21 Discourse traditions in the history of French

Abstract

This chapter aims to give an overview of the history of French from the perspective of discourse traditions (DTs). Since DTs have not yet been established as a key concept of French historical linguistics, we first summarise previous research and highlight gaps that indicate promising avenues for future research. Based on these considerations, we then discuss the relevance of DTs for the different periods of French. Following the approach of the Grande Grammaire Historique du Français, we will comment on the periods of Very Old French, Old French, Middle French, Preclassical French, Classical French, Modern French and Contemporary French by presenting DTs that have had an emblematic status for certain periods in the history of French. For the characterisation of the DTs, we integrate the notions of communicative immediacy and distance, the DTs’ medial realisation, the languages and varieties that are relevant to them, and the domains of use in which they are embedded.