This study proposes a typology of referents designated by the second-person generic pronoun (DPG) based on a corpus of spoken French (OFROM). Far from being reducible to a unified usage, DPG emerges within diverse enunciative and interactional configurations, reflecting various discursive strategies of generalization, projection, and intersubjective negotiation. We identify three main configurations: (i) generalization of the speaker’s experience, which may take the form of shared knowledge co-construction, (ii) symmetrical projection into an unfamiliar situation, and (iii) hypothetical experimentation. The analysis shows that DPG isn’t a mere variant of on, but functions as a specific enunciative operator, modulating speaker-hearer relations in dialogic contexts in different ways. Semantically, we adopt Benveniste’s view of the second person as a “non-I”, whose under-specification fosters referential plasticity. By combining morphosyntactic, referential, and pragmatic approaches, this study sheds light on the linguistic, cognitive, and interactional mechanisms involved in the construction of genericity in spoken French. DPG thus emerges as a privileged linguistic device for discursively constructing situated norms and shared knowledge, as well as fostering intersubjective involvement.
The focus of this study is on pronouns with the [+hum] feature and a propositional base – qui tu sais, tu sais qui, qui vous savez, vous savez qui – which have been largely overlooked in research on French. Based on a corpus, this study analyzes the syntactic, semantic, and discursive functioning of these sequences, belonging to a large paradigm of forms referring to humans as well as original modes of co-constructing reference.
This article offers an in-depth analysis of the different behaviours of a pseudo-cleft construction such as exemplified by Ce qui est un problème, c’est X (What is a problem is X). This type of structure combines features from both (i) pseudo-clefts (What is problematic is X) and (ii) specificationals (The problem is X). Indeed this hybrid construction also contains a shell noun in its left segment and the specification of said shell noun in its right segment, thus exhibiting the same underlying structure. Given this interpretation based on the saturation of a role by a given value, one could argue that it summons similar cognitive schemas as specificational constructions. Our research is based on 247 occurrences from the frTenTen corpus, 2023 (23 billion words). It shows, among other things, that this construction is linked to textual rather than syntactic “constraints”. Furthermore, shell nouns in this construction seem to depend heavily on previous discourse, which highlights the many relations between that shell noun and its left context, be it extraction, reorientation or elaboration.
This paper investigates the discursive and pragmatic functions of it-clefts in contemporary English. The qualitative corpus-based study is based on the hypothesis that an it-cleft originates from the extraposition of a complex noun phrase in an underlying initial pseudo- or TH-cleft structure. From this perspective, it is shown that it-clefting pragmatically displays both specific properties and features shared with a related non-canonical construction, namely extraposition. The analysis demonstrates that it-clefts are not mere syntactic or stylistic devices, but that their use is motivated by pragmatic considerations and the discourse situation. Although it-cleft formation deviates from a canonical pattern and is therefore marked, it-clefts themselves can be either marked or unmarked. This study proposes a unified account of their discourse functions, arguing that their primary communicative function is to identify or specify an argument or circumstance, and that their uses parallel those of extraposed subject-subordinate clauses. It further provides evidence for a gradient ranging from the most prototypical to the least typical it-clefts, which supports the view that they form a unified discursive category, with differences residing only in co(n)textual factors and pragmatic effects.
This article aims to determine the nature of language processing units in written production, which can be defined as patterns used spontaneously during the writing process. Due to their internal solidarity, constructions (i.e., form-meaning pairings) are considered in this article as relevant processing units candidates. Our study focuses more specifically on the way French (semi-)copular constructions (e.g., Jean est devenu/reste tres autonome "John has become/remains very independent") are produced during the writing process: that is, based on a corpus of online recorded texts, we examine the occurrence of long pauses in relation to these constructions. The results of our research show that there is a high degree of internal solidarity within (semi-)copular constructions and that, despite the fact that there are some disparities in our data which are typical of real-time written production data, these outcomes support the hypothesis of a constructional blocs-based cognitive treatment during writing.
