What’s on the left?
Discourse structure is investigated from the point of view of topic shifts. The paper focuses on the French adverb autrement, an important tool in such operations. It requires an antecedent, the topic to be shifted, which it generally finds among salient elements such as topicalized noun phrases or...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Presses universitaires de Caen
2011-07-01
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| Series: | Discours |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/discours/8423 |
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| Summary: | Discourse structure is investigated from the point of view of topic shifts. The paper focuses on the French adverb autrement, an important tool in such operations. It requires an antecedent, the topic to be shifted, which it generally finds among salient elements such as topicalized noun phrases or frames. However, since there might be several such elements in the left context, other devices are used to ensure that interlocutors clearly understand which topic is being shifted, i.e. what the antecedent of autrement is. These devices are mostly: stating the new topic, which is similar in many respects (syntax, semantics) to the previous one; the repetition of an overarching topic is also an important way to clarify discourse structure. In cases where such markers are absent, it is hypothesized that topics exist at least covertly. On the whole, discourse structure, and especially the left context, must be highly organized if autrement is to work properly. Thus, the study of autrement offers an interesting perspective on discourse structure as a whole, including the Right Frontier constraint: not only does autrement find its antecedent on the Right Frontier, it also shapes it by closing topics and modifying the availability of discourse referents. |
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| ISSN: | 1963-1723 |