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On Spoken French: An Ashby Reader
William J. Ashby
[Studies in Language Companion Series 226] 2023
► pp. 321–362

The variable use of on ‘one’ versus tu/vous ‘you’ for indefinite reference in Spoken French

The subject clitic on ‘one’ has a surprising range of referential values, both indefinite (e.g., ‘one,’ ‘they-,’ ‘you-’) and definite (e.g., ‘we-’), that can be seen only when one examines the use of the pronoun in natural discourse. This paper proposes a partial typology of on ‘one’ derived from examples found in a socially-diverse corpus of Tourangeau French. The focus of the paper is on the variable use of on ‘one’ versus vous ‘you- (plural/formal)’ or tu ‘you- (informal)’ as indefinite-generic pronouns (‘y-’). The variation is partially constrained by a complex of linguistic, sociolinguistic, and especially discourse pragmatic factors. The saliency the speaker wishes to give to the referent appears to be a key factor determining the probability of occurrence of the variants.

Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.On ‘one’ and its alternatives in discourse
  • 3.Hypotheses advanced to account for the variation
  • 4.The Tours corpus
  • 5.Results
    • 5.1Syntactic frame
    • 5.2Discursive effect
    • 5.3Transitivity
    • 5.4Demographic factors
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 2 March 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.226.c24
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