Functional Analysis of Contrasting Conjunctions in Georgian

There exist eight conjunctions in Georgian used to express semantic or pragmatic contrast, which constitute an implicational hierarchy: aramed > oγond > tumca > magram > k'i//k'idev > xolo > tu > da. The given string is organized in such a way that the skill of conjunctions to express contrasting bindings is decreasing from the left to the right. On the basis of functional-semantic analysis of the conjunctions we propose seven binary differential semantic/pragmatic features: +/–[Contrast], +/–[Opposition], +/–[Correction], +/–[Expectation], +/–[Wish], +/–[At least one], +/–[Strong underlining]. Certain combinations of the features express the main functions of the conjunctions which are relevant for formal representations of contrastive topics and/or focuses during the binding of some constituents or sentences.