Primary and additional meanings of the conjunctions a ‘and, but’, ali ‘but’, dok ‘when; while; until’ in the serbian language

This paper analyzes complex sentences containing the conjunctions a ‘and, but’, ali ‘but’, and dok ‘when; while; until’ in Serbian. The basic distinctions between coordination and subordination, between coordinative and adversative relations, and mixed cases are explored in detail. Ivo Andric’s novel The Bridge on the Drina and journalistic articles from the media during the 2000s are the sources for this material. Conjunctions are functional words, but they are more than mere building blocks; they have their own semantic specificity and, according to some sources, characterize the specificity of a national mentality and culture. The conjunctions a and ali are typically used to contrast objects, properties and situations, while the conjunction dok primarily expresses simultaneity. This choice occurs when a situation develops in accordance with the speaker’s expectations. If something abnormal or unexpected occurs, new meanings emerge: the conjunctions a and ali express the meaning of conjunction or complement, while the conjunction dok expresses comparison and opposition (‘whereas; but’). Thus, dok in the secondary meaning is synonymous with a and ali in the primary meaning. In some cases, these meanings overlap and cannot be distinguished. In non-simultaneous situations, the conjunction dok most likely expresses a comparative-adversative meaning. The conjunction dok is almost always found in the medial position in a sentence, and its placement at the beginning of a clause depends on style: initial placement occurred 20% of the time in fiction and 10% in the journalistic style. If it is placed at the beginning of a sentence, it most likely expresses a temporal meaning. This meaning is often replaced by an adversative meaning (contrastive meaning) in journalistic texts when placed in the medial position (52%). Overall, the adversative meaning is more characteristic of the journalistic style (48%) and less common in fiction (8%).