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Article published In: Similatives: Semantic sources, pathways, and types of usage
Edited by Anna Kisiel, Hélène Vassiliadou, Valentina Benigni, Beatrice Bernasconi, Lieselotte Brems and Dejan Stosic
[Lingvisticæ Investigationes 48:2] 2025
► pp. 299–322

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Genre and style in French

Interpretative types and formal correlations

 | Université de Strasbourg
 | Université de Strasbourg
 | Université de Strasbourg
Published online: 19 February 2026
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/li.00132.vas
Abstract
In this paper, we explore whether taxonomic and approximative categorizations can be systematically linked to specific syntactic constructions, following the common assumption that interpretative types correspond to formal structures. To address this question, we examine the roles of two markers — genre and style — in French, focusing particularly on their bare (prepositional) uses. We demonstrate that similarity processes play a crucial role in shaping categorization patterns in everyday discourse.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • 1.Some precisions to begin with…
    • 1.1Approximation and hedges
    • 1.2Similarity, resemblance and analogy
  • 2.Genre and style: The question of syntactic correlation and interpretative value
  • 3.Genre/style: The prepositional phrase construction
    • 3.1A clear categorization reading by exemplification
      • 3.1.1Genre and style rely on types or subtypes
      • 3.1.2Genre and style rely on tokens of types
      • 3.1.3The quotative style/genre: Exemplification and categorization
    • 3.2Intercategorial approximation by analogy
    • 3.3Fuzzy interpretation
    • 3.4Discussion
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (53)
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