Abstract:
This paper investigates different forms of expression of factual concessive
relation in two Indo-European languages: Italian and Polish. In contrast to traditional
accounts of concession, the starting point of the analysis are not specific linguistic
forms but the conceptual structure of the relation. Concession, considered
here a pre-formed, constant and shared relational concept, configures a complex
relationship based on the implicit assumption of frustrated causality which can be
conceived independently of the linguistic organization and expressed in a language
in multiplicity of ways. Focusing on one particular linguistic “scenario”, namely
the full coding device, characterized by a perfect correspondence between the
content of a linguistic expression and that of an autonomous conceptual relation,
the paper describes systematically a variety of Italian and Polish concessive constructions
belonging to the realm of grammatical connections and to the domain of
textual cohesion.
