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How does a concessive value emerge?
Date Issued
2014
Journal
Discourse and Pragmatic Markers from Latin to the Romance Languages, Oxford University Press, 2014/13//237-260
Abstract
The question addressing the origin of the concessive value in a discourse connecting two utterances -p C q- is twofold: either it concerns the marker linking the p and q sequence, such as p, cependant (but) q and the concession is viewed as a counter-implication phenomenon or it concerns the marker that can introduce the p sequence, -certes (sure), p- and the concession is viewed as a polyphonic phenomenon. This contribution focuses on polyphonic constructions. First, we examine how, in a synchronic perspective, the concessive value of the whole p and q sequence relies on the dialogical properties of the marker introducing the p utterance. Then, using diachronic data, two concessive markers -certes and soit- are analyzed. In overall, our analysis supports the idea that that linguistic change is not only a question of pragmaticalization (including or not grammaticalization) but a wider phenomenon which relies inter alia on the stylistic habits of the speakers, such as a seemingly recent one consisting in coloring his/her own discourse with dialogical features, by using dialogical markers in monological configurations for soit or by giving a dialogical flavor to monological markers for certes.
Identifiers
Publication type
journal article
