Article published In:
Evidentiality and the Semantics-Pragmatics InterfaceEdited by Bert Cornillie and Juana I. Marín-Arrese
[Belgian Journal of Linguistics 29] 2015
► pp. 147–160
The topic of this paper is the evolution of the discourse marker comme qui dirait from Old French to Modern French. At the beginning, the marker has the meaning of a hypothetical comparative si comme l’en diroit / comme + qui + diroit meaning comme si l’on disait ‘as if one said’. In a second stage, the marker becomes a reformulative marker with a meaning similar to c’est-à-dire ‘that is to say’. Finally, in a third stage, it becomes a polyphonic mitigation marker. The diachronic study of comme qui dirait explains its contemporary meaning and reveals its semantic features. In addition, a polyphonic analysis will allow us to understand the role of the speaker and of the enunciators in the enunciation of the marker.