La variabilité formelle des questions dans les écrits SMS

In classical sociolinguistic studies, the variety in French interrogative structures is accounted for in terms of the different socio-stylistic values that they express. However the study of SMS data provides us with evidence that this approach needs to be challenged. This paper argues in favor of an alternative approach, which views various interrogative structures as "multiple forms in concurrence" (Quillard 2000) with their own structural and functional particularities, instead of viewing various interrogative structures as alternative ways of expressing the same thing. In line with this position we will discuss some methodological issues and the design of this approach, leading us through the article from the annotation of linguistic data to some preliminary results of the study.