<i>Déjà</i> : un marqueur procédural de subjectivisation

In this paper we will look at how French <i>déjà</i> can be used non-descriptively to express non-temporality, i.e. argumentative or discursive usages. We will begin with a quick survey of the Literature before re-describing <i>déjà</i> as a procedural expression – we will propose that </i>déjà</i>'s core semantic meaning need not necessarily be purely temporal, but is used thus in certain contexts, while in others it is used argumentatively or discursively. This stems from our hypothesis that many temporal expressions – temporal indexicals, adverbs or connectives – are procedural by nature, meaning that their conceptual content, if any, describes relations between clauses or elements of an utterance rather than representing actions, events or objects in the world.