In:Studies at the Grammar-Discourse Interface: Discourse markers and discourse-related grammatical phenomena
Edited by Alexander Haselow and Sylvie Hancil
[Studies in Language Companion Series 219] 2021
► pp. 275–298
Chapter 10A just amazing marker in French: “Juste”
“Juste excellentissime!” “Juste super heureux!” “Juste irréel!” “Juste pas possible!”
Published online: 3 June 2021
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.219.10doh
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.219.10doh
Abstract
Juste belongs to those words (justement,
limite, grave, côté, question, niveau…) that today one
cannot do without, both in everyday conversation and in the media!
After pointing out that juste, from the Latin
justus, is a transcategorial unit par
excellence, as it can be an adjective, a noun, or an adverb, this
article deals with its recent adverbial use, identified orally in
the early 2000s, officially registered in Le Petit Robert de
la Langue Française in 2014. I propose that
juste is a metalinguistic marker which creates
double modalisation: it has scope both over an element X which can
be an extreme (non-gradable) adjective, a non-gradable noun phrase
(verb phrase or prepositional phrase), and over the utterance act.
This recent adverbial use of juste is analysed in
the following configurations: (1) juste and extreme
adjectives (extreme adjectives formed by the suffix
-issime, and extreme adjectives formed by the
private prefix -in); (2) juste and
non-gradable sequences [pas + gradable adjectives];
(3) juste and two non-gradable sequences
([très / trop + gradable
adjectives]; [super / hyper / ultra / supra / mega /
giga + gradable adjectives]); (4)
juste and non-gradable [noun / verb /
prepositional] phrases.
Article outline
- 1.A general outline of juste in French: Juste is not really just
- 2.
Juste, a transcategorial marker
- 2.1 Juste as an adjective
- 2.2 Juste as a noun
- 2.3 Juste as an adverb
- 3.
Juste, a double modal adverb
- 3.1Profile of très, vraiment, juste with scalar (gradable) and extreme (non-gradable) adjectives
- 3.2Characteristics of juste with extreme (non-gradable) X
- 4.
Juste and extreme adjectives
- 4.1 Juste and extreme adjectives
- 4.2 Juste and extreme adjectives with the suffix -issime
- 4.3 Juste and extreme adjectives with the prefix -in
- 5. Juste and non-gradable sequences [pas + gradable adjectives]
- 6.
Juste and two other non-gradable sequences
- 6.1 Juste and non-gradable sequences [très / trop + gradable adjectives]
- 6.2 Juste and non-gradable sequences [hyper / super / méga / ultra / supra / giga + gradable adjectives]
- 7. Juste and non-gradable [noun / verb / prepositional] phrases
- 8.Conclusion
Acknowledgements Notes References
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