Author:
HANSEN MAJ-BRITT MOSEGAARD
Abstract
This article compares and contrasts two related adverbs, enfin and finalement, in synchrony and diachrony. Both are polysemous in contemporary French, and largely intersubstitutable in many contexts. However, the functional range of enfin is much greater than that of finalement. Evidence is presented for the existence of a division of labour, such that speakers seem to favour finalement for more ‘literal’ functions, i.e. for the expression of temporal sequence, whereas enfin is preferred for more abstract, non-propositional functions. This is attributed to the respective formal properties and degree of grammaticalisation of the two expressions, which can also explain why enfin has developed a vastly greater range of abstract, non-propositional functions than finalement. The argument is supported by diachronic evidence that the functional extension of enfin has gone hand in hand with significant changes in the formal status of the expression, while functional extension of finalement stops at approximately the time when enfin begins to expand its range.
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Subject
Linguistics and Language,Language and Linguistics
Cited by
8 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献
1. Bon ben enfin fin in non-native speech : the case of Chinese L1 speakers in Paris;SHS Web of Conferences;2022
2. Dependency profiles in the large-scale analysis of discourse connectives;Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory;2018-06-05
3. Chapter 17. Just a suggestion;Studies in Language Companion Series;2017-10-17
4. Prosodie non-structurale et plurisémie;Revue de sémantique et pragmatique;2015-06-01
5. Aspect de dicto et structuration informationnelle dans les textes;Lingvisticæ Investigationes. International Journal of Linguistics and Language Resources;2014-09-05