Hypothetical correlative structures in dialog situations Cover Image

Structures de corrélation hypothétique et situations de dialogue
Hypothetical correlative structures in dialog situations

Author(s): Andrée Borillo
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies
Published by: Editura Echinox
Keywords: hypothetical constructions; expressive means; interactive patterns; verbal interaction; prescriptive speech acts; “impératif conditionnel”.

Summary/Abstract: Leaving aside French hypothetical correlative sentences that are to be found most usually in narrative, argumentative or expositive written texts, we propose to concentrate here on sentences of the same category but apparently more adapted to situations of dialog – that is, conversations, oral exchanges or debates. In this case, we can observe that correlative sentences most often appear as paratactic constructions characterized by different well-defined patterns and markers that together tend to create the well-known parallelism and balance effect which we retain as the dominant feature identifying a correlative relation between an hypothesis and its consequence. Three types of paratactic sentences are presented, built on specific grammatical devices and enunciative schemes based on speech acts, injunctive mode and epistemic modalities, together with prosodic patterns characteristic of this kind of correlative sentences in oral discourse.

  • Issue Year: 2008
  • Issue No: 05
  • Page Range: 09-25
  • Page Count: 17
  • Language: French