In:Time in Languages, Languages in Time
Edited by Anna Čermáková, Thomas Egan, Hilde Hasselgård and Sylvi Rørvik
[Studies in Corpus Linguistics 101] 2021
► pp. 181–200
Then and now in English and French
Parallel patterns?
Published online: 17 September 2021
https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.101.08lew
https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.101.08lew
Abstract
English now and then and French maintenant and alors all
exemplify the cross-linguistic tendency for temporal adverbs to grammaticalize into markers of rhetorical relations. This
paper analyses the polysemy of these adverbs in a comparable corpus of written-to-be-spoken speeches and unscripted spoken
interviews. For now and maintenant, while the discourse patterns and the direction of change
are remarkably similar, French and English seem to be at different points in the grammaticalization cycle, with
maintenant being less grammaticalized than now. In the case of alors
and then, it is the French lexeme that appears to be more bleached, occurring in a wider range of rhetorical
contexts and in different discourse patterns from English then.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 1.1Time in language
- 1.2Overview
- 2.Contrastive phraseology
- 2.1Discourse phraseology
- 2.2The aims of the study
- 3.Data
- 3.1Comparable corpora
- 3.2The political discourse corpora
- 4.Now and maintenant
- 4.1Polysemy and discourse patterns
- 4.2Frequency comparison
- 5.Then and alors
- 5.1Polysemy and discourse patterns
- 5.2Frequency comparison
- 6.Conclusion
Acknowledgements Notes References
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