Comment ne pas perdre la tête? À propos des effets d'intervention dans les interronégatives en comment et de leur suspension dans les questions rhétoriques

Les interrogatives partielles peuvent être marquées par un mot en QU en position initiale de la phrase. Cette position est analysée dans différents cadres génératifs comme mettant en jeu le mouvement du mot QU depuis une position intraprédicative. Ce mouvement serait démontré par le fait qu’il peut être interrompu par différents opérateurs, dont la négation. Cette interruption distinguerait le mouvement des arguments et des non-arguments: les QU sous-catégorisés pourraient passer par-dessus la négation parce que leur prédicat licencie leur trace. Cela prédit que comment, combien, où, pourquoi et quand ne peuvent pas introduire de questions négatives (?* Comment ne lui a-t-il pas parlé?), ce que pourraient qui, que, quoi (À qui n’a-t-il pas parlé?). C’est cette prédiction que teste ce travail qui considère le mot QU comment avec des propositions interrogatives niées. Il se fonde sur le recensement des attestations dans Frantext pour le 20ème siècle, parmi lesquelles prédominent les questions rhétoriques (Comment ne pas perdre la tête?). L’identification de ces dernières face aux interrogations réelles demande des critères que formule ce travail. La raison pour laquelle les questions rhétoriques rendent possible les séquences considérées est envisagée, et sont considérées une hypothèse syntaxique sur un prédicat sous-jacent et une hypothèse interprétative sur le rôle des présuppositions. L’intervention des présuppositions reflète la définition même de la question rhétorique, et suggère que la putative impossibilité des questions négatives avec un QU adverbial tiendrait à des facteurs d’informativité.

The discourse of biology lectures : aspects of its mode and text structure

The present thesis investigates mode related aspects in biology lecture discourse and attempts to identify the position of this variety along the spontaneous spoken versus planned written language continuum. Nine lectures (of 43,000 words) consisting of three sets of three lectures each, given by the three lecturers at Aston University, make up the corpus. The indeterminacy of the results obtained from the investigation of grammatical complexity as measured in subordination motivates the need to take the analysis beyond sentence level to the study of mode related aspects in the use of sentence-initial connectives, sub-topic shifting and paraphrase. It is found that biology lecture discourse combines features typical of speech and writing at sentence as well as discourse level: thus, subordination is more used than co-ordination, but one degree complexity sentence is favoured; some sentence initial connectives are only found in uses typical of spoken language but sub-topic shift signalling (generally introduced by a connective) typical of planned written language is a major feature of the lectures; syntactic and lexical revision and repetition, interrupted structures are found in the sub-topic shift signalling utterance and paraphrase, but the text is also amenable to analysis into sentence like units. On the other hand, it is also found that: (1) while there are some differences in the use of a given feature, inter-speaker variation is on the whole not significant; (2) mode related aspects are often motivated by the didactic function of the variety; and (3) the structuring of the text follows a sequencing whose boundaries are marked by sub-topic shifting and the summary paraphrase. This study enables us to draw four theoretical conclusions: (1) mode related aspects cannot be approached as a simple dichotomy since a combination of aspects of both speech and writing are found in a given feature. It is necessary to go to the level of textual features to identify mode related aspects; (2) homogeneity is dominant in this sample of lectures which suggests that there is a high level of standardization in this variety; (3) the didactic function of the variety is manifested in some mode related aspects; (4) the features studied play a role in the structuring of the text.

Exploring the relation between the qualitative and quantitative uses of the determiner some

This article attempts to repair the neglect of the qualitative uses of some and to suggest an explanation which could cover the full range of usage with this determiner - both quantitative and qualitative - showing how a single underlying meaning, modulated by contextual and pragmatic factors, can give rise to the wide variety of messages expressed by some in actual usage. Both the treatment of some as an existential quantifier and the scalar model which views some as evoking a less-than-expected quantity on a pragmatic scale are shown to be incapable of handling the qualitative uses of this determiner. An original analysis of some and the interaction of its meaning with the defining features of the qualitative uses is proposed, extending the discussion as well to the role of focus and the adverbial modifier quite. The crucial semantic feature of some for the explanation of its capacity to express qualitative readings is argued to be non-identification of a referent assumed to be particular. Under the appropriate conditions, this notion can give rise to qualitative denigration (implying it is not even worth the bother to identify the referent) or qualitative appreciation (implying the referent to be so outstanding that it defies identification). The explanation put forward is also shown to cover some's use as an approximator, thereby enhancing its plausibility even further. © Cambridge University Press 2012.

Lexico-grammatical portraits of vulnerable women in war:the 1641 depositions

The 1641 Depositions are testimonies collected from (mainly Protestant) witnesses documenting their experiences of the Irish uprising that began in October 1641. As news spread across Europe of the events unfolding in Ireland, reports of violence against women became central to the ideological construction of the barbarism of the Catholic rebels. Against a backdrop of women's subordination and firmly defined gender roles, this article investigates the representation of women in the Depositions, creating what we have termed "lexico-grammatical portraits" of particular categories of woman. In line with other research dealing with discursive constructions in seventeenth-century texts, a corpus-assisted discourse analytical approach is taken. Adopting the assumptions of Critical Discourse Analysis, the discussion is extended to what the findings reveal about representations of the roles of women, both in the reported events and in relation to the dehumanisation of the enemy in atrocity propaganda more generally. © John Benjamins Publishing Company.