Preface and acknowledgements -- Contents -- List of abbreviations -- Part A The long and winding road leading from intuition via problems to comitatives -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Some problems with form and function -- 3. Goals -- 4. Categories, definitions and terminology -- 5. Methodology and theory -- 6. Corpus/Sample -- 7. Structure -- Part B What happens when a universal blows up? Metaphor, syncretism, markedness -- 8. The Companion-Metaphor -- 9. Syncretism -- 10. Systematicity of interaction -- Part C Europe: A continent where many things appear to be the same but turn out to be different under the looking-glass -- 11. A corpus-based analysis -- 12. Case studies -- Part D Something better change! Origins, life-cycle, contacts: The dynamics of comitatives -- 13. Grammaticalisation -- 14. Contact -- 15. This is the end… -- Appendix I Sample languages -- Appendix II Genetic affiliation -- Appendix III Questionnaire -- Notes -- Sources -- References -- Index of languages -- Index of authors -- Index of subjects.