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The variable use on versus tu/vous for indefinite reference in Spoken French*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 October 2008

William J. Ashby
William J. Ashby
Affiliation:
Department of French 'Italian, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California, 93106, USA
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Abstract

The subject clitic on has a surprising range of referential values, both indefinite and definite, that can be seen only when one examines the use of the pronoun in natural discourse. This paper proposes a partial typology of on derived from examples found in a socially-deverse corpus of Tourangeau French. The focus of the paper is on the variable use of on versus vous or tu as indefinite-genetic pronouns. The variation is partially constrained by a complex of linguistic, sociolinguistic, and partially discourse pragmatic factors. The saliency the speaker wishes to give to the referent apppears to be a key factor determining the probability of occurrence of the variants.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of French Language Studies , Volume 2 , Issue 2 , September 1992 , pp. 135 - 157
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

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