This article examines how a given semantic unit – the event in the terminology of Desclés & Guentchéva (1997, 2003, 2011) – develops in different languages or language varieties : French, Serbian, Romanian and Vlach. Event expression is predominantly achieved in these languages through verbal forms : simple past in French, aorist in Serbian or simple perfect in Romanian and Vlach. The notion of event is explored here in connection with referential frames, two of which are considered (Desclés & Guentchéva 2011). As a result of this analysis, two linguistic groups emerge : while French and Romanian share identical features, Serbian and two varieties of Daco-Romanian, the Oltenian and Vlach dialects, are shown to exhibit a similar functioning. In the light of language contact studies, these conclusions lead to a reorganisation of usually accepted classifications of the Balkan Sprachbund.