Mapping adversative coherence relations in English and French

An approach to contrastive analysis is discussed that combines semantic mapping with analysis of comparable corpus data. Such an approach can help elucidate the many-to-many relationships between expressions or constructions of two languages. In turn, contrastive analysis is what enables us to represent the conceptual space that forms the basis for semantic mapping. The approach is illustrated with examples of expressions of adversative coherence relations from English and French political discourse.