Imre Békési:
The Place of Concession in Contrastive Structures
Abstract:
The author assumes that concession is a form used to express denial of expectation. That assumption allows him to formulate the hypothesis that the various functions involved in concession are interpreted by positions occupied by concession within a contrastive structure. The study argues that concession plays a role in two positions in a contrastive structure. (1) Between the precedent and the antecedent (as the main relation in a contrastive structure), and (2) as a subordinate relation embedded in the conclusion (inside either the precedent or the antecedent). Since a contrast represents a semantic-pragmatic relation here, the study considers concession also as a semantic-pragmatic phenomenon. The author has elaborated a notational mechamism to assist description, presented under the term double syllogism (Békési 1991, 1994). According to the mechanism, the conjunction de [but] is used to express, or establish, a relation between two syllogistic arguments, rather than two clauses.
