Crosslinguistic constructions and strategies: where do concessive conditionals fit in?

Abstract The present squib is concerned with Croft’s classification of comparative concepts, that is, concepts developed by typologists for crosslinguistic comparison. Croft distinguishes two kinds of comparative concepts: “constructions”, which are defined entirely in functional terms; and “strategies”, which are further specified by formal characteristics. More specifically, this squib is concerned with how the notions of construction and strategy are used in Croft’s discussion of a generally under-studied type of adverbial clause, viz. concessive conditionals. Concessive conditionals are quantified conditionals that express a set of antecedents: ‘if { p 1 , p 2 , p 3 , …}, then q ’. There are three subtypes: scalar concessive conditionals (SCCs, ‘even if’), alternative concessive conditionals (ACCs, ‘whether … or’), and universal concessive conditionals (UCCs, ‘wh-ever’). According to Croft, concessive conditionality in general is a construction, with SCCs, ACCs, and UCCs being strategies. This squib, however, proposes that it would be more consistent to treat the three subtypes as constructions rather than as strategies. More precisely, SCCs, ACCs, and UCCs are best seen as sub-constructions of an overarching concessive-conditional construction.