Semantic change

  • 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.


  • Anna GIACALONE RAMAT (Pavie, Italie)
    The use of connectors: is però always equivalent to mais?
    2011, Vol. XVI-2, pp. 57-74

    Italian grammars written for French speakers do not pay much attention to però and touch very briefly upon its difference with respect to ma. The present study is based upon a detailed analysis of French translation equivalents of però in Veronesi's novel Caos calmo (2005) and draws upon Italian oral data from the LIP corpus (1993). Results of this study show how the grammars considered fail to offer clear indications concerning the freedom of position inside the sentence and the stronger value of però. Furthermore, the introduction of the diachronic dimension shows the gradual development of contrast relations out of temporal and causal lexical sources along paths already established for the processes of grammaticalization and highlights the present-day distribution in both languages.


  • Richard INGHAM (Birmingham, Grande-Bretagne)
    Anglo-Norman and the ‘plural history’ of French: the connectives pourtant and à cause que
    2011, Vol. XVI-2, pp. 107-119

    Localised and dated administrative documents and other such textual resources in three Anglo-Norman electronic corpora provide a new perspective on variation in pre-modern French. They may offer insights into important aspects of spatial and register variation across time. These new resources allow for a better-informed picture of semantic-pragmatic changes in the history of French than is available in traditional approaches favouring the development of francien and standard French. It is shown here that the the connectives pourtant et à cause que appear in Anglo-Norman with their present-day meanings well before the dates proposed in historical reference dictionaries. Frequent data occurrences available from Anglo-Norman texts of the XIVth century will facilitate the investigation of the beginnings of semantic changes in post-medieval French lexis.