Regrammation and paradigmatization: Diachronic analysis of a number of progressive periphrases in French

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Abstract

In the present paper, our purpose is to characterise each of the periphrases expressing progressivity Pierre est / va / s’en va / vient / s’en vient chantant, Pierre est à / après chanter, Pierre est en train de chanter as members of a progressive paradigm, and to provide arguments in favour of including the so-called deictic relative construction (Je vois) Pierre qui chante in this paradigm. Our arguments comprise diachronic, diastratic, Francophone, and Creole evidence. In Kragh & Schøsler (2014), we have examined in detail this construction, focusing on the grammaticalisation process and, in particular, on the reanalysis and actualisation process. We here propose an analysis of the deictic relative as yet another way of expressing progressivity. If our analysis is correct, the deictic relative should be considered as a member of the French tense, aspect, and mode (TAM) paradigm
Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of French Language Studies
Volume25
Issue number2
Pages (from-to)265-293
Number of pages28
ISSN0959-2695
Publication statusPublished - Jul 2015

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