally homogeneous area. This paper ends with the identification of the ‘And-But-Or’ area, located in Western-Central Europe, where conjunctive, disjunctive and adversative constructions show the same semantic and morphosyntactic properties.