Adynamicpolysemyapproachtothelexicalsemanticsofdiscoursemarkers(withanexemplaryanalysisofFrenchtoujours).docVIP

Title: A dynamic polysemy approach to the lexical semantics of discourse markers, (with an exemplary analysis of French toujours) Running Head: Dynamic polysemy approach to DMs Author: Maj-Britt Mosegaard Hansen, University of Copenhagen 0. Introduction 0.1. Approach The present approach to discourse markers is concerned principally with the lexical semantics – or coded meaning –?of these items, and, secondarily, with how such abstract coded meaning may interact with concrete discourse contexts to produce situated interpretations of utterances. In other words, the most fundamental guiding hypothesis of the approach is that any item capable of functioning as a discourse marker will be endowed with inherent, specifiable meaning, which restricts the possible interpretations of utterances in which that item appears. As a means of getting at this coded meaning and putting it into relief, a number of problem areas may have to be dealt with, and the approach is thus an interdisciplinary one, combining insights from a number of linguistic sub-disciplines. It is, however, firmly situated within a broad cognitive-functional framework. 0.2. Methodology On the most basic level, my chosen methodology can be described as semasiological, i.e. as taking its point of departure in specific linguistic forms and investigating the range of functions these forms may fulfil. An onomasiological approach, in contrast, would start from a predefined set of discourse functions, and attempt to determine how these functions might be expressed linguistically. Moreover, the analyses carried out are primarily qualitative, not quantitative: As one of the principal aims of the approach is to provide descriptions of the coded content of individual markers which should ideally account for all their various contextual uses, the frequency of one specific use as opposed to another, or the distribution of the various uses across speaker categories – while of course in no way irrelevant – are of le