Les propriétés lexicales et syntaxiques de benben en français québécois

Abstract

AbstractThe aim of this paper is to analyze the various lexical and syntactic properties of the reduplicated adverbial form benben in Quebec French. It can be observed that this form differs syntactically from its Standard French synonyms beaucoup and très. Benben can indeed appear with various lexical categories: nouns, adjectives, adverbs, transitive and intransitive verbs. Moreover, in many contexts, its use is sensitive to the presence of verbal negation, rather than to that of constituent negation. In comparison with other Quebec French quantifiers, benben is very flexible. It can be used in both negative and positive contexts and, as an adverbial form, it can appear in various positions in the sentence.