Cover not available

Article published In: Revue Romane
Vol. 60:2 (2025) ► pp.231–266

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB
Articles linguistiques

The role of “puisque” in discourse debated: From polyphony to argumentation

A new approach

ORCiD logo with link | University of Cologne
Open Access logo
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Open Access publication of this article was funded through a Transformative Agreement with University of Cologne.

Published online: 15 December 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/rro.23010.pro
Abstract
This paper presents and discusses various discourse-linguistic approaches to the description and analysis of the French connector “puisque”, casting some light on crucial lines of research on the role of connectors in the domain of discourse linguistics. Highlighting some limitations of the existing proposals, a new approach that inscribes itself into a linguistic theory of argumentation is presented and illustrated with examples taken from the Europarl Corpus. In our study, which takes Toulmin’s model of argumentation as its starting point, the crucial notions of topoï and enthymeme, in particular, are exploited for the analysis of the discourse-functional role and profile of the French connector “puisque”.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The specific status of “puisque” and its character as a connector sui generis
  • 3.Approaches to the analysis of “puisque” and their limitations
    • 3.1“Puisque” and the role of “polyphony”
    • 3.2Information structure and “puisque”
    • 3.3Communicative status (“at-issue-ness”) and justification as key notions for “puisque”
  • 4.“Puisque” and argumentation
    • 4.1Argumentation and the role of enthymemes and topoi
    • 4.2The role of “puisque” as an argumentative connector
    • 4.3Some remarks on the topoi in the parliamentary speeches of the Europarl Corpus
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (37)
References
Amossy, R. (22006): L’argumentation dans le discours. Paris: Colin.), pp. 185–198.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Anscombre, J. -C. (1995): La théorie des Topoï: sémantique ou rhétorique ? Hermès 15 (1), pp. 185–198. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Anscombre, J. -C. & Ducrot, O. (31997): L’argumentation dans la langue. Sprimont: Mardaga.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ariel, M. (1985): The discourse functions of given information. Theoretical Linguistics 121, pp. 99–113. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Aristotle. (2007): On Rhetoric: A Theory of Civic Discourse. Translated by George A. Kennedy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (Original work published in the 4th century B.C.E.)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Benz, A. & Jasinskaja, K. (eds.) (2017): Questions under Discussion: From Sentence to Discourse. Special issue of Discourse Processes 54. Issue 3: Questions under Discussion, pp. 177–186. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blakemore, D. (1987): Semantic constraints on relevance. Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1995): Relevance theory, in: Handbook of Pragmatics. John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2000): Indictors and procedures: nevertheless and but. Journal of Linguistics 361 (2000), pp. 463–486. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Borzi, C./Detges, U. (2011): Ya que, un marcador polifónico, in: H. Aschenberg & O. Loureda Lamas (eds.): Marcadores del discurso. De la descripción a la definición. Frankfurt: Vervuert, pp. 263–281. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Breitholtz, E. (2020): Enthymemes and Topoi in Dialogue: The use of common sense in reasoning in conversation. Leiden/Boston: Brill.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brown, P. & Levinson, S. (1987): Politeness: some universals in language usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Degand, L. & Fagard, B. (2012): Competing connectives in the causal domain. The French car and parce que. Journal of Pragmatics 44 (2), pp. 154–168. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Detges, U. (2014): Puisque. L’état de la question, in: W. Weidenbusch (ed.): Diskursmarker, Konnektoren, Modalwörter. Marqueurs de discours, connecteurs, adverbes et particules modales. Tübinger Beiträge zur Linguistik 5221, pp. 129–141.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ducrot, O. (1983): Puisque: essai de description polyphonique, in: M. Herslund, O. Mordrup, (eds.): Analyses grammaticales du français. Akademisk Forlag, Copenhagen, pp. 166–185.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1984): Le dire et le dit. Paris: Éditions de Minuit.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1988): Topoï et formes topique. Bulletin d’études de la linguistique française 221, pp. 1–14.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fillmore, Ch. (1982): Frame semantics, in: Linguistics in the morning calm, ed. by The Linguistic Society of Korea. Seoul: Hanshin Publishing Company, pp. 111–137.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Franken, N. (1996): Pour une nouvelle description de puisque. Revue Romane 311, pp. 3–18.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grice, P. (1975): Logic and Conversation, in: P. Cole & J. Morgan (eds.): Speech acts (= Syntax and Semantics. Vol. 31). New York: Academic Press, pp. 41–58. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Groupe Lambda-l. 1975. Car, parce que, puisque. Revue Romane 101, pp. 248–280.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jivanyan, H. (2019): Un puisque comme parce que ? Pouvoir justificatif, statuts informationnel et communicatif de puisque. Nouveau cahiers de linguistique française 331, pp. 213–233.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Koch, P. & Oesterreicher, W. (22011): Gesprochene Sprache in der Romania: Französisch, Italienisch, Spanisch. Romanistische Arbeitshefte 31. Berlin/New York: De Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
van Kuppevelt, J. (1995): Discourse structure, topicality and questioning. Journal of Linguistics 311, pp. 109–147. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Martin, R. (1973): Le mot puisque: notions d’adverbes de phrase et de présupposition sémantique. Studia Neophilologia 45 (1), pp. 104–114. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Moeschler, J. (1989): Pragmatic Connectives, Argumentative Coherence and Relevance. Argumentation 31, pp. 321–339. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Perelman, C. & Olbrechts-Tyteca, L. (1970): Traité de l’argumentation. La nouvelle rhétorique. Brussels: Editions de l’Université de Bruxelles. (English version: The new rhetoric. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1969)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Recanati, F. (2004): Literal Meaning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rumelhart, D. (1980): Schemata: The Building Blocks of Cognition, in: R. Spiro, B. Bruce, & W. Brewer (eds.): Theoretical issues in reading comprehension. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum Associates, pp. 33–58.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Simons, M., Tonhauser, J., Beaver, D. & Roberts, C. (2010): What projects and why. Semantics and Linguistic Theory (SALT) 211, pp. 309–327. Ithaca, NY: CLC Publications. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sperber, D. & Wilson, D. (11986, 21995): Relevance. Communication and Cognition. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
von Stutterheim, C. & Klein, W. (1989): Referential movement in descriptive and narrative discourse. North-Holland Linguistic Series: Linguistic Variations 541, pp. 39–57. Elsevier. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sweetser, E. (1990): From Etymology to Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Toulmin, S. (22003, 11958): The uses of argument. Updated edition. Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zufferey, S. (2012): “Car, parce que, puisque” revisited: The empirical studies on French causal connectives. Journal of Pragmatics 441, pp. 138–153. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2014): “Givenness, procedural meaning and connectives. The case of French puisque. Journal of Pragmatics 621, pp. 121–135. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zufferey, S. & Cartoni, B. (2012): English and French causal connectives in contrast. Languages in Contrast 12 (2), pp. 232–250. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue