The evolution of the marker comme qui dirait ‘as one would say’ in French

Abstract

The topic of this paper is the evolution of the discourse marker comme qui dirait from Old French to Modern French. At the beginning, the marker has the meaning of a hypothetical comparative si comme l’en diroit / comme + qui + diroit meaning comme si l’on disait ‘as if one said’. In a second stage, the marker becomes a reformulative marker with a meaning similar to c’est-à-dire ‘that is to say’. Finally, in a third stage, it becomes a polyphonic mitigation marker. The diachronic study of comme qui dirait explains its contemporary meaning and reveals its semantic features. In addition, a polyphonic analysis will allow us to understand the role of the speaker and of the enunciators in the enunciation of the marker.