Contenu du sommaire : La cohérence du discours dans les langues slaves

Articles

• Présentation - Jean Breuillard, Paul-Louis Thomas, Hélène Włodarczyk p. 9-12
• Les centres d'intérêt de l'énoncé et la cohérence textuelle en polonais et russe - Hélène Włodarczyk p. 13-30
  Centres of Attention of Utterances and Discourse Coherence in Slavic Languages In this paper, we would like to suggest that the Meta-Informative Centering theory (MIC) is relevant for the description of meta-informative markers in the so-called 'free word order' languages such as Slavic languages in contrast to languages with a more rigid word order like French and English. We also briefly sketch out the main properties of the morphemes to and èto in Polish and Russian in the utterances where they are used as meta-informative particles. In the framework of the MIC Theory, the term information refers to the semantic content of linguistic utterances while the term meta-information indicates its sequential ordering. In Associative Semantics (AS), situations are formalised as static or dynamic frames anchored in space and time, i. e. as situations in which participants (animate or non animate entities) fill neutral roles (in states) and active, passive or median roles (in actions). The speaker selects among participants (a) the global primary centre of attention, i.e. the subject of an utterance about which he predicates and possibly (b) one (or even two) local secondary centre(s) of attention, the direct and indirect object(s). Moreover, predication consists in assigning meta-informative status – either new or old – to utterance constituents. In Polish and Russian, the subject of an utterance is mostly expressed by a noun phrase in the nominative case (linked up to the verb by the agreement rule). Participants chosen as subjects of utterances can fill different semantic roles (most frequently active, but possibly also passive or even median as in other accusative languages). Diathesis (which, in our approach, includes active and passive voices as well as impersonal constructions) is used to maintain discourse cohesion when the participant distinguished as the global centre of attention does not fill an active role. Passive constructions are often used without any complement phrase, thus making it possible not to mention at all the active role (either because it is unknown to the speaker or because it is not one of his centres of attention). On the other hand, impersonal constructions make it possible to treat the global centre of attention (i.e. the subject) as (very) partially determined. We proposed to name such a subject anonymous: the only information expressed about it in the utterance is the fact that it belongs either to the class of human or non-human beings. Utterances in which the subject and the predicate have the same meta-informative status (old or new) are said to be basic. In extended utterances the centre of attention is a distinguished noun phrase contrasting with the rest of the utterance: an old topic contrasting with a new comment or a new focus with an old background. In Polish and Russian, word order is used mainly in order to mark the difference between entirely new or entirely old basic utterances but not the difference between Subject and Object as in French and English. In extended utterances, word order combines with intonation and morphological markers (particles, adverbs, clitics, etc. ) in order to point to the topic and/or the focus. However, in Polish and Russian, topicalisation and focalisation can often be marked by word order only. As a matter of fact, in these languages word order is the main device of text cohesion: such a weak topic or weak focus are difficult to identify in original texts (in particular, in the written language) for French or English translators whose translations are often perfect as regards the semantic content but not the text cohesion.

• 1. Marquage segmental de la cohérence

  • Как и почему повторы служат скрепами текста? (На материале русской поэзии) - Tatiana Nikolaeva p. 33-42
    Why Repetitions Are the Main Means of Poem's Cohesion in Russian? All sorts of repetitions in verse texts are tested. The author compares these ones with repetitions in invocations, charms, prayers and hymns. The conclusion is that all repetitions in poems have also the function of appeal to Other being: to gods, to celestial forces, to somebody beloved one.
  • Le problème de la concurrence des relatifs kto et kotoryj en russe moderne - Robert Roudet p. 43-57
    The Question of the Concurrence of the Relative Pronouns kto and kotoryj in Modem Russian Language The object of this work is the question of the concurrence of the relative pronouns kto and kotoryj in modem Russian. The possibility of a change in the norm of usage of these pronouns is investigated. Two principles for the use of kto are brought to light. The first one requires that the antecedent and the relative clause create a semantic block. The second one requires for the use of this pronoun only the non referential character of the antecedent: in such a case the semantic block can vanish. This second principle seems to be more typical of today's contemporary Russian.
  • Le rôle des circonstants dans la cohérence du discours en russe contemporain - Christine Bracquenier p. 59-71
    Role of Circumstantial Elements in the Text Coherence in Modern Russian The circumstantial phrase is usually considered as an optional element in a sentence. We propose a semantico-syntactic definition of the circumstantial, which places the other constituents of the sentence in the space it has delimited. We consider as circumstantial: time, place and cause phrases (real cause, concession, purpose, condition). In an utterance, a circumstantial phrase may have several informative functions : it may be the theme ; in this case, it serves as an environment for the Content of the utterance, or it is the Topic and we show how Russian language proceeds to topicalise a circumstantial constituent even though an adverb or a simple phrase cannot be separated from the rest of the utterance by a comma. The circumstantial phrase can be the Rheme: it is one of the «new» elements or it is THE new element of the utterance. We shall particularly analyse utterances which contain a VP as take place, unfold, etc. In this type of utterances, when only the circumstantial element is informative, it makes us wonder whether we deal with a circumstantial phrase or with a complement (a «specifier», as we call this kind of constituent). Thus, we show that circumstantial phrases play an important role in text coherence: if we take them off, the utterance remains grammatical ly correct, whereas the communication is disturbed.
  • Už ou le fil du discours en russe contemporain - Stéphane Viellard p. 73-86
    Russian Particle už and Discursive Coherence in Modern Russian The function of the Russian particle už has often been described in relation to morphosyntax. This paper deals with the cohesive role this particle plays within the discursive functioning of the text. The particle už isolates, within the referential domain of speakers, a specific informative center, topicalised or focalised in the utterance. The particle už can be combined with other particles (da, ved´, -to) in order to structure the information according to a hierarchical system.
  • Les fonctions discursives de la particule énonciative to du polonais dans les constructions à segment détaché à gauche - Lidia Miladi p. 87-103
    The Discourse Functions of the Enunciative Particle ‘to' in the Topic Constructions in Polish In Polish, the adnominal particle ‘to', originating in the neuter demonstrative pronoun ‘to' through the grammaticalization process, may have two different meta-informative functions depending on its place in the utterance and on the prosodic realization of the constituent with which it occurs. If ‘to' appears at the beginning of the utterance it is used to express the strong focalization of the noun phrase it is preceding. On the other hand, when inserted immediately after the topic noun phrase appearing at the beginning of the utterance, the particle ‘to' is used to underline the topicalization of this NP. ‘To' is closely linked to the enunciator's attitude who has the possibility to choose between a simple topic or focus construction (marked in Polish grammar by word order and intonation) or to emphasize topicalized or focalized NPs using the ‘to' particle in order to draw the addressee's attention more strongly. Thus ‘to' reinforces the subjective expression of the utterance.

• 2. Marquages non segmentaux de la cohérence : ordre des mots, rythme

  • Focalisation et aspect en russe - Jean-Paul Sémon p. 107-135
    Focalization and Verbal Aspect in Russian In the present paper focalization is understood as a concentration of interest on a single term of the sentence. In Russian involvement of the verbal aspect in focalization makes the latter more complex than in many other languages. Properly identifying focalization is always accompanied by aspectual focusing on the process or on its closure. In many cases, the choice of aspect is claimed 'grammatically free' by those who ban sense from grammar. Nevertheless the verbal aspect, beyond the mere identificational purpose of focalization, endowes the latter with other subtle purposes according to more complex synergies. This article tackles only negation-free sentences in which focus is the grammatical subject.
  • Contraintes et libertés dans la phrase bulgare - Jack Feuillet p. 137-146
    Constraints and Liberty Within the Bulgarian Sentence Within the Slavonic languages, Bulgarian has the peculiarity of having lost the case forms: word order therefore cannot be as free as in Russian or Polish. This paper deals with the constraints, which exert pressure on the arrangement of the sentence constituents, but also with the freedom (always relative) available to the speaker for structuring his message. As for the constraints, we find the enclitics, which occupy Wackernagel's position, i.e. the second in the utterance. These are the pronouns in short form (dative forms always precede accusative ones), the verb «to be» in the present tense and the expressive particles. In the unmarked order (often called 'neutral'), Bulgarian belongs to the SVO languages. In the intransitive sentence, when the speaker wishes for the verb to be thematic, he will adopt the VS order, quite frequent with certain kinds of verbs. Other- wise, Bulgarian usually follows the rule of the informative progression (or informative hierarchy). In the marked order (topicalisation and, to a lesser extent, focalization), we observe that Bulgarian – following the example of the other Balkan languages – makes frequent use of the so called 'object reduplication', which allows it to circumvent the rigidity of the SVO order and to indicate better syntactic functions. In this way, it finds again at least in part the syntactic flexibility of the Old Church Slavonic.
  • À propos de la place des enclitiques en BCMS (bosniaque-croate-monténégrin-serbe) - Paul-Louis Thomas p. 147-160
    About the Place of Enclitics in BCMS Language The author draws up a list of ail the enclitics of the Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian language and gives the rules of their linearisation (from the left to the right: interrogative particle li, auxiliary verb, dative pronoun, accusative pronoun, reflexive pronoun). He deals with enclitics which have homographic stressed counterparts, and with the meaning of «second place» for the enclitics: actually, enclitics may come after the first stressed word (even if they are inside a syntagm, according to a strict phonetic principle) or after the first stressed syntagm (according to a syntactic principle). The paper considers different factors which determine the position of enclitics. - Syntactic factors: enclitics may lean on subordinating conjunctions, relative pronouns or adverbs, so that the order of enclitics is different in independent clauses and in subordinate clauses. In coordinate clauses linearisation may be the same as in independent clauses or as in subordinate clauses, after coordinating conjunctions pa, te, ali, ili; the status of the conjuction jer should be reconsidered: it behaves with enclitics as a coordinating, and not as a subordinating conjunction as it is usually called. - Functional style: there is an internal coherence of the enclitics position for each functional style, colloquial, journalistic (in all the media) and literary ('belles-lettres'). - Standard: BCMS language is polystandardized, i.e offers several standards, inside each of which there is some coherence of the enclitics position; however, differences (for instance between Serbian and Croatian) are more important in literary texts (and normative reference books!) than in everyday speech. The author shows that in some cases the term 'enclitic' is inappropriate: in spite of a long tradition (especially from the 19th century on) of repeating the same denominations over and over again, sometimes the so-called 'enclitics' are actually proclitics.
  • Du syntagme au texte : à propos d'une variation de l'ordre des mots dans le syntagme nominal en russe moderne - Christine Bonnot p. 161-173
    From Phrase to Text : About a ‘Minor' Word Order Variation Within the Noun Phrase in Modern Russian In Modem Russian word order is highly flexible at all levels of the syntactic hierarchy. However, linguistic research has mostly concentrated on those variations that reorder the main constituents of the utterance dependently of the topic-comment contrast. Variations within phrases are often supposed to be purely stylistic. This paper deals with one of these 'minor' variations: the placing of the attributive possessive after the noun, whereas it normally stands before it. We aim to show that such an inversion is far from random and plays a major part in text cohesion. It marks both situational and notional determination of the referent, and when the noun phrase stands at the beginning of the sentence, the effects of such double determination extend to the whole predication. Thus, in narrative texts, the postpositive possessive commonly indicates a break in chronological progression, it may condition the aspectual value of the verb, emphasize the expectedness of the denoted event, or else qualify the relationship between two predications (marking causality or dependence within a complex sentence). In an language like French, where such double determination of the nominal referent is made impossible by the existence of articles, the same meanings will be carried on by the form of the verbal predicate or by discursive connectors.
  • Sous quelles conditions une qualification épithétique néophorique peut en russe apparaître dans un syntagme de réfèrent défini ? - Emmanuel Toumazou p. 175-183
    The Relevance of an Attribute Conveying New Information in a Definite Noun Phrase in Russian In this study, we put forward that the possibility of adding an attribute conveying new information, i.e. a neophorical attribute, into a definite NP must satisfy, at least, one of the two following principles: the respect of the informational progression of the text, and the possibility to establish a logical relation between the attribute and the predicate. If it is true that in Russian the presence of an attribute is sometimes required to indicate that the NP must be construed as indefinite, this fact cannot objectively explain the reason why adding a neophorical attribute into a definite NP, which head noun is anaphorical, can break the textual chain.
  • Cohérence et rythme : aperçu historique sur la normalisation du russe écrit - Jean Breuillard p. 185-198
    Coherence and Rhythm : A Historical Survey on Standardization of Russian Writing The transition to modem Russian prose in the late eighteenth century is accompanied by a general reform of text and sentence rhythm. The paper deals with the intellectual prose of Nikolaj Karamzin ( 1766-1826) whose reform focused on the rhythm of the prose, both artistic and intellectual.