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Les motifs phraséologiques pour distinguer les genres littéraires. Sur l’exemple des motifs de la communication verbale et non verbale
Get PDFThe present paper is based on the assumption that the language of the novel is characterized by a statistically relevant overrepresentation of certain linguistic units (e.g. lexemes, key words, collocations and colligations, Siepmann 2015). First steps towards checking the validity of this hypothesis had been undertaken in pioneering works in the 1990s/2000s (e.g. Stubbs & Barth 2003). These studies were however limited by the small size of their (exclusively English) corpora. The present study explores the role of some patterns (phraseological motifs) in distinguishing French literary subgenres. It also proposes a case study of some motifs related to the verbal (dire avec sourire ‘to say with a smile’) and non-verbal communication (adresser un sourire ‘to send a smile’). Unlike traditional corpus-stylistic analyses, which frequently focus on the style of a single author, our corpus-driven approach identifies lexico-syntactic constructions in literary genres which are automatically extracted from the corpora.The main purpose is to show the relevance of the notion of phraseological motif (Legallois 2012; Longrée & Mellet 2013; Novakova & Siepmann 2020) for the distinction of literary subgenres. Linking form and meaning, these ‘multidimensional units’ fulfil pragmatic as well as discursive functions.The data has been extracted from large French corpora of the PhraseoRom research project https://phraseorom.univ-grenoble-alpes.fr. They are accessible on http://phraseotext.univ-grenoble-alpes.fr/phraseobase/index.html and contain 1000 novels (published from the 1950s to the present), partitioned into six sub-corpora: general literature (GEN), crime fiction (CRIM), romances (ROM), historical novels (HIST), science fiction (SF) and fantasy (FY).The results of our study reveal some unexpected differences between the literary subgenres: e.g. the motif dire d’une voix ‘to say in a voice’ in HIST compared to GEN. In FY, expressions of verbal communication are related to shouting and screaming. Expressions related to the non-verbal communication (prendre dans ses bras ‘to take in one’s arms’) are specific to ROM, where body language is overrepresented. In SF, there is a very limited number of these types of expressions. More generally, the motifs provide the link between the micro level (phraseological recurrences) and the macro level (the fictional script)
Les dictionnaires face à un conflit de nomination. Analyse des modélisations sémantiques du paradigme intégration, insertion, assimilation, inclusion, acculturation, incorporation dans deux dictionnaires généralistes de langue française
Get PDFThis article aims to conduct a metalexicographical micro-analysis of a paradigm of French lexemes whose uses have raised socio-political issues for several decades: integration, insertion, assimilation, inclusion, even acculturation and incorporation. While many recent publications bring these terms into play as sociological concepts, or study their uses in political discourse, work on the semantic functioning and uses of these lexemes in other discourses is rarer. However, the recurrent nomination conflict that runs through French public policies on immigration shows that the stakes of these usages remain salient. Do French dictionaries make it possible to grasp the ideological issues raised by the competing uses of lexemes? How do they treat and model the abundance of uses of these lexemes? How are paradigmatic competitors related: opposition, contrast, synonymy, hyperonymy, co-hyponymy? What are the salient semantic features retained in the given definitions?The corpus selected for this study is composed of extracts from two generalist French-language dictionaries, the Petit Robert de la langue française and the Trésor de la Langue Française informatisé. I analyse the production of meaning at work by using a grid with four entries. First, I model and analyze the semantic relations established between the terms of the paradigm, relations which structure the paradigm. I then try to identify the semantic features which are similar or different between the lexemes, thus revealing another type of structure in the micro-system. Last, I work on the collocations and the agentive configurations implemented in the definitions and examples composing each article.All these analyses highlight a defining circularity that hinders a contrastive grasp of the lexemes, in a context where important social and political issues are at stake
À contrecœur, de bon cœur, de tout cœur : de la compositionnalité des locutions figées
Get PDFThis study deals with meaning construction in idiomatic phrases (locutions figées/figements). We focus on three French idioms involving the word cœur (à contrecœur, de bon cœur, de tout cœur). To begin, we give a brief account of idiomaticity’s typical criteria, insisting on the common idea that idioms are semantically opaque (non-compositional): their meanings are not a combination of literal meanings (Gross 1996). We argue that another point of view is productive. Indeed, using the notion of “holistic compositionality” (Gosselin 2013), we investigate the way meaning may arise from the combination of words’ abstract semantic contributions (compositionality principle) and take shape contextually (contextuality principle). The primary goal of the study is to analyze the meaning of à contrecœur, de bon cœur, de tout cœur using this approach – which happens to be more accurate than the literal meaning combination approach. To achieve this goal for each of these three idioms: (1) we examine a sample of 200 utterances (and the contexts in which they occur) coming from a large data-source (frWaC) and (2) we take advantage of previous semantic descriptions of cœur (Bertin 2018, 2019), contre (Amiot & De Mulder 2003; Paillard 2003), bon (Katz 1964) and tout (Bat-Zeev Shyldkrot 1995). These two methodological tools shed light on the operation of the semantic mechanism and emphasize the relevance of the “holistic compositionality” approach when applied to idioms’ meaning construction
Le statut sémantico-discursif de comme je l’ai dit
Get PDFThe current paper examines the function of a specific construction comme je l’ai dit and its role in a particular type of oral discourse. The phrase occurs with high frequency in an established discursive genre, namely, debates in the European Parliament (EP). It is presented as a parenthetic construction, including elements with an anaphoric function, and endowed with a specific discursive aim. In order to better understand the raison d’être of this syntactically autonomous form in the specialized corpus, a mixed semantic-discursive approach is adopted. The aim of the study is to highlight the main properties of the construction bearing a particular functionality and to specify its status in discourse from the perspective of the active interlocutor.Given its rather simple morphological paradigm, its rather stereotypical enlargements, and its easy mobility, comme je l’ai dit reveals certain specificities of the referential process. The reference of the anadeictic type causes a sort of “duplication” of the object of discourse and also its reconfiguration. The return to the already said, with the aim of re-modeling it, is in fact accompanied by a re-saying, a repetition of the locutor’s own speech.The interrupting, the going back, the reworking and advancing, involved in the use of the analysed construction, seem to have several implications. The presence of comme je l’ai dit is justified by the speaker’s intention to construct relevant discourse that takes into account intralocutive and interlocutive dialogism. The interruption followed by a relaunch is a signal that redirects the attention of the interlocutor, while the repetition, which is a reminder of the already said, preserves the continuity of the discourse.The two processes set up by comme je l’ai dit, anaphoric reference and repetition, have the function of ensuring the coherence and the continuity of ongoing discourse through the tradeoff between saying, repeating and discursive memory. The importance of adjustments between speaker and interlocutor is the basis of the chosen discursive strategy. The functional perspective brings out the interpersonal aspect of the referential procedure
Mouvement vers le bas: (se) baisser
Get PDFThis article aims to disambiguate the French verb baisser, which describes the downward movement of an entity, and to present its conceptual structure. Our approach is strongly based on the belief that the meaning of the word is conceptual, and that it reflects the world being looked at, not the real world (Honeste 1999, 2005). Our interest will focus on the locative and abstract meanings of the chosen verb, the uses of which we will study. Each use is a set formed by a predicate, defined by its arguments whose field is delimited by the predicate itself (Gross 2015). Arguments are defined using object classes. Each use is illustrated by a single sentence and a translation into Polish, the translation being a synonym of a word in another language. The type of event described by the verb will be studied, taking into account:
the situation described by the verb (kinematic, dynamic, according to Desclés 2003, 2005);
belonging to one of the four groups of verbs of movement, distinguished by Aurnague (2012) according to two parameters: change of location and change of elementary locative relwation;
polarity (initial, median and final, according to Borillo 1998).
Baisser has twelve uses (locative and abstract). Their invariant meaning is downwards movement, which is conceptualized in different ways: displacement of an entity downwards in physical space, but also as a decrease along a scale: of quantifiable value, of sound, of luminosity, intensity or quality, and finally of physical strength and of quality
L’adjectif: une partie du discours éminemment syncatégorématique
Get PDFIn this article we propose an alternative to the theories which subdivide the adjective into three major types (qualifier, relational, adjective of the third type), themselves subdivided into several subclasses. We believe instead that there is only one adjectival lexeme with different uses (unitary hypothesis). To do this, we start from the two ways of looking for the adjectival prototype: on the one hand, the abstract prototype built by accumulating criteria, on the other, the semantic prototype. We examine the behavior of occurrences of the abstract prototype (admirable, monumental) and the semantic prototype (grand) with respect to gradation, the attributive function (more specifically the place of the adjective) and the predicative function. The examples show not only that the two prototype models can be reconciled, but above all that the behavior and the meaning of any adjective depend in large part on the noun it qualifies, a result which confirms our unitary hypothesis. The syntactic-semantic dependence of the adjective on the supporting substantive is such that it can be concluded that the adjective is a syncategorematic part of speech, rather than a polysemous one.Dans cet article nous proposons une alternative aux théories qui subdivisent l’adjectif en trois types majeurs (qualificatif, relationnel, du troisième type), eux-mêmes subdivisés en plusieurs sous-classes. Nous estimons en effet qu’il n’y a qu’un seul lexème adjectival avec différents emplois (hypothèse unitaire). Pour ce faire, nous partons des deux façons de rechercher le prototype adjectival : d’un côté, le prototype abstrait construit par accumulation de critères, de l’autre, le prototype sémantique. Nous examinons le comportement d’occurrences du prototype abstrait (admirable, monumental) et du prototype sémantique (grand) pour ce qui concerne la gradation, la fonction épithète (plus particulièrement la place de l’adjectif) et la fonction attribut. Les exemples montrent non seulement que les deux modèles de prototype peuvent se concilier, mais surtout que le comportement et le sens de tout adjectif dépend pour une très grande partie du substantif qu’il qualifie, résultat qui confirme notre hypothèse unitaire. La dépendance syntactico-sémantique de l’adjectif par rapport au substantif support est telle que l’on peut en conclure que l’adjectif est une partie du discours syncatégorématique, plutôt que polysémique
Les recommandations officielles proposées pour remplacer les anglicismes dans le Petit Robert de la langue française
Get PDFThe dictionary Petit Robert leads a fight against both the single thought and the impoverished expression by offering a very broad vision of the practices of French. A certain number of anglicisms, very frequent among the new entries of this dictionary, are considered questionable, insofar as the prestige and the economic and techno-scientific power of the United States give rise to a wave of borrowed words, even when the lexicon has suitable French synonyms. The Petit Robert indicates which words in French are recommended by the Commission générale de la terminologie et de néologie to replace the anglicisms. The objective of this study is to observe the English words recently introduced in this dictionary and the different French equivalent terms proposed to oust them. Could the official recommendations supplant the loanwords and become fixed in practice?Le Petit Robert de la langue française mène un combat contre la pensée unique et l’expression appauvrie en offrant une vision très large des pratiques du français. Un certain nombre d’anglicismes, très fréquents parmi les nouvelles entrées de ce dictionnaire, sont considérés comme contestables, dans la mesure où le prestige et la puissance économique et technoscientifique des États-Unis suscitent une vague d’emprunts même lorsque le lexique possède un synonyme français qui convient. Le Petit Robert indique quel mot français est recommandé par la Commission générale de terminologie et de néologie pour remplacer les anglicismes. L’objectif de cette étude est d’observer les mots anglais récemment introduits dans ce dictionnaire et les différents équivalents français conseillés pour les remplacer. Est-ce que les recommandations officielles pourront se substituer à des emprunts et se fixer dans l’usage
Esquisse d’un modèle linguistique pour l’étude des nominations émergentes
Get PDF The article presents the outline of a linguistic model that is part of a methodology for identifying and analyzing emerging or referentially unstable namings, such as cultural appropriation, street harassment, climate refugee or ecocide. The model and the method are intended to guide the interpretation – manual or semi-automatic – of the referential expressions, according to the semantic-cognitive type of the designated entity (human entity, social process, event, etc.), but also taking into account interdiscursive negotiations that affect the choice of terms and their uses. The proposed approach is original and is based on several guiding ideas: (1) take into account the complexity of the naming and the entanglement of his different facets which are categorization, meaning, performativity and valuation (desirability, preferences, social norms), (2) target the development phase of the naming (observe how speakers deal with the unstable): for this purpose, we will use the notion of identification between weak or identified entities and strong or reference entities, (3) report in an integrated way the referential elaboration of knowledge, the lexical and semantic elaboration of expressions, and the expression of intersubjective attitudes. The scientific framework combines three main disciplinary areas: automatic language processing (construction and representation of knowledge, reference), semantics (elaboration of meanings) and discourse analysis (interdiscursive elaboration of concepts and terms).L’article présente l’esquisse d’un modèle linguistique s’inscrivant dans une méthodologie de repérage et d’analyse des nominations émergentes ou référentiellement instables, telles que appropriation culturelle, harcèlement de rue, réfugié climatique ou écocide. Le modèle et la méthode sont destinés à guider l’interprétation – manuelle ou semi-automatique – des expressions référentielles, suivant le type sémantico-cognitif de l’entité désignée (entité humaine, processus social, événement), mais également en tenant compte des négociations interdiscursives qui touchent aux choix des termes et à leurs usages. L’approche proposée est originale et repose sur plusieurs idées directrices : (1) tenir compte de la complexité des nominations et de l’intrication de leurs différentes facettes que sont catégorisation, signification, performativité et valorisation (désidérabilité, préférences, normes sociales), (2) cibler la phase d’élaboration des nominations (observer comment les locuteurs composent avec l’instable) : on mobilisera, à cet effet, la notion de repérage entre entités faibles ou repérées et entités fortes ou repères, (3) rendre compte de manière intégrée de l’élaboration référentielle des connaissances, de l’élaboration lexicale et sémantique des expressions, et de l’expression des attitudes intersubjectives. Le cadre scientifique conjugue trois domaines disciplinaires principaux : le traitement automatique des langues (construction et représentation des connaissances, référence), la sémantique (élaboration des significations) et l’analyse de discours (élaboration interdiscursive des concepts et des termes)
Kollokationen in Leserbriefen der Wochenzeitschrift Die Zeit
Get PDFIn the field of phraseology collocations have been less extensively researched than idioms. Because of their lower degree of idiomaticity collocations do not normally cause receptive problems in foreign language learning but need to be paid attention to when producing texts. We therefore argue that collocations are an important part of phraseology.The purpose of this paper is to investigate the syntactic structure, use and functions of collocations in 243 Letters to the Editor published in the German weekly newspaper Die Zeit. After consulting two dictionaries of collocations and some more universal sources a total of 278 collocations were identified and their respective bases and collocates were determined. The results show that nouns make up the majority of the bases (97%), while adjectives and verbs prevail among the collocates (96%). This is contradictory to the distribution of parts of speech in one of the two most comprehensive German dictionaries of collocations. A closer analysis of the empirical material reveals that the bases seem to reflect the subjects discussed in the letters, whereas the collocates provide the means for expressing the authors’ attitudes and values. Im Rahmen der Phraseologieforschung haben Kollokationen traditionell nur wenig Beachtung gefunden. Im Gegensatz zu Idiomen sind sie in der Regel semantisch transparent und bereiten daher Fremdsprachenlernern selten rezeptive Schwierigkeiten. Bei der Textproduktion muss jedoch die Problematik der Kollokationen beachtet werden. Aus diesem Grund halten wir Kollokationen für einen wichtigen Bereich der Phraseologie.Im vorliegenden Beitrag wird die Aufmerksamkeit auf die syntaktische Struktur, den Gebrauch und die Funktion von Kollokationen in 243 Leserbriefen der Zeitschrift Die Zeit gerichtet. Nach Heranziehung zweier Kollokationswörterbücher sowie einiger anderer Quellen konnten 278 Kollokationen identifiziert und ihre jeweiligen Basen und Kollokatoren bestimmt werden. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass Substantive die Mehrheit der Basen (97 %) ausmachen, während Adjektive und Verben bei den Kollokatoren dominieren (96 %). Dies widerspricht der Distribution der Wortarten in einem der zwei deutschen Kollokationswörterbücher. Die nähere Analyse des empirischen Materials deutet darauf hin, dass die Basen den Inhalt widerspiegeln, während die Kollokatoren eher die Einstellungen und Wertungen der Schreiber zum Ausdruck bringen
Figuratives in der auslandsdeutschen Pressesprache
Get PDFThis article is based on the understanding that figurative linguistic signs are in general a common research topic in the media language but represent a desideratum especially with regard to the German-speaking press abroad. Against this background, some of the figurative and formulaic related observations as well as the results of a current research project are thematised and discussed. The primary goal is a focused evidence-based analysis – more precisely: a theory-based qualitative exploration – of special features of figurative language use in three German-language minority newspapers from Russia, Kazakhstan and Hungary. In addition, manifestations of culturality are developed in the analysed media discourse, which is characterised by multilingualism and interculturality or rather transculturality. The approach is not normative and error-analytical, but descriptive and primarily contact- or intercultural-oriented.Among other things, it was found that the empirical database provided only relatively few figurative phrases. The findings include that other textual mechanisms prevail and due to the multilingual settings the text producers adopt fixed syntactic schemes from the contact languages. On the producer side, a German-based figurative language is generally used, but it is congruent with the figurativity of the respective contact language (in the present case: Russian, Kazakh and Hungarian), including Russian/Kazakh/Hungarian-oriented framings. In this context, the dominant feature is constituted of (virulent or latent) language contact-related phenomena with some dynamics: primarily transference formations of different kinds. At the same time, it cannot be ignored that the language and text (types) competence and especially the figurative competence of the text producers in the area of conceptual-writing skills vary widely and are often not comparable to those of federal German journalists