La prosodie des marqueurs discursifs

Abstract

This study aims at examining the possibility of lexicalisation of the prosody of discourse markers, with in mind the idea that it could serve as a criterion for distinguishing this category of items. The wide sample of examples we have been examining lead us to believe that this is indeed the case and that discourse markers – due to the process of grammaticalization they undergo – break free from phrasal constraints and can thus exhibit specific and distinguishable melodic patterns that are transversal across the entire paradigm and essentially linked to the expression of an attentional or thymic dimension.