'A propos' : from verbal complement to 'utterance marker' of discourse shift

Sophie Prévost (1)

1 Lattice - Lattice - Langues, Textes, Traitements informatiques, Cognition - UMR 8094

This paper presents an analysis of the evolution of the French preverbal expression 'à propos' ('by the way' in Modern French). First I discuss the possibility of analyzing it as a discourse marker. Basing the analysis on Fraser's approach (1990, 1999), I show that 'à propos' falls within the definition of discourse markers, displaying their main characteristics. More specifically it serves to reinforce, or even create, discourse coherence. Secondly I give an account of the historical development of the expression and of the emergence of its pragmatic uses. I argue that it is closely related to the evolution of 'à ce propos' (and to a lesser extent to that of 'à propos de'), and hypothesize that à propos has progressively replaced 'à ce propos' in certain contexts, while also developing in contexts of more abrupt discourse shift. I finally address the issue of the interpretation of 'à propos' as a case of grammaticalization, and show that there are sufficiently convincing arguments to justify its being analyzed as such. I also discuss the relevance of introducing the notion of pragmaticalization, and argue for this being a mere subclass of grammaticalization, though pertaining more specifically to the pragmatic area.

Mots clés: marqueurs discursifs; grammaticalisation; pragmaticalisation; français médiéval

Mots clés: discourse marker; à propos; grammaticalization; pragmaticalization; Medieval French

Domaines: Linguistique

Sophie Prévost. 'A propos' : from verbal complement to 'utterance marker' of discourse shift. Linguistics, 2011, 49 (2), pp.391-413. ⟨halshs-00665239⟩