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Part of
Different Slants on Grammaticalization
Edited by Sylvie Hancil and Vittorio Tantucci
[Studies in Language Companion Series 232] 2023
► pp. 263–281

Chapter 10
An emerging final particle

The case of quoi ‘what’ in French

| University of Rouen

Turn-taking is one of the contexts leading to innovative language use. In this article, I will explore the relationship between the emergence of grammatical patterns and intersubjectivity. Final particles belong to the category of linguistic expressions that generate the production of interactional grammar. After reviewing the various meanings of final quoi in French dictionaries, I will test the five principles of grammaticalization, namely layering, divergence, specialization, persistence and decategorization and I will try to show that the evolution of the particle cannot be restricted to the grammaticalization process.

Keywords: final particle, quoi, intersubjectivity, grammaticalization, cooptation
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Data
  • 3.quoi in dictionaries
  • 4.Hopper’s (1991) five principles of grammaticalization
    • 4.1Principle 1: Layering
    • 4.2Principle 2: Divergence
    • 4.3Principle 3: Specialization
    • 4.4Principle 4: Persistence
    • 4.5Principle 5: Decategorization
  • 5.Grammaticalization of the particle and beyond
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
  • Dictionaries
  • Corpus
Published online: 13 July 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.232.10han
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