Observing discourse markers through the lens of text genre in Middle French Cover Image

Observer les marqueurs discursifs à travers le prisme du genre textuel en moyen français
Observing discourse markers through the lens of text genre in Middle French

Author(s): Laura-Maï Dourdy, Michela Spacagno, Laetitia Sauwala
Subject(s): Cultural history, Social history, Historical Linguistics, French Literature, 13th to 14th Centuries, 15th Century, Theory of Literature, Sociology of Literature
Published by: Universität Graz
Keywords: discourse markers; linguistics; French language; Middle French;

Summary/Abstract: This article deals with discourse markers in various types of literature originating from the 14th and 15th century. It is based on a historical-pragmatic perspective, focusing on speech-like texts and seeking to determine their degrees of orality. The corpus-based study compares the use of discourse markers in medieval trials, mystery play texts, chansons de geste and their prose versions. The study demonstrates great variation of discourse markers across texts regarding frequency of occurrence, values and usage according to the literary genre. Dialogic genres show more variety of discourse markers than epic stories and prose fiction. Moreover, some discourse markers that can only be found in drama comedies are still used as discourse markers in modern French. Their presence is closely related to the interactional context. Finally, orality is differently repre - sented in different genres of medieval texts. Each of these representations pertains to a specific literary genre and various degrees of orality can be identified.

  • Issue Year: 2019
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 7-33
  • Page Count: 27
  • Language: French
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