The emergent syntax of pre-sentential turn openings

Abstract

Spoken French contains a rich variety of pre-sentential discourse particles playing structural, interactional and pragmatic roles. In 65% of some 3700 utterances in classroom discussions and ordinary conversations, of both native and non-native French speakers, we find intonationally unitary turn-openings containing up to five of these particles. Distributional analysis reveals strong ordering constraints among the particles, with eight paradigmatic ‘slots’ available. The first two positions structure the transition from hearer's to speaker's roles ( hmhm…, ah bon…). Usually, the following two positions allow a bi-morphemic reaction ( mais oui…, ben non…) to the interactional and illocutionary validity of the preceding turn, while the fifth and sixth slots contain analogous reactions to its informative content. The remaining slots contain tag-like elements which play a largely prosodic role. Quantitative analysis of particle co-occurrence is based on the null hypothesis that occurrences in different slots are statistically independent. A comparison of observed versus predicted frequencies detects particle combinations used more, or less, than could be accounted for by the frequencies of their individual components, suggesting emergent collocations, and functionally incompatible components, respectively. Finally, we give a brief analysis of the semantic-pragmatic functions of some particle combinations.