Pragmatic markers

  • Kate BEECHING (Bristol, Grande-Bretagne)
    The translation equivalence of bon, enfin, well and I mean
    2011, Vol. XVI-2, pp. 91-105

    The aim of this paper is to evaluate the usefulness of two methods of attempting to capture the semantic change which has led to the multifunctional nature of four pragmaticalising polysemous connectors in French and English - bon, enfin, well and I mean - : a) translation equivalence which may help to disambiguate evolving polysemies and b) Haspelmath's (2003) semantic map approach to cross-linguistic typology and the implicational hierarchies which mark the development of these polysemies. The article concludes that degrees of pragmaticalisation can be revealed in translation equivalence, but this is, of necessity, only partial, and that cross-linguistic semantic mapping can perhaps better capture the diachronic developmental stages and the degree of translation equivalence between the terms.


  • Adelaida HERMOSO MELLADO (Séville, Espagne)
    The adverbs Décidément / Decididamente and some others
    2011, Vol. XVI-2, pp. 9-23

    The main goal of this study is to show through the comparative study of the adjuncts décidément and decididamente (and some others) in French and Spanish respectively that a) morphological similarity between two languages is far from being a reliable criterion for translation, as exemplified in: Décidément, quel désastre ! / ¡Desde luego! *¡Decididamente!, ¡Qué desastre! ('It's definitely a disaster!'); b) using elementatry linguistic properties leads to better results. In addition to French décidément, which is the core of the debate, some others cases will also be considered like définitivement, naturellement, incontestablement, indubitablement vs desde luego, decididamente, naturalmente and sin duda. To avoid making arbitrary choices, a good translation of connectives and discursive markers must establish and apply very strict operating rules, as regards syntax and semantics of course, but also contextual and cotextual characteristics.